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NorCal animal rescue resumes operation during ongoing mass grave investigation · Best of: Features

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  NorCal animal rescue Resumes Operation during ongoing mass grave investigation Written
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  by Olivia Hebert This article is being read by an automated voice
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  generated by Everlett. A Humboldt County Animal Rescue, tied to a mass
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  animal grave investigation, is taking in and putting animals up for adoption
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  again after county officials lifted its permit suspension. Miranda's rescue in Fortuna
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  had faced a suspension from the Humboldt
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  County Planning and Building Department over alleged land use violations at the
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  property. But Vanessa Shakib, an attorney representing the woman who helped expose
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  the rescue's mass dog grave, said the county proceeding is outside the
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  broader allegations surrounding owner Shannon Miranda. In an August sixth letter to
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  Humboldt County Planning and Building Director John Ford, Miranda's attorney, Allison Jackson,
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  disputed the county's position that euthanasia and animal burial were prohibited. Jackson
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  argued that the permit bars a euthanasia facility, not the Act of
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  Euthanasia itself, and that county rules allow animal carcasses to be buried
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  on private property under certain conditions. She also wrote that Miranda's Rescue
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  had not accepted new animals since early May, and was working to
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  adopt out those remaining. S. F. Gate reached out to Miranda's legal
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  team, but did not hear back before the time of publication. Shaqib,
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  the co founder and co director of Advancing Law for Animals, told
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  SF Gate that the county's decision is not an exoneration. The permit
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  suspension concerned local land use compliance, she said. Whether mister Miranda committed
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  animal abuse and fraud is a wholly separate matter. The renewed operations
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  come month, after law enforcement excavated it, one hundred and seventeen intact
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  dog remains, and twenty one sets of skeletal remains from Miranda's property
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  during a June search. Eight other dead dogs had previously been recovered
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  in April. In a search warrant for a raid on the property
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  viewed by S F Gate, Miranda allegedly admitted to investigators that he
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  sometimes shot dogs himself, occasionally as many as ten per month, using
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  a. Two two caliber rifle. Records seized during the investigation showed only
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  about one hundred and sixteen documented adoptions among several hundred dogs taken
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  into the rescue during a roughly sixteen month period, while the disposition
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  of hundreds of others could not be determined, according to a complaint
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  Shakib submitted last month to California attorney general Rob Bonta. Jennifer
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  Raymond, Miranda's neighbor and a longtime animal rescuer who helped uncover the
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  burial site, has asked Bonta's office to pursue the involuntary dissolution of
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  Miranda's rescue and appoint a receiver to take control of its remaining
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  animals and preserve the nonprofit's assets. Her attorney said
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  they have received no update from the Attorney General's office. Shaquib said
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  the resumption of intakes and adoptions makes that request more urgent. There
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  has never been a more urgent time for the Attorney General to
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  act, she said. According to the complaint submitted to Bonta, Miranda initially
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  told investigators that the dogs were generally euthanized by a veterinarian, but
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  investigators found No
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  local veterinarian who regularly provided those services for him. He later acknowledged
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  that he sometimes sedated the dogs before shooting them, the complaint said.
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  When investigators showed him, dogs were covered with wounds near their eye
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  sockets, after he said he shot animals in the back of the
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  head. Miranda said the animals had moved during the shooting, the complaint
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  alleged. He has been caught changing his story, and he is sitting
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  on a pet cemetery, Shaqib said. It is amazing we have not
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  thrown the book at this man. No criminal charges have been filed
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  against Miranda.