Miranda’s Rescue owner and founder Shannon Miranda stands outside a pair of barns on his Fortuna property. | File photo by Ryan Burns.

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The Humboldt County Planning and Building Department has lifted its suspension of the conditional use permit (CUP) for Miranda’s Rescue in Fortuna, allowing the purported “no-kill rescue, adoption & sanctuary facility” to resume animal intakes and adoptions.

In early August, or thereabouts, the county suspended the organization’s permit over a handful of violations. These included expanding operations to unpermitted parcels, the presence of an unpermitted modular trailer on the premises and a dispute over the legality of euthanizing and burying animals onsite.

In an email sent early this afternoon, Planning and Building Director John Ford said, “Mr. Miranda addressed the three items that resulted in the suspension and the suspension was lifted.”

When the Outpost toured Miranda’s Rescue and interviewed Miranda roughly three weeks ago, Miranda said he had stopped using the northern parcel for rescue-related activities. That parcel includes two large barns, one of which was identified by the Sheriff’s Office as the location where dogs had been shot dead. Miranda also indicated that he was working on plans to bring the trailer into compliance.

Reached by phone earlier today, Miranda said the suspension was lifted “a few weeks” ago and confirmed that he has resumed animal intakes and adoptions.

“We’ve found great homes for animals, but I’m not taking in [the volume] I did before because it always backfires,” he said. “When people are desperate, they tell you what they want you to hear. Then when something happens [they say], ‘Oh, it was my favorite pet in the whole wide world.’ Then why did you get rid of it?!”

He did not say how the matter of onsite euthanasia and burial had been resolved. After the permit was suspended, Miranda’s attorney, Allison Jackson, sent a letter to Ford challenging his assertion that euthanasia and burial are prohibited per the terms of the permit. She argued that the project description’s ban on “euthanasia facilities” in the original permit does not mean that euthanasia is expressly prohibited and wrote, “Burial is permitted on any parcel in this county … and occurs daily.”

That’s not strictly true. Both the Humboldt County Division of Environmental Health and CalEPA guidelines prohibit animal burial near streams, rivers, ponds, saturated soils or within 100 to 150 feet of a domestic water well. Miranda’s Rescue, located next to the Eel River, is entirely within FEMA’s 100-year flood zone, according to the county’s Web GIS system.

When the Outpost tried to get clarification on this dispute earlier this month, Ford didn’t go into specifics, though, in an email sent Sept. 4 he wrote simply, “People can bury their animals on their property.”

An Outpost reader forwarded Ford’s emailed response to her own inquiry about how the permit violations were resolved. The email, which Ford sent around noon yesterday, reads:

There were three violations resulting in the suspension.

  1. The northern parcel which is where Mr. Miranda lives was not part of the permit. He was clearly keeping dogs at that location and so this was an illegal expansion of the permit. This parcel is no longer being used as part of the Rescue operation which resolves that violation. This is the parcel where the dogs were buried. There is not a restriction on burying animals on property.  
  2. The killing of animals is contested. The CUP operations plan says there will not be a veterinary or euthanasia facility on the property.  Staff interpreted that to be that there would not be euthanasia of animals, but unfortunately the CUP does not say euthanasia is prohibited. There will be no further killing of animals. The violation is resolved.
  3. There was a structure moved onto the property without permits. It has been removed. This violation has been resolved.

Miranda remains at the focus of a multi-agency criminal investigation into allegations of animal abuse, fraud and theft. In June, investigators exhumed the remains of at least 123 dogs from a field on the Fortuna property. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office estimated that the majority of those dogs had been buried between January and April of this year, though Miranda says the timeline was longer.

In a sworn affidavit, Sheriff’s Sergeant Shane Steele said Miranda routinely charged between $450 and $1,000 or more per dog surrendered, and Detective Julian Aguilera testified that he believes Miranda routinely killed dogs to make room for more, thereby earning more money. Miranda denies those allegations, saying he only euthanized animals that were deemed too dangerous to be adopted.

An Oakland-based nonprofit, Rocket Dog Rescue, has filed a civil suit against Miranda, accusing him of animal cruelty and fraud. Local animal activist Jennifer Raymond — one of the two women who kickstarted the current criminal investigation by trespassing onto Miranda’s property to dig up eight dead dogs — has asked the California Attorney General’s Office to dissolve the nonprofit and appoint a receiver to assume care of the remaining animals onsite.

Miranda has not been charged criminally. Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal has urged the public to remain patient given the complexity and scope of the case, which is being investigated by local, state and federal agencies including the FBI, the California Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and more.

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