Bringing Rock N’ Paws to court after raid took six months. Charges still pending against Miranda’s Rescue.
FORTUNA, LAKE HUGHES, California––One of the most notorious purported no-kill shelter operators in California, Christine De Anda, 57, of Rock N’ Paws, is now charged with 35 felonies and misdemeanors.
Another, Shannon Miranda, 55, of Miranda’s Rescue, is apparently back in business, with no criminal charges filed yet, more than three months after Humboldt County sheriff’s deputies began digging on June 23, 2026 to discover what became of at least 731 dogs who allegedly disappeared in his custody over the preceding year.
The remains of 138 dogs, including 117 skeletons and 21 additional skulls, were excavated before, according to a Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office media release, “investigators on scene, in consultation with the prosecution team, determined that the evidentiary value of removing [additional] animals from the ground was not justified.”
Conditional use permit reinstated
Miranda has been under suspicion since May 1, 2026, and remains under suspicion, of having accepted at least $510,000 in 2025 alone to rehome dogs, mostly pit bulls, who were never rehomed and are not accounted for.
“The Humboldt County Planning & Building Department has lifted its suspension of the conditional use permit for Miranda’s Rescue in Fortuna, allowing the purported ‘no-kill rescue, adoption & sanctuary facility’ to resume animal intakes and adoptions,” reported Lost Coast Outpost editor Ryan Burns on September 24, 2026.
“In early August, or thereabouts,” Burns recounted, “the county suspended the organization’s permit over a handful of violations. These included expanding operations to unpermitted parcels, the presence of an unpermitted modular trailer on the premises, and a dispute over the legality of euthanizing and burying animals onsite.
“In an email sent early this afternoon [September 24, 2026], Planning & Building director John Ford said, ‘Mr. Miranda addressed the three items that resulted in the suspension and the suspension was lifted.’
How has “the matter of onsite euthanasia and burial” been resolved?
Added Burns, “Miranda said the suspension was lifted ‘a few weeks’ ago and confirmed that he has resumed animal intakes and adoptions.
“He did not say how the matter of onsite euthanasia and burial had been resolved.”
However, Burns recalled, “After the permit was suspended, Miranda’s attorney, Allison Jackson, sent a letter to Ford challenging his assertion that euthanasia and burial are prohibited per the terms of the permit. She argued that the project description’s ban on ‘euthanasia facilities’ in the original permit does not mean that euthanasia is expressly prohibited and wrote, ‘Burial is permitted on any parcel in this county … and occurs daily.'”
Burns observed, however, that “Both the Humboldt County Division of Environmental Health and California EPA guidelines prohibit animal burial near streams, rivers, ponds, saturated soils or within 100 to 150 feet of a domestic water well,” while Miranda’s Rescue, “located next to the Eel River,” is entirely within a designated flood plain.
$450 t0 $1,000 to kill dogs?
“In a sworn affidavit,” Burns detailed, “Sheriff’s sergeant Shane Steele said Miranda routinely charged between $450 and $1,000 or more per dog surrendered, and detective Julian Aguilera testified that he believes Miranda routinely killed dogs to make room for more, thereby earning more money.
“Miranda denies those allegations, saying he only euthanized animals that were deemed too dangerous to be adopted.”
Shannon Miranda may yet face charges in court.
“An Oakland-based nonprofit, Rocket Dog Rescue, has filed a civil suit against Miranda, accusing him of animal cruelty and fraud,” Burns noted.
“Local animal activist Jennifer Raymond — one of the two women who kickstarted the current criminal investigation by trespassing onto Miranda’s property to dig up eight dead dogs — has asked the California Attorney General’s Office to dissolve [Miranda’s Rescue] and appoint a receiver to assume care of the remaining animals onsite.”
(Humboldtgov.org photo)
Sheriff says “Be patient”
However, Burns acknowledged, “Miranda has not been charged criminally. Humboldt County sheriff William Honsal has urged the public to remain patient given the complexity and scope of the case, which is being investigated by local, state, and federal agencies including the FBI, the California Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and more.”
Burns reported that Miranda “has resumed animal intakes and adoptions” three days after San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Matthias Gafni on September 22, 2026 published his findings from interviews with former Miranda’s Rescue office manager Dana Heuschkel, employed onsite from July 2023 to September 2024, fellow ex-employee Gloria Ramirez, and three former volunteers who requested anonymity.
All agreed, Gafni wrote, that “They never saw Miranda kill a dog. But they said the number of new dogs coming in was far greater than the paltry number being adopted out.
“Some of the workers, who shared their accounts publicly for the first time,” Gafni wrote, described what they viewed as horrific treatment of animals, including neglect, physical abuse, insufficient food and water, withheld medications, and near-constant confinement in filthy cages.
(Jennifer Raymond photo)
Booze on the crews
“Four of them said staff, including Miranda, drank alcohol while working. Two said Miranda was prone to angry outbursts and plagued by disorganization, refusing to keep even the most basic business records.”
Heuschkel in particular described Miranda and others drinking alcohol on the Miranda’s Rescue premises, and admitted that Miranda brought her drinks.
Miranda, meanwhile, “told investigators he killed and buried up to 10 dogs a month — including canines transferred from public shelters in Oakland and Berkeley — but only after he determined they were dangerous or otherwise unadoptable, according to court records. He told a local outlet recently,” Gafni said, “that an unnamed individual from outside the area did most of the killings.”
Four of Gafni’s five sources “said they were questioned by Humboldt County sheriff’s detectives in the spring, before they raided and dug up the property,” Gafni wrote.
“In a search warrant affidavit, a sergeant wrote that Miranda was making a ‘very bare minimum $250,000 a year’ just by taking in dogs from public shelters,” Gafni continued.
New trucks & a second home in Las Vegas
“But the ex-workers said the fees collected by the rescue — including those sent to Miranda’s personal accounts — did not seem to benefit the operation,” Gafni added, while “Miranda and other members of his family drove new trucks and he bought a second home in Las Vegas in 2024.”
Ramirez said, Gafni summarized, that “Volunteers would often pay for vet visits out of their own pocket,” especially for cats, “because Miranda would say there wasn’t money for them.”
Ramirez “started vaccine and de-worming protocols, skirting the line of practicing vet care without a license,” she acknowledged.
“As more and more dogs came in via transfers from shelters,” Gafni continued, “Heuschkel and others said they watched as Miranda placed some in kennels and took others back to the barn area, an off-limits section to most workers. Heuschkel said she thought there were overflow pens there.
Gunshots common
“Heuschkel said she would hear frequent gunshots, but such sounds were common for that area of Fortuna.”
Heuschkel and Ramirez “discussed their suspicions” by email that Miranda might be shooting dogs, Gafni reported, “two years before investigators would unearth the mass grave.”
Wrote Ramirez in an email, according to Gafni, “Hundreds of dogs come in and then go to the ‘barn’ and never seen again. Dana doesn’t know what happens to them.
“Everyone is too afraid to ask. All [Miranda] tells her is that ‘They aren’t here anymore.’”
De Anda charged six months after Rock N’ Paws raid
Six hundred miles south, and six months after the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care & Control on March 20, 2026 “served a search warrant at Christina De Anda’s property,” also known as Rock N’ Paws Rescue, “after receiving reports of animals living in deplorable conditions,” the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care & Control lauded the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for filing multiple criminal charges against De Anda.
“More than 300 animals were seized, including one dead cat,” in “the largest domestic animal seizure in DACC’s history,” a Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care & Control media release said.
De Anda was charged on September 21, 2026 with “twelve felony and three misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals,” plus misdemeanor counts of “failing to provide care for an animal, failing to provide food and water, injurious conditions, unsanitary conditions, and operating an animal facility without a license,” the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care & Control media release specified.
“Other charges include two felony counts of grand theft of labor and 12 misdemeanor counts of code enforcement violations,” the media release added.
“Multiple warnings & citations”
“Prior to the warrant service, DACC issued multiple warnings and citations to De Anda regarding deteriorating conditions at Rock N’ Pawz,” the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care & Control media release continued, but “De Anda continued to take in additional animals far beyond her capacity to provide care, leading to widespread animal abuse and neglect.”
Emphasized Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care & Control director Marcia Mayeda, “Ms. De Anda willingly accumulated more animals than she could safely and humanely care for and allowed them to suffer.”
Since the March 2026 mass impoundment, which took several days to complete, “The Los Angeles County Animal Care Foundation,” a parallel donor-supported nonprofit, ” has provided essential medical, nutritional, and grooming support to treat and rehabilitate the animals,” the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care & Control media release concluded.
(Beth Clifton photo/collage)
The media release noted that, “Many have longstanding medical issues and require ongoing care. They will not be available for adoption until released by the court.”
De Anda responded by posting a Facebook appeal seeking $10,669 for a Rock N’ Paws legal defense fund.
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My vocabulary does not come close to having words to express how I feel about those described above and their ilk. There is so much absolute moral bankruptcy in this time and place that the treatment and conditions described are hardly unusual, I know. And they never have been.
Spay/neuter, humane education in all schools at all levels, and by family members, teachers and clergy should be mandatory. Of course, they aren’t and never will be. And the most innocent and loving of all will continue to suffer these unspeakable tragedies. With the current state of the economy and leadership, it will only get worse, I know.
So many people have abdicated all personal responsibility and have absolutely no moral compass, compassion, and empathy.
It is a terrible time for the innocent, helpless, and vulnerable, and all who care so deeply about them and are doing all we can to ameliorate, by even degrees, this seemingly unending crisis.
With gratitude to you for your coverage of these cases.
Great article on hoarder rescuers!
The real guilty ones are the ones who do not consider that there is no place for all the animals of the world, to be cared for, and it must be done individually, not en masse.
Agreeing again with Jamaka Petzak on the near total lack of a moral compass noted in so many quarters of our lives these sorry days, I am still stunned at the sheer corruption that the people responsible for these loathesome murders of innocent caninnes evidence.
The continued lack of or reticience of law enforcement and investigation by authorities into these, what appears to be obvious malfeasance, astounds me..but then so do most things in our current political sphere.
If not now, then when will Miranda face his judgment day? How many more animals will be allowed to be transferred to that hellhole even as those who are transferring dogs there must know of its squalid and inhumane history?
All horrific!! But thank you again for staying on this case.
Enough is enough with these embarassing representatives of the rescue community. I question anyone’s mindset and morality if they continue to send animals to these entities after all the public information we’ve seen. The IRS needs to get involved.