Around 50 people currently in front of the courthouse are demanding that Shannon Miranda, alleged to have killed and buried at least eight dogs on his Fortuna property, be arrested and imprisoned. (Miranda has not been charged with any crime, and he has denied the accusations.)

Many of them are waving posters with dogs they claim Miranda once had at his shelter, altered to make the dogs look like they’re crying.

One woman, her two French bulldogs tattooed on her arm, told the Outpost she bought a pair of handcuffs for this protest, and would use them to arrest Miranda herself if she had the chance. 

“I swallowed the key,” she said. “So he’ll never get out.”

Others at the vigil, ostensibly being held to remember the dogs many of them accuse Miranda of killing, are taking a less hands-on approach, but still say they want justice — at minimum, a full search of his property carried out by the sheriff’s office. 

“Answers, I think, would help heal the community,” another woman told the Outpost, “and I think that’s what’s important. I need to know what happened to them.”

This story will be updated.