John and Tileena Hudson, volunteers with local animal rescue nonprofit The Forgotten Pet Advocates, are determined to put an end to this problem.
Nearby, an overgrown parcel of land along Fondren Road is a place where stray dogs have found kindness in the Hudsons.
"A little teeny tiny puppy we found over here," John Hudson said.
They would leave food and water and try to befriend the dogs. A young brindle mix they called Valdez was the one that got away.
"Good dog," Tileena Hudson said. "He'd see our truck and he'd come running down the road cause he knew it was dinnertime."
One day, Valdez didn't come running.
A few days later, they were told he'd been found, shot and killed in a field. He isn't the only one.
A lonely, block-long stretch of Settemont has become a "dead-end" street in the worst possible use of the term for an increasing number of dogs, left dead in a ditch. Like Valdez, some of them were shot.
A few were found by the neighboring Fondren 5 Star Kennels facility.
"Can't believe someone is purposely shooting these pets and dumping them in a ditch and not caring where they came from or who they belong to," said JoAnn Ellis with Fondren 5 Star Kennels.
In a garbage bag not far away was another dog the Hudsons were trying to rescue. It, too, had been shot -- the latest in a growing number over recent months.
Tileena Hudson is at a breaking point.
"Enough's enough," she said. "I'm going to start screaming. I'm going to go ninja on this."
The Forgotten Pet Advocates organization says it plans to purchase cameras to monitor the area.
Law enforcement is being asked to step up patrols, as well. If someone is willing to shoot animals that have done no harm to them, the concern is that it could escalate to human targets.
"This is somebody that we're passing on the roads. We might be standing in line next to them at the grocery store, you know? At the gas station," Hudson said. "It's a monster that I would say is in this area. He knows about this road."
Anyone with information that could help in this investigation, and anyone who sees anything suspicious in the area, is asked to call police.
Please stay with Eyewitness News and abc13.com for updates on this story.
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