Mutilated alligators found in the Tampa area with a head and their tails missing have sparked a pair of investigations by Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission.

A woman reported Sunday that she saw one of the decapitated animals — without a head or tail — on the side of Highway 37 in Lakeland, following a discovery a week earlier in Myakka City of two smaller ones that had their tails missing.

“Like any kind of animal there’s a lot of poaching like that and that’s really not respectful to the animals to the law and the citizens,” John Paner, director of Croc Encounters in Tampa, an educational facility, told Fox 35 Orlando.

The station says under Florida state law, it is a felony to hurt or kill alligators. It was not clear who has been behind the mutilations.

Paner said he suspects the tails were cut off for meat and the head may have been taken as a trophy.