Cook County sheriff deputies removed nine dogs and three people were arrested.
Lance Webb, Charles Sutton are charged with felony dogfighting. Martez Anderson was charged with posession of an unneutered dog.
At a third home, dog fighting happened just a few feet from where children played, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
One puppy, just weeks old, no longer has his right eye. The Cook County sheriff suspects the puppy and his litter mates may have been bait dogs where humans train dogs for fighting and use smaller animals to entice attacks.
"These dogs obviously have been thrown into fights. And why somebody would ever do any of the stuff is hard to imagine. And now we're having a hard time figuring out why they did this and these dogs were not fed. It's just been horrible," said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
Dart says three homes were raided Tuesday. Nine dogs, including four puppies, were brought to the animal welfare league. The league provided photos when the dogs were brought in Tuesday. ABC7 is showing only some of their photos as other images of the dogs' injuries may be too graphic.
Several dogs show evidence of bites and injuries untreated. An adult female who shows signs of over breeding has a broken back leg that will have to be amputated because the injury was not treated.
The sheriff says the dogs would fight in the garage of a Maywood home. It is the same home where there is a home daycare center. One neighbor says she suspected dog fighting.
"You go in the garage And close the doors and the dogs…sounds like fighting," said Guadalupe Castro.
A few blocks away, deputies found the dogs and puppies behind two homes side by side.
Martez Anderson lives at one of those homes. He was among those arrested and tells ABC7 his friend kept the dogs there but there was no fighting and the friend was trying to nurse the dogs back to health.
"It was a few dogs in good condition. And like I said, for the exception of the little puppy, he got smashed in the door. And now the door fell on the puppy. That's how the dog's eye came out," said Anderson.
Anderson did not want to show his where the dogs were kept. But the owner of the home next door where some dogs were found allowed ABC7 the take a look. She was not charged.
In the garage of her home, ABC7 found kennels, chains, first aid treatments and vitamins. She says she didn't know what was going on, only that her grandson kept a puppy back here.
The case came about from tips. The Cook County sheriff urges those with information about dog fighting to call authorities.
The puppies will likely be adoptable in the next couple of weeks. The adult dogs with more serious injuries will take more time to heal and to be resocialized.
