LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. - Neighbors said two dogs killed by pit bulls Tuesday, should be alive today.

For months, people living on Fireside Court said they've been calling Animal Services about crying dogs coming from the garage of a vacant home.

Robert Akers lives across the street from the vacant home. He said the owners moved out seven months ago.

Akers said, "They come back and forth about once a week to check on the dogs, and we didn't realize the dogs were still in there until my son told me the other day. He said, "Dad, those dogs are out there crying in the garage."'

He's not the only one who heard the cries.

Another neighbor said, "They would howl at all hours of the night and day and it was just the most pitiful thing that you would hear."

That's why neighbors started calling Animal Services.

"There's about eight different houses that have pretty much been watching what's been going on in this house as far as the dogs being abandoned in the garage."

One neighbor, who didn't want to be identified, said a pit bull from the home mauled her dog Jack three years ago.

"He found it inside my fence, inside my backyard all slaughtered and killed," she said.

Thursday Akers said, "Yesterday morning my chihuahua started going crazy, and we looked out the back door ,and here was the two pit bulls in our back window, and they were running around my back yard and headed toward the canal."

People living on the street aren't surprised two nearby dogs were killed Tuesday after the pit bulls escaped from the garage, but they think it could've been prevented.

"I'm heartbroken because it shouldn't have ever happened, one neighbor said. "Animal Control was called numerous times."

Lee County Animal Services said they have responded to many calls on the street, but never took the dogs because they never saw anything wrong, and the owner was always cooperative.

Those two pit bulls in Tuesday's attacks have been euthanized.