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"Someone has to be beneath an animal to kill an animal," Geoffrey Howe, of Charlotte said.

Howe and his partner Karin Bucklin live at a dead end street in Charlotte. How noticed something unusual in his backyard Wednesday afternoon.

"I thought it was strange someone would throw away a perfectly good pet carrier," Howe said.

Howe's backyard is what he calls an animal sanctuary.

"When I first looked in I thought someone had trapped our fox and killed it because it was the color of the fur,"Howe said.

But inside the carrier was a dead pit bull puppy.

"It has a lot of blood inside the cage. There was a pool where it had been tipped in the corner. I could see it in the snow. It was a lot of blood loss," Howe said.

Howe says the worst part about this is that he believes the dog was alive last night when it was thrown away.

"It had to be warm when it was dumped because the imprint of the side of the cage is on the side of the carcass," Howe said.

Howe believes the puppy was malnourished and abused.

"My assumption immediately was dog fighting," Howe said.

He fears retaliation from within the community for talking.

"I'm terrified. I'm sick to my stomach," Howe said. "It makes me angry but in a way I feel like my arms are tied."

He's putting the fear behind to give a message to the dogs owner.

"I would love to have this person look at me as i'm looking at you right now. I chill to think what I would do to them. That's the passion I have for animals," Howe said.

Although Howe suspects foul play, Animal Control investigators' initial report shows that the dog died of natural causes. A Rochester Police spokesperson tells YNN that there are no criminal charges at this point.