CHESTERFIELD, SC – Volunteers say it started as a rescue operation Friday at the Chesterfield County Animal Shelter.

“The shelter seemed a little light, not as many dogs as I expected,” says Animal Rescue Volunteer Deborah Farhi.

Farhai says prison inmates working there looked upset.

“I asked the prisoners, I understand they had to euthanize today, how many? And they said, they took 22 across the street, and I asked, ‘Across the street?’

Volunteers believe those animals were taken from the shelter, right across the street to the landfill, where they were shot.

Farhi and other volunteers say they couldn't believe it at first, until they found the proof.

“So they grabbed a shovel and came over and wiped away some of the dirt and found the first dog who was shot at point blank range, in the side of the head, and then the second dog, and then the third dog,” says Animal Rescue Volunteer Whitney Knowlton.

The remains, still exposed today, including a cat and puppies stuffed in a plastic bag.

Most of the images too gruesome for us to show you.

But you can still see paw prints in the dirt.

Chesterfield County Sheriff Sam Parker says the department has launched an internal investigation.

The department released a statement reading, "The employees of the shelter are county employees under the direction of the sheriff's office. They are not commissioned deputies."

Rescue volunteers say they want answers as to how something like this could happen.
“I actually want to bury them back up, I don't want anybody to have to see them, it's just dogs shot in the head and dumped in a hole, without any care or consideration, for all we know they were people in the community's pets,” Farhai says.

She and other volunteers have notified SLED and hope they will take over the investigation.