At least two dogs and maybe more in an Anderson neighborhood have recently suffered gruesome injuries.

ANDERSON, Ind. (WTHR) - Three weeks have passed since two dogs were found with gruesome injuries in an Anderson neighborhood, but there are no clear answers about how the pets were hurt. The dogs’ owners are convinced someone mutilated the dogs, but police are not convinced. Those in this community who work to protect pets are highly concerned.

"I'm concerned that there are people that are that sick and cruel in this community that would do that and what they're going to do next,” said Madison County Humane Society Director Susie Schieve.

Schieve has served as director for seven years. The facility in Anderson takes in and adopts out about 800 dogs and cats every year. Schieve has talked to the owners of the two dogs she believes were abused in the southside Anderson neighborhood.

"It's more than one somebody,” said Schieve. “It takes more than one person to do what they've done to these dogs. These dogs would fight back. They'd fight viciously for their lives. That's the scary part. It's not just one sick person. It's several sick people."

Just before Thanksgiving, a 12-year-old chocolate lab named Charlie was taken from his yard in the middle of the night and three paws were cut off. The dog had to be put down because of his injuries. A necropsy performed at Purdue University concluded the dog’s paws were amputated, the tail skinned and three teeth broken.

That same week a couple blocks away, a year-and-a-half old lab mix named Baby Girl got out of its apartment building and was found on the nearby train tracks, beheaded and missing its front paws.

“It concerns me with this paw situation,” said Schieve. “Why is it that they're wanting the paws of the dogs?"

Police say the injuries Baby Girl suffered are consistent with being struck by a train.

“I think someone actually grabbed her up and killed her and ripped her apart,” said owner Dewayne Buster. “I really do. Like the police are trying to say she got hit by a train. If she would have got hit by a train, it would have been a lot worse."

Schieve was told about another dog that needed 47 staples due to alleged multiple stab wounds.

“It was a pit bull,” said Schieve. “The dog was gone a day, came back, stabbed all over and hit with a baseball bat. It's the same neighborhood. People are concerned, very concerned and they're angry, very angry, very upset."

Attempts by Eyewitness News to locate the pit bull owner or the veterinarian that treated the dog were unsuccessful. The detective investigating Charlie’s case was also aware of the pit bull report and planned to talk to the owner.

But Anderson Police have stressed they have no “direct evidence” of any persons abusing dogs in the neighborhood.

“There is not a linkage of other incidents that have similar characteristics," said Anderson Police Maj. Joel Sandefur.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is offering up to a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction on cruelty-to-animals charges of the person or persons responsible, if this is found to be a deliberate case of animal abuse.

“The agony that Charlie must have felt after three of his paws and his tail were mutilated is painful even to imagine,” says PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien in a news release. “If his injuries were intentionally inflicted, it’s vital that whoever caused them be held accountable before anyone else gets hurt.”

PETA and Shieve both advise families to keep their pets indoors and never leave them outside unattended.