Katie O’Neill/The Eureka Reporter
Shannon Miranda, owner and operator of Miranda’s Animal Rescue, holds the seventh dog rescued Aug. 11 from the former property of Roberta Bugenig. “He did not move as I approached,” Miranda wrote in a report submitted Tuesday to the Trinity County District Attorney’s Office. The dog turned out to be blind.
Report details 'horrific' conditions
by Heather Muller , 8/26/2006
As the Trinity County District Attorney’s Office reviews the numerous documents that have been submitted in the Mad River animal abuse case, one report is likely to rise to the top of the stack.
It was submitted Tuesday to the DA’s Office by Shannon Miranda, owner and operator of Miranda’s Animal Rescue in Fortuna, and describes in sometimes graphic detail what he called “the most horrific case of abuse and neglect I’ve ever seen.”
Miranda was called to the former property of Roberta “Kiki” Bugenig Aug. 10 after Steve Frick, a law enforcement agent from the U.S. Forest Service, found seven barrels containing the remains of dead dogs dumped on federal land and traced them back to the residence.
The following day, Frick, Miranda and four volunteers rescued 13 surviving dogs in and around kennels littered with piles of bones and fur left behind by what Miranda has called “dozens” of dead dogs, many of which appeared to have been eaten by the survivors.
Miranda’s three-page report documents numerous missed opportunities to rescue the animals earlier, because the people responsible for their care, identified in the report as John and Stacy Malcolm, allegedly canceled appointments to surrender the dogs. Miranda said that Stacy told him on at least two occasions that the dogs were “fine.”
On July 31, for example, Miranda’s report indicated that he told Stacy that Humboldt County Public Guardian Ramon Herrera, who owned the property in trust, and Daniel Cooper, Herrera’s attorney, had told Miranda that the dogs were “skinny and not being fed.”
“Stacy assured me that the dogs were fine and that she feeds them herself once daily and sometimes she goes twice a day,” Miranda wrote.
This statement is likely to play an important role in the possible criminal case against the Malcolms, after their defense attorney Timothy Noal Gray said in a news release issued last week that a fence-builder identified only as “Roger” had been responsible for the dogs’ care.
On Aug. 10, 10 days after the last missed appointment, according to the report, Miranda received a phone call from Stacy.
“She called asking when I could come get these dogs. She said there are dead ones, they’re dying and I don’t know what’s going on. I said I thought you were finding homes for them. She said nobody wants them because they are afraid of people, and (the) deals fell through.”
Miranda said in an interview that he knew then that the dogs were in terrible shape, but said he was still “shocked” by what he found at the residence the following day.
“Upon entering the property, you can see filth, old cars and garbage everywhere. When we approached the first set of kennels, you could see feces everywhere. It … appeared that nothing had been cleaned. There was garbage in and out of the kennels. Walking (farther) down … there were dead dogs, parts and pieces of dogs — skulls, heads, rib cages, spine(s) and many other bones and hair.”
According to the report, it was in this area, which Miranda called “the doggy dungeon,” that he rescued the first dog.
“He was extremely fearful of people, severely underweight and extremely dehydrated with large open sores on each side of his hind legs. There was a dead dog in the kennel next to him that had died the day before I got there, clearly of starvation and dehydration.”
The second dog, Miranda wrote, “was in a large kennel (that) appeared to have housed five more dogs at one time judging by the amount of hair and piles of bones in the kennel. …
“I stood in amazement as to what I was seeing. I’ve been doing rescue work for 11 years, and this clearly is the worst abuse and neglect case I’ve ever witnessed. I was praying that the rest of the dogs were in better shape than the two dogs I just found.”
Three additional dogs were found in kennels behind the house. “Once again, neither food nor water was present.” One dog was described as “very underweight. You could see her backbone and rib cage and could also see that the dog was pregnant.”
A blind dog was found under a trailer on the property. Another was in a 55-gallon barrel behind the house.
“When I pulled the dog out, she just collapsed. She was so sick from starvation and dehydration that she could not walk.” According to the report, Miranda had to carry her to the truck.
“(M)ost of the dogs were emaciated and had feces on them from their living conditions,” he wrote. “All of them were underweight with the worst flea infestation I’ve ever seen. The dogs were put in the trailer and taken to Ferndale Veterinary. Two of the dogs were kept overnight on IV fluids. The other dogs were examined and I was advised to euthanize one older female dog that was really (in) terrible shape. She was beyond help. …
In my opinion, this is the most horrific case of abuse and neglect I’ve ever seen. It is hard to imagine what went through the minds of those poor dogs waiting for someone to come feed and water them, ultimately ending up having to die, due to starvation and dehydration, slow and agonizing death(s).”
The report includes an account of Miranda’s two subsequent trips to Mad River, which occurred after The Eureka Reporter received two separate anonymous tips providing the locations of two dog dumps on South Fork Mountain near Mad River.
“The first one was right on the main road at a turn-off. The dogs matched those that I rescued from Kiki’s property,” the report stated.
The second dump site contained “seven blue barrels, the exact same ones that were present on Kiki’s property. I pulled at least 10 dogs from the barrels. These dogs also matched the ones found on Kiki’s property. You could clearly see that some of (the) dogs had bullet holes in their skull(s) and others had been bludgeoned to death due to the blunt force trauma to the skull bone. I can only assume that the rest starved to death.”
In conclusion, Miranda wrote, “I respectfully ask that the persons responsible for this needless, senseless and tragic animal cruelty be brought to justice. The animals that died can’t speak for themselves, but I can speak for them.
“Someone must be held accountable to show others that this kind of behavior is unacceptable.”
As of Friday, no charges had been filed in the case. Trinity County Deputy District Attorney Eric Heryford said he expects charges against the Malcolms and a third subject to be announced early next week.
“We’re working on it,” he said. “We’ve made some decisions, and I’d probably be more comfortable talking about it next week.”
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