r/rescuedogs • u/Heatherh8721 • Jun 26 '26

Discussion "Over 600 dog collars hanging up in the barn"

This is an ongoing investigation in Humboldt County, over Shannon Miranda of Miranda's rescue.

Just last year he took in nearly 900 dogs. Received money for them. Some were transfers from out of state and different counties.

The Humboldt County Sheriff's along with the FBI, Veterinarians were out exhuming dogs Miranda shot and put into a mass grave. He lied. He took the money, so much that he bought a mansion in Vegas, had a house in Hawaii (it is rumored his husband since sold it though.)

Look into this. And ask questions before taking the most innocent to a place they may be given a bullet in their head for a profit.

https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2026/jun/26/sheriffs-office-update-mirandas-rescue-investigati/

131 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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53

u/MinuteStage2169 Jun 26 '26

I've stepped foot in that barn, a long time ago. My heart is breaking and I feel sick. Lock him up along with his entire "rescue" staff. I paid the $500 but was lucky enough to get my dog back a year later. I know how I would feel right now if I hadn't. Im so sorry for everyone going through this. 

38

u/Heatherh8721 Jun 26 '26

This is so devastating. He took in cats, horses, and several other types of animals too.
He needs to be held accountable.

I'm happy you were able to get your puppers back ❤️

19

u/MinuteStage2169 Jun 26 '26

Everyone working there HAD to know.  And I'm just now learning about the Hawaii and Vegas homes. 

This is probably a stretch but I wont be shocked if they ever find human remains. I have no reason to believe they will, but if he's that casual about killing 100s of innocent dogs, who knows? He's soulless. 

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u/Heatherh8721 Jun 26 '26

Miranda is something else.... 30 yrs ago he started out with a noble idea. Shortly after (about 20/25 yrs ago) while I was working at one pet store in particular, that had Veterinarians on the adjoining side, I never heard any of the staff say anything other than stay away from there.

There wasn't a lot of detail in what they said, but no one would recommend Miranda.
I trusted those Veterinarians, I trusted all the Vet Techs, so even on the pet store side, we didn't necessarily know the why, but we knew never to send anyone there- moreso for the pets that sometimes life forces that horrible reality onto.

12

u/Heatherh8721 Jun 26 '26

And your right, his employees knew.

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u/scoonbug Jun 26 '26

I run a rescue facility in Texas, and I wish I could figure out how these rescue scammers are raising enough money to buy mansions and stuff. Because we could do a lot of good with that kind of money

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u/Heatherh8721 Jun 26 '26

I'm from Humboldt so this hits really, really hard on many levels- I also volunteer at adoption centers. I take care of a stray colony of cats.

In a lot of ways its refreshing to read your comment.

The different articles that have come out about this show the amounts he was taking in.

Both lostcoastoutpost.com and kymkemp.com

https://kymkemp.com/2026/06/24/pet-cemetery-exhumed-what-the-dead-will-reveal/

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u/scoonbug Jun 27 '26

I’ve made a lot of moral commitments that I think hurt our fundraising (like, for instance, I never post medical animals and say “if you don’t donate this animal won’t receive medical care….” I wouldn’t have taken the animal if we didn’t have room in the budget to give the animal medical care)

4

u/Tosjsjje Jun 27 '26

He wasn’t operating like a normal 501c3 rescue that begs for pledges and donations out of need. Rescues, shelters, local animal control, and the public were all paying per dog — $450 to $2000. Some of the local contracts were per month. They also operate rescue thrift stores on top of this and the property itself was donated to the non-profit.

1

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3

u/GinLuna Jun 27 '26

What rescue gives another rescue money to take a dog?

5

u/scoonbug Jun 27 '26

I’ve donated to other rescues before, using my org’s money. I’ve always taken the position that there’s too much cattiness and infighting and we should be building each other up rather than tearing each other down.

That being said, you may have misunderstood what I’m saying. What I was saying is that it is extremely difficult to raise money, and I wish I knew what techniques these scam rescues were using to raise money for bullshit purposes so I could use those techniques to raise money for legit purposes

3

u/Aggravating_Hippo546 Jun 27 '26

It’s often cheaper to pay a few hundred bucks to a rescue rather than care for the animal long-term, especially at a shelter. It’s actually very common.

6

u/SkippyBluestockings Jun 27 '26

Apparently , he had intake fees of like five hundred dollars per animal

6

u/scoonbug Jun 27 '26

I have a place on my surrender request form where people can offer a donation. It defaults to $100, although most people change it to $25 or $50. The ones over $100 are typically huge problems that I wouldn’t take on if they were offering $1000.

6

u/GinLuna Jun 27 '26

That’s crazy. I see people in my Facebook group offering people money to take a dog. I shut it down. I would expect bad actors to take the money and dump the dog.

2

u/Own-Surround9688 Jun 27 '26

He takes the dogs and kills them. So there is no cost. Just profit. What he deserves is something I can't legally say.

29

u/basically_Dwight Jun 26 '26

These people deserve the justice we can't talk about. True scum.

9

u/Heatherh8721 Jun 26 '26

Absolutely correct. Humboldt is small enough though.. there is some real hope some form of justice / karma/ whatever will find him.

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u/SlamVanDamn Jun 26 '26

Long, slow, meticulous justice.

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u/Heatherh8721 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

This is the monster.

It's kind of funny in that when my kids were little and scared of the monster in the closet, I always told them monsters (like that) aren't real. The real monsters look just like people. Just like everyone else. The only monsters to be wary of, wear human suits.
Miranda was the first real monster my now adult children can see for themselves.

11

u/Heatherh8721 Jun 26 '26

The lower pic on that screen shot... the caption is mourning the loss of the camel

Makes you wonder if he shot the camel too Cause that's what a monster would do and Miranda is a monster

1

u/Heatherh8721 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

On another forum someone told me what happened to the camel.

He bought it from a different rescue, that camel became sick. The rescue he purchased it from (Jenna- the same one that was directly involved in uncovering all of this) wanted to take the camel to UCSF** for treatment. Miranda refused. Later telling Jenna it died from an unknown illness.

That was when Jenna knew.

*it was UC DAVIS * My mistake.

3

u/bud440 Jun 27 '26

😥😥😥

2

u/I_StoleTheTV Jun 27 '26

I can’t take this 😢

2

u/Empath_levelup Jun 27 '26

My heart hurts. This was pure evil. He better be held accountable. He deserves prison time!

2

u/micheleinfl Jun 27 '26

This makes me physically ill. Those poor babies.

2

u/Afraid_Tree_7272 Jun 27 '26

This is horrible, he was supposedly rescuing dogs???? I don’t understand this whole story????

1

u/Heatherh8721 Jun 27 '26

He was running Miranda's rescue for approximately 30 years. Within that time he took in thousands of dogs, cats, horses, along with many types of animals.

Complaints were filed about Miranda over the years. It wasn't until 2 neighbors finally went and dig up a couple of the dogs they had proof. That's when everything was finally made public.

1

u/Afraid_Tree_7272 Jun 28 '26

So people would pay for him to take their animals???? Usually a rescue is the other way around

2

u/Agreeable_Error_170 Jun 27 '26

What a creep. To get involved in animal rescue just to get rich is a certain level of scumbag.

2

u/Fine_Character6975 Jun 27 '26

Sadly I’ve donated to Miranda’s when another rescue wanted to place a dog with them. Mirandas was also known as a sanctuary for hard to place dogs. The other rescue would raise money to place and transport the dog, $500-$1000, and many times transported several dogs at a time. This was an inner city rescue who felt Miranda’s would give the dog, typically a large breed, a chance for a better life. I feel deep sadness that I contributed to this horrific scam.

1

u/Heatherh8721 Jun 27 '26

You couldn't know what he was doing. For years the general consensus was he was helping those hard to place dogs.
There were complaints over the years, but until the proof was there, there wasn't a whole lot that could've been done.
He wore his mask off caring and kindness very well.

2

u/Fine_Character6975 Jun 27 '26

Sadly financial abuse is rampant in dog rescue. I volunteered for a SF based rescue and when the financials were finally made public by the very small board the founder was pulling over $9k/mos of unreported income. She refused to take a reportable salary because she was on disability, so she skimmed regularly. We give with our hearts but scammers are everywhere.

2

u/Heatherh8721 Jun 27 '26

That's messed up. So messed up. Non profits need to have oversight- it seems that while they have so many people that truly care and want to help, they are also a place for scammers and liars. It's heartbreaking.

Animals and children should never be the ones made to suffer for some horrible persons greed and selfishness. Ever.

2

u/Own-Surround9688 Jun 27 '26

This is why the death penalty should exist for cases like this.

1

u/Heatherh8721 Jun 27 '26

That would be a kindness.

At the very least, every bit of money he has, including the sale of properties should be sent to legit shelters.

2

u/Own-Surround9688 Jun 27 '26

Oh yeah, absolutely, he should be bankrupt first. I can't say what I believe should be done to him without being flagged but I'm sure you can get the idea... rescuers across the country unite and no one says a word. In my prefect world that would come to fruition. My heart is absolutely broken. The only thing that I take solace in is my faith. I believe that God truly hates ugly and this is so far beyond that.

2

u/Top_Finding_2832 Jun 27 '26

buildings are still very flammable, and out in the country, fire brigade takes a long time to respond.

Just saying.

1

u/Heatherh8721 Jun 27 '26

😂 very true...

1

u/Heatherh8721 Jun 28 '26

In the article link I'm including, Miranda took in $178,000 in one year.

That doesn't seem like a legit amount for a non profit?

https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2026/may/20/mirandas-rescue-neighbor-says-she-caught-him-camer/

1

u/Impossible-Spray-643 Jun 29 '26

Does anyone know what’s happening at the rescue today? Per photos posted on Facebook, sheriff’s vehicle is blocking the entrance and about 10+ vehicles are parked along the fence?