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the twist: after a recent 6-3 supreme court ruling, “no kill” does not have a legally binding definition, and anyone can call themselves a “no-kill shelter”.
“Miranda’s Rescue is a no-kill rescue,” the statement said. “We do not euthanize animals simply to make space. However, as we state on our website, there are rare circumstances in which euthanasia may be necessary … Whenever euthanasia has been necessary, I have notified local authorities in advance, even when told that reporting is not required.”
They seem to be equating death by bullet with euthanasia. Perhaps this news item is incomplete, but I feel bad for those dogs and their former owners.
Hopefully they can account for all of the dogs being dug up and discovered. I was under the impression cremation was standard for euthanized animals. Certainly, all of my family's dogs and cats were cremated when they passed. I suppose that might be expensive if they don't have some sort of agreement with a local crematorium and lack an incinerator on site.
Randomly burying dogs in unmarked graves just seems sketchy, though.
Is a gunshot not humane if euthanasia is necessary?
Proper euthanasia generally requires the animal be sedated before it is euthanized. There is no indication that this person did that. It may be apparent to the investigators based on forensic evidence of where they were shot. If all the dogs were shot in the same area of the head, for example, then that might indicate the dogs were sedated first making it straightforward to make an immediately lethal shot. If they find that the dogs were shot in various locations or multiple times, then that could show that the dogs were awake and moving when they were shot.
I have been working with pet rescues (not in California) for more than 30 years. Any time a pet has had to be euthanized by any of the rescues I've worked with, it has been taken to a veterinarian for the procedure. No respectable rescue would have a policy of taking dogs out to a barn and shooting them as their standard form of euthanasia.
Also, Per another article, they've been lying to the facilities that they get the dogs from.
The search at Miranda’s Rescue comes as authorities investigate allegations of animal cruelty, fraud and theft. Between January 2025 and April 2026, roughly 900 animals were transferred to the facility from shelters across the state. Of those, 730 are currently unaccounted for, according to Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal.
"There’s no adoption records, no records whatsoever that we can locate that Miranda’s does not have that lets us know what happened to those animals," Honsal said. "That’s what we are looking for right now."
A rescue that keeps no adoption records whatsoever? In my experience, that is a red flag of biblical proportions.
Oakland Animal Services is one of the agencies heavily impacted by the investigation, having transferred more than 800 dogs to Miranda's Rescue since 2020. A microchip recently confirmed that one of its dogs, Zora, was found shot and buried on the Humboldt County property, even though the rescue initially reported she had been adopted.
It seems very clear that this person was taking in dogs and claiming to have adopted them out while all they were really doing was shooting them in the barn and burying them in a field.
I am very grateful to that neighbor who exposed this or it would almost certainly still be happening. Sadly, I am not confident that the law will be effective in punishing Miranda for their actions. In fact, I fully expect the neighbor who reported them to face charges or a lawsuit over their actions.
With the way people feel about animal cruelty, the guy will be fortunate if he doesn't end up in that field himself, if he turns out to have been getting his rocks off by murdering dogs entrusted to his care while taking public funds for their care.
But then again, I would've said the same about child cruelty but you look around and see all these nutjobs protecting pedophiles so maybe I'm off base.
People do feel that way about animal abusers, true, but the law is very different. Animal cruelty laws in most places are notoriously inadequate in my opinion. I'm not sure about California. I hope they are strong and this guy gets locked up for a long time.
Well obviously I'm hinting at an... extralegal solution to the problem. But I doubt anyone would up and do it.
Euthanasia generally means killing painlessly. Is a bullet painless and fast? Folks who survive gunshot wounds say they felt a burning sensation. Did the canines lose consciousness immediately after being shot? Or did they live for a time afterward? Lots of unknowns.
Only if the bullet is well placed; otherwise absolutely not.
Well I was assuming they weren't shooting them in the tail.
Some people are really pieces of shit.
I hear the DHS is hiring, though, if this shelter's staff are out of a job.
I think its sad and not just a California problem. However, the whole issue is very nuanced.
However, if someone were to run a kill shelter, I have no idea what the normal procedures are and I don't think they should be labeled "no kill". They should represent themselves appropriately and let people know from the places the dogs are from that they will try their best but there is a chance the dog will still be euthanized/killed anyways.
This site has more interesting info and their solutions align with solutions at end of the SacBee article (more pet friendly housing, fosterling, more veterinarians, etc)
They've been there for like 30 years, that 3 or 4 dogs a year. Lots of dogs get shot when they get lose and run up on a farmers property. This is Northern California. My guess is that the bullet fragment dogs had to be put down because they had too much lead birdshot in them. And like the all kinds of reasons dogs cant be saved. I'd be interested to see how many dogs they did sayve in those 30 years
A bullet to the back of the head is a good death, I don’t get the outrage. It’s better than the standard practice of a co2 gas chamber.
You don't see an issue with a no-kill shelter, which takes in funding because it's a no-kill shelter, killing the animals under their care?
A no-kill shelter will send animals to another shelter if they cannot house all the animals.
In reality they just killed the animals instead of the other shelter doing it for them.
I agree a no-kill shelter shouldn't kill. But if you think that giving an animal to a no-kill shelter is goIng to guarantee that animal lives a full life you'll be sadly disappointed.
We're talking about funding though
Wait until these California officials discover animal farms