{"id":367976,"date":"2026-06-20T02:50:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/367976\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T02:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:50:48","slug":"man-charged-in-berkeley-animal-shelter-arson-appears-in-court-nbc-bay-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/367976\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged in Berkeley animal shelter arson appears in court \u2013 NBC Bay Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A 48-year-old man accused of breaking into and setting fire to the Berkeley Animal Services Shelter appeared in court Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Peter Taraba faces multiple charges, including felony arson, from the June 6 incident.<\/p>\n<p>Police said video surveillance footage showed Taraba coming to the animal shelter, breaking a window and using an &#8220;improvised incendiary device&#8221; to start the fire.<\/p>\n<p>According to shelter employees, there were more than 40 animals located in the shelter, including Taraba&#8217;s own dog.<\/p>\n<p>Long-term pet owners and residents of Berkeley said they are glad no one was hurt and that the shelter is undergoing repairs.<\/p>\n<p>Crews continue to repair fire, smoke and water damages at the shelter following the break-in. The shelter remains closed and is expected to reopen on July 6.<\/p>\n<p>Taraba is currently jailed in Alameda County, with his bail set at $25,000.<\/p>\n<p>Court records also show Taraba faces charges for allegedly assaulting a homeless shelter worker in March, and with vandalism on June 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 48-year-old man accused of breaking into and setting fire to the Berkeley Animal Services Shelter appeared in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,764,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-367976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-berkeley","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367976","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=367976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}