Berkeley Animal Care Services has terminated its relationship with Miranda\u2019s Rescue following allegations that the Humboldt County Sheriff\u2019s Office described as \u201cfelony animal abuse, animal cruelty, fraud and conspiracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The allegations include a \u201cmass grave\u201d of dogs found at the rescue in Fortuna, California, including dogs with \u201cwhat looked like gunshot wounds to the head,\u201d as reported by KQED. One dog from Berkeley Animal Care Services, named Charmaine, was found dead at Miranda\u2019s Rescue.<\/p>\n
On April 30, BACS became aware of allegations involving Miranda\u2019s Rescue and immediately ended their partnership following upon learning of these allegations, according to BACS manager Mike St. Pierre.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike many people throughout the animal welfare community, we are heartbroken, angry, and deeply saddened by what has come to light,\u201d St. Pierre said in an email. \u201cOur staff, volunteers, foster caregivers, and community members cared deeply about these dogs and believed they were being given an opportunity for a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miranda\u2019s Rescue, whose website describes itself as a \u201cno-kill rescue, adoption & sanctuary facility,\u201d has been a longtime partner of BACS. Beginning in 2011, BACS has transferred dogs to the rescue, seeking alleviation of shelter capacity, rural environments for dogs who may benefit and successful adoption. According to St. Pierre, BACS has transferred 64 dogs to Miranda\u2019s Rescue since 2022.<\/p>\n
The rescue, which, according to KQED, charges on average $500 per transfer, had been allegedly killing dogs which they reported to have been adopted in order to make space for new transfers. Charmaine was one of these dogs, according to St. Pierre. BACS has been unable to verify the outcomes of the other dogs that were reported to have been adopted.<\/p>\n
The news is \u201csad to hear, but also we couldn\u2019t have known,\u201d said a volunteer at BACS who asked to remain anonymous. \u201cI think Mike, the director, obviously needs to be just more diligent about background checks or whatever is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Pierre said prior to April 30, BACS had \u201cnot received verified information indicating that dogs transferred to the organization were being euthanized rather than adopted.\u201d He acknowledged that their rescue partner review process must be more thorough going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cConcerns had been raised online in the past, and I reviewed them,\u201d St. Pierre said in an email to BACS staff that was acquired by The Daily Californian. \u201cWhile the conditions were not ideal, I did not observe anything at the time that would have prevented us from working with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Pierre said he and other BACS staff previously toured the property and \u201cdid not observe conditions that raised concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three living Berkeley dogs remained at Miranda\u2019s Rescue in early May. On May 27, BACS retrieved them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not identified another transfer partner willing and able to accept similar large dogs. However, difficulty finding placement does not automatically result in euthanasia,\u201d St. Pierre said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Berkeley Animal Care Services has terminated its relationship with Miranda\u2019s Rescue following allegations that the Humboldt County Sheriff\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[764,141235,1184,141238,19437,3154,141236,141237,106987,141239,136318,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-343300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-berkeley","tag-berkeley-animal-care-services","tag-ca","tag-fortuna","tag-humboldt","tag-humboldt-county","tag-humboldt-county-sheriff","tag-humboldt-sheriff","tag-kqed","tag-mike-st-pierre","tag-mirandas-rescue","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}