The Whistleblowers Who Exposed a ‘No-Kill’ Shelter

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Mina Kim (1:22)

Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. A no-kill shelter in Fortuna called Miranda's Rescue describes itself as a safe haven for animals, a place to heal and educate. And for years, shelters from across California have sent animals there. Now Miranda's Rescue is under investigation by the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. After two county residents, Jennifer Raymond and Jenna Moore, found eight dogs buried in a grave on the property and alerted authorities.

To date, no formal charges have been filed against the rescue's owner, and this hour, we get the latest on the investigation, with KQED criminal justice reporter, Sukey Lewis, who joins us now. Hi, Sukey.

Sukey Lewis (2:02)

Hi, good morning.

Mina Kim (2:03)

Also with us, the two animal advocates who found the dogs and triggered the investigation. Jennifer Raymond is in studio with me, co-founder of Humboldt Spay and Neuter Clinic. Welcome to Forum, Jennifer.

Jennifer Raymond (2:14)

Thank you. It's great to be here.

Mina Kim (2:16)

Also, Jenna Moore joins us from KRED, a radio station in Eureka. Jenna, glad to have you with us too.

Yes, thank you. So, Jennifer, I want to start with you. Tell me about that night. You found those eight dogs.

Jennifer Raymond (2:29)

Well, we knew that he must be killing dogs, and there was a large pile of dirt and a big hole on the property. We had put up trail cams to watch, and on a Sunday afternoon, a bright and sunny afternoon, we saw him come out on his tractor with the bucket with straw in it.

Mina Kim (2:52)

And meaning the owner of the rescue, Shannon Miranda.

Jennifer Raymond (2:54)

Shannon Miranda. And he turned straight toward the camera and began dumping. And at that point, you could see that there were bodies under the straw.

And at that point, Jenna and I knew that we had to go out there, and we had to get those bodies as evidence that dogs were being killed at this rescue in return for large sums of money.

Mina Kim (3:21)

Jenna, what made you and Jennifer decide to risk the consequences of essentially breaking trespassing and property damage laws to get these dog carcasses?

Jenna Moore (3:33)

We actually didn't have a conversation about any of the legalities prior.

And we didn't have any intentions of actually bringing the bodies back. We just thought, okay, if they need more evidence, we'll go in. This is our time. We'll microchip scan them, take photos and videos, and then that'll be enough. But once we actually got down in there and the bodies were still warm and just it was got pretty emotional, we kind of looked at each other. And I just said, we're not leaving these guys here. I'm taking them home. And so, yeah. And so we and we got back is when we had that discussion. And we just said, well, you know what, we'll take it. If we're going to have trespassing and stolen property thrown at us, then it was worth it.

Mina Kim (4:21)

Jennifer, Jenna says they need more evidence. Who's they? What were you trying to do?

Jennifer Raymond (4:27)

We were trying to get enough evidence to get the sheriff to go in and get a search warrant and investigate what was going on here. I had been trying to bring down this rescue for years. I filed my first complaint against it in 2006, 20 years before.