Police officers dig through various parts of an animal shelter site in Fortuna, California.

What they discovered underground were the carcasses of dogs.

Police searched the 20,000-square-meter shelter property for several days, uncovering 117 dog carcasses and 21 dog skulls.

Bullet fragments were found in about 70 of the dog carcasses.

This revealed a massive amount of evidence of animal cruelty.

[Resident near the animal shelter: It is hard to describe the smell exactly. It is like the smell of a pile of dead, rotting deer that have been left to decay.]

The investigation began following a report from an animal rights activist.

After hearing rumors of animal abuse at the shelter, the activist infiltrated the facility, unearthed eight dog carcasses with gunshot wounds to the head, and reported the findings to the police.

[William Honsal / Sheriff of Humboldt County, California: The shelter received over 900 animals from January 2025 through April and May of this year. Of those, about 100 were adopted, and 730 are currently missing.]

The animal shelter in question had been operating in the local community for over 30 years and had promoted itself as a no-kill facility.

In a statement, the shelter operator claimed that some dogs were euthanized due to behavioral issues that threatened the safety of staff and volunteers, denying that the killings were acts of animal cruelty.

Authorities are investigating whether there was animal abuse and fraudulent activity in the operation of the shelter.

Reported by Choi Dae-woong | Video by Kim Jong-mi