Over 600 Dogs Posted as Possible Victims of Alleged Humboldt County Nightmare Shelter

The investigation was triggered after two Fortuna residents, Jennifer Raymond and Jenna Moore, presented the sheriff with evidence they’d independently collected, showing that owner Shannon Miranda had killed eight dogs and buried them in a mass grave on his property. Raymond and Moore captured footage of Miranda dumping the bodies on a trail camera set up on Raymond’s property, which sits next to the rescue.

Raymond and Moore said that authorities didn’t act after they sent the footage, so the two women entered Miranda’s property at night and dug up the dogs’ bodies. They believe that there are many more buried on the land. They allege that Miranda — who charges $500 on average to take in a dog — killed the animals to make space for more.

Moore said that after news of the investigation began to spread, she was inundated with messages from people who wanted to locate dogs they’d brought to the rescue — and who weren’t hearing back from Miranda.

“I’m a doer, I’m a fixer,” Moore said. “And so I thought, you know what? If we can’t get the truth out of Shannon himself and his staff, let’s let the community help.”

She started the Facebook page “Where are the Dogs Sent to Miranda’s Rescue in Fortuna CA?” and invited shelters to send photos and information about the dogs that had been transferred to the rescue. She soon began accepting requests from individuals as well. Since May 9, Moore has posted about over 600 dogs, and said her inbox contains messages describing hundreds more.

Many of the people messaging Moore said Miranda told them that the dogs they brought to the rescue had been adopted. But the allegations against Miranda have caused some to question his claims.

One of the eight dogs recovered from Miranda’s property was traced by microchip back to Oakland Animal Services. Director Joe DeVries said that Shannon had contacted him days before to say that the dog had been adopted. DeVries said that when he confronted Shannon about this in a phone call, Shannon admitted that he “put down” five dogs that had recently been transferred to the rescue. “And four of those five, he had told us… he had already adopted out,” DeVries said. “So we really caught him in the worst lie.”

Moore said that she’s received messages from people who say Miranda asked them to pose in the adoption photos featured on the Facebook page. On May 24, Moore posted two separate adoption photos that Miranda’s Rescue shared on its own page, which appear to feature the same dog, a white husky with gray markings on its head. Some commenters pointed out that huskies are high-energy dogs, and wondered if the dog was returned and then later re-adopted. Others see it as proof that Miranda was faking adoptions.

Lara McCaskill, the foster coordinator at Love’s Legacy Rescue in Mill Valley, said that in March, Miranda notified her team that a dog named Blu, who was transferred to his rescue in December, had been adopted. He sent a video of himself walking Blu, an all-white husky, around his property. “Just letting you guys know he’s off to his new forever home,” Miranda said in the video. “Plenty of room to run around.”

McCaskill said that Love’s Legacy had decided to send Blu to Miranda’s Rescue because “it had been sold as a sanctuary for dogs where they continue their training and rehabilitation and ultimately get them adopted.”

“It’s very remote up there,” McCaskill said, “it’s very rural.” She said that it seemed like “a safer place for a dog that has…tendencies to escape, which is the challenge with [Blu].”

According to McCaskill, Miranda told her that Blu’s adopters didn’t have social media and didn’t want to be contacted. She said he promised frequent updates—but those never came. After learning of the allegations against Miranda, “we’re really concerned about where this dog may have gone,” McCaskill said.

McCaskill and Love’s Legacy founder Amanda Davis drove up to Fortuna on May 23 to look for Blu themselves. When they arrived, they were greeted by a volunteer and Miranda himself.

“We said, ‘We wanna come look at the dogs, is that okay?’” McCaskill said.

“And he was like, ‘Sure, come on in,’ she said. “It felt like he wanted to show it off, actually. Like, ‘Look, see how great everything is?’”

Inside the rescue, McCaskill and Davis counted around 60 dogs, and none of them were Blu. When they asked Miranda about the dog, he echoed the claim that Blu had been adopted, but said he wasn’t able to provide proof or get in touch with the adopters because the sheriff had taken his records.

“He kept saying as soon as he gets it back, he’ll reach out to the adopter,” McCaskill said.

Before heading back to Mill Valley, McCaskill and Davis stopped in the nearby town of Rio Dell to put up flyers for Blu. “We just want to know that Blu is safe,” McCaskill said.

Though they didn’t find Blu, they did identify a Staffordshire bull terrier named Third, who’d been brought to Miranda’s Rescue by Terry Gruwell and her partner on April 20. Gruwell’s partner had connected with McCaskill and Davis on Jenna Moore’s page.

Gruwell, who lives in a small town in the Mojave Desert in eastern Kern County, said she rescued Third from an abusive situation and rehabilitated him at her home. Gruwell calls Third “the friendliest dog ever,” but said he wasn’t fitting in with her other dogs. The local shelter where Gruwell volunteers was at capacity, so they suggested Gruwell bring Third to Miranda’s Rescue. They offered to help raise funds for the $500 intake fee if Gruwell would also bring another dog to the rescue.

When Gruwell had to reschedule the trip up to Humboldt County because of a personal emergency, she said that Miranda reached out through the local shelter to inform her that there would be no refund for the $1000 he’d already received for both dogs.

Gruwell said she was also asked to provide proof of sterilization and full vaccinations. Sabrina Woods, an animal-shelter volunteer in Solano County who assisted Raymond and Moore in identifying the eight dogs found on Miranda’s property, told KQED that it’s unusual for a rescue to charge a fee, other than to cover these procedures.

On April 20, Gruwell and her partner drove the ten hours to Fortuna to drop off Third. When they got there, she said Miranda seemed friendly and talkative. “And you know, the property looked really nice,” Gruwell said. “In my mind, there was no real red flags.”

But a week later, she learned about the investigation into Miranda’s Rescue. Gruwell feared the worst. “I felt sick,” she said.

Learning from Davis and McCaskill that Third was still alive at the rescue brought Gruwell enormous relief—but not closure. “Trying to find him a safe out as we speak,” she said.

Jenna Moore continues to update her Facebook page with information about dogs who were sent to Miranda’s Rescue. In order for an adoption to be confirmed on her page, she requires a current photo or video of the dog in its new home. So far, she’s only been able to confirm seven real adoptions.

She said that along with Jennifer Raymond, she’ll keep working to uncover what happened to other dogs brought to the rescue. “We are not stopping until this place is shut down and [Miranda] is behind bars.”