This is a photo from Miranda’s Rescue, where Oakland Animal Services sent a dog named Zora.

Forcing a dog to live on a dirt patch in a chain link kennel is a slow, miserable life sentence—a fate bad enough on its own. But for Zora, the suffering didn’t end there. Investigators say they found Zora’s body in a mass grave on the property, with evidence of a bullet wound in her skull.

As of this writing, authorities have found more than one hundred other dogs’ bodies buried on the property and “what investigators believe was a killing site marked by blood spatter.” Veterinarians determined that many of the animals had been shot to death.  

Now, investigators are uncovering what happened to hundreds of other animals sent to Miranda’s Rescue by other taxpayer-funded shelters across California. They estimate that between January 2025 and April 2026, more than 900 dogs were sent to Miranda’s by shelters, which paid the “rescue” roughly $510,000 to take them. Officials suspect that owner Shannon Miranda was taking animals in for profit and then killing them by gunshot to keep the funds rolling in.

On paper, these animals were counted as successes. In reality, many spent months or years warehoused in kennels or pens. All of these dogs were failed by shelters whose job was to shelter and protect them.

‘No Kill’ Is a National Crisis

Miranda’s Rescue is far from an isolated case. To protect their “no-kill” status and inflate their “live-release” rates, shelters across the country are offloading animals to self-professed “rescues” and “sanctuaries”—most of them completely unregulated—without doing the basic due diligence to ensure the animals will be safe there.

Here are three more cases showing how “no-kill” policies are killing animals:

Michigan: 29 Cats Pulled From Hoarder’s House

Following a welfare check, authorities in Pontiac removed 29 dogs and cats from Tri-County Dog Rescue. The “rescue” was actually a home filled to the brim with crates, garbage, and neglected animals. Excrement and tattered blankets covered the floor.

Multiple dogs were trapped in a basement pen, without a single comfort or even clean water to drink.

One cat suffering from a possible tumor in her mouth was evidently denied veterinary care for so long that her head became completely deformed and her eye swelled completely shut.

Publicly funded Laredo Animal Care Services and two self-professed “no-kill” groups in Texas, San Antonio Pets Alive and Karnes County Humane Organization, shipped animals to Tri-County Dog Rescue without doing their due diligence.

Arizona: Responders Wore Hazmat Suits to Step Inside

At Special Needs Animal Welfare League in Chandler, the smell of rot and ammonia seeped through the closed front door. Paralyzed animals dragged themselves through urine and feces, resulting in festering wounds on their bodies.

Authorities found animals in stacked crates, many without access to water. Dogs sat, stood, and slept amid their own waste.

A board member of Yaqui Animal Rescue sent at least two dogs to April McLaughlin, the owner and operator of Special Needs Animal Welfare League. They reported paying McLaughlin $1,500 to take one of the animals.

Authorities charged McLaughlin with 110 counts of neglect and cruelty to animals. A court found her guilty and sentenced her to 3.5 years for fraud and two years for cruelty to animals.

Texas: Every Footstep Crunched Cat’s Bones at This ‘Rescuer’s’ House

After finding the decomposing remains of about 60 animals on her property, authorities explained that Julia Szebehely “was running a trap and release (TNR) program with animal shelters and organizations to foster cats.”

Most of the deceased cats were found locked in cages throughout the home, their remains tangled with empty cans. One reporter at the scene was horrified to hear the crunch of the cats’ bones as she walked through the home.

Responders removed four living cats and a starving horse from the property. Szebehely was charged with multiple counts of cruelty to animals.

Shelters Are Failing the Animals They’re Supposed to Protect

These aren’t the actions of a few bad “rescues”—they’re the predictable result of a system that rewards shelters for how many animals leave the building, not for what happens to them next. Dogs and cats are dying slow, terrifying deaths out of the public eye because the shelters that took them in chose stats over safety.

You can help stop the system that failed these animals.

Please contact your state and local lawmakers and ask that emergency legislation be passed to require that:

All animal “rescue” groups be regulated and regularly inspected.

Taxpayer-funded animal shelters must accept all animals, without exception. 

Animal shelters must regularly inspect, or have inspected, every facility that it transfers animals to, including conducting regular follow-ups and unannounced visits.

As these cases and hundreds of others have made painfully clear, “no-kill” policies are causing more animals to suffer and more to die.

The only way to stop this is to support open-admission shelters, the only responsible sheltering model. These are shelters that accept every animal who comes through the door. Open-admission shelters protect the animals in their care from suffering, including, when necessary, by providing a peaceful release from a world that has failed them.

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