California officials unearth 117 dog bodies, many with bullet fragments, at ‘no-kill’ shelter

Investigators uncovered 117 dead dogs at a northern California animal rescue sanctuary, with many of the canine remains having evidence of gunshots. Miranda’s Rescue, a sanctuary outside Fortuna, California , described itself as a “no-kill” facility. Investigators said the organization accepted hundreds of dogs each year from shelters across the San Francisco Bay Area in return for hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding. The Humboldt county sheriff’s office announced on Friday that investigators had completed their excavation of the property, marking the latest development in a months-long investigation. Acting under a search warrant for grounds and buildings for evidence related to animal cruelty and fraud, crews dug through areas of the property where authorities believed dogs had been buried in mass graves. “During the excavation, investigators recovered 117 intact canine remains from two dig sites. An additional 21 canine skulls, hundreds of bones and six loose microchips were located in another dig location near where the intact animals were discovered,” authorities said in a press release . Before excavation began, investigators used ground-penetrating radar to locate irregularities beneath the surface. Along with the intact remains, they also found several loose microchips that investigators are now trying to connect to specific dogs. According to the sheriff’s office, the 117 dogs were found in varying stages of decomposition. …