These three dogs — (from left) Paddington, Scooby and Paulie — were among the 117 dead dogs exhumed at Miranda’s Rescue last month, according to a civil suit filed Monday. | Images via Instagram and Facebook.

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An Oakland nonprofit dog rescue organization has filed a civil lawsuit against Miranda’s Rescue owner and founder Shannon Miranda over allegations of animal cruelty and fraud.

According to the suit, filed in Humboldt County Superior Court yesterday, Rocket Dog Rescue in Oakland transferred an untold number of dogs to Miranda’s Rescue in Fortuna after Shannon Miranda described his operation as “a rescue and training facility in a rural environment that was particularly well-suited for dogs that struggled in an urban setting.”

Rocket Dog allegedly paid Miranda a transfer fee for each dog he accepted into his program. He represented that “dogs entrusted to his care would be trained and placed for adoption and that, if euthanasia ever became necessary, [Rocket Dog] would be notified first so it could decide whether to retrieve the dog,” the suit says.

Earlier this year, Miranda told Rocket Dog staff that three dogs they’d transferred to his facility on March 1 — named Paddington, Paulie and Scooby — had been “successfully placed with loving adoptive families,” according to the complaint, which goes on to say that this claim was a lie.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office recently informed Rocket Dog that the remains of Paddington, Paulie and Scooby were among the 117 dog carcasses exhumed from a field at Miranda’s Rescue during a three-day search of the property last month. 

The multi-agency criminal investigation into Miranda’s Rescue is ongoing.

When Rocket Dog contacted Miranda to demand an explanation, he “expressed surprise” and said “he believed someone else at his facility may have euthanized or killed the dogs after they had allegedly been returned,” the lawsuit says. “Plaintiff subsequently learned that those dogs had never been adopted and had instead remained in Defendant MIRANDA’S custody until their deaths.”

The suit, which names as defendants Miranda and all aiders, abettors and co-conspirators, seeks unspecified punitive damages for four causes of action: 

  • negligence - animal cruelty for failure to exercise reasonable care in the custody, supervision and protection of Paddington, Paulie and Scooby;
  • negligence per se - animal cruelty for “maliciously and intentionally” killing the dogs in violation of state law;
  • fraud - intentional misrepresentation for claiming that dogs entrusted to his care would be housed, evaluated, rehabilitated as appropriate and placed into adoptive homes, and for claiming that Paddington, Paulie and Scooby had been successfully adopted into loving homes; and
  • trespass to chattels (meaning the intentional interference with someone else’s personal property) by acting with “oppression, fraud, and malice and with conscious disregard for Plaintiff’s rights and property interests.”

The civil lawsuit, first reported by John Chiv, was filed by San Rafael attorney Paul H. Nathan, who did not respond to a message left with a receptionist. Rocket Dog had likewise not responded to a request for comment by the time this post was published. 

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