Animal rights activists believe animal control officers killed the animals and buried them there.

On Friday morning, Debbie Farhi dug up a dog in a pit across the street from the Chesterfield County Animal Shelter on Goodale Road. She told Eyewitness News she heard from shelter employees that they had taken several dogs to the area and shot them.

"The dog was freshly dead,” Farhi said. “It had blood on its head. If a dog had been euthanized by injection, you wouldn't see any blood."

Farhi thinks as many as 22 dogs may be buried in a mound of dirt, but she and a friend only found two on Friday morning.

"I just can't believe this is happening," she said.

Another animal rights activist, Dusty Chapman, saw the gruesome photos that Farhi posted on Facebook. Chapman said if this is happening, he blames poor funding for the animal shelter.

"They're too cheap. They don't have money to go and buy a little bit of stuff for a shot for a dog. Instead, they buy bullets to shoot them. It’s ridiculous," he said.

Eyewitness News spoke to Chesterfield County Animal Control Supervisor Brian Burch, who would only say that he wasn't allowed to say anything.

"I've been told not to comment about any of this at this time," Burch said.

When Eyewitness News asked Burch if his officers were shooting shelter dogs and where the dead dogs in the landfill came from, he again said he had no comment.

Late Friday, Eyewitness News spoke to Sheriff Sam Parker. He said he wasn't aware of the allegations until he received a call from Eyewitness News on Friday afternoon.

"I just found out about this around 1:30," Parker said. “I've been in a meeting about it for the rest of the afternoon."

Parker said his office is taking the allegations seriously, and has begun an investigation.

"We've got nothing at all to hide here. We're doing interviews, and we'll get to the bottom of it," he said.