Arlanta- Federal investigators are searching the Surry County, Virginia property of Falcons quarterback Michael Vick for second time in a month. As many as 15 vehicles with government license plates are at Vick’s property and agents are digging under at least one blue tarp in an on-going dog fighting and animal cruelty investigation. Also on the scene is a U-Haul truck and state police.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture agent stationed at the front gate of the property would not comment to a reporter. All questions were referred to James Rybicki, of the United States Attorney’s Office.

“We’ve seen the same reports that agents are on the property, but for the record we don’t have any comment,” said Rybicki, public information officer for the United States Attorney’s office, Eastern District of Virginia.

Two local television stations reported that investigators were searching for buried dog carccasses.

This is the fourth search warrant executed at Vick’s property since April. Federal agents, under the authority of the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Eastern District of Virginia, executed a sealed search warrant at Vick’s property on June 7. Surry County officials executed a search warrant at the property in April to investigate dog fighting. That investigation was prompted several days after local police executed a search warrant at the property in a drug investigation involving Vick’s cousin. At the time of that search, police discovered 66 dogs, mainly pitbulls, and other evidence of dog fighting.

“This is an interesting development,” John Goodwin, the Humane Society of the United State’s deputy manager of animal fighting issues, said of the latest search warrant. “They must have some new information.”

Federal officials have declined comment about what they were searching for or what was found on the property after their June search, done without local authorities. A request for the search warrant and evidence seizure list, filed by the AJC under the Freedom of Information Act, was denied by the USDA, which cited the investigation was on-going. At that time, federal investigators dug up portions of the property and took away several boxes of evidence.

The previous week, local investigators failed to execute a warrant requested by a federal investigator, acting on information of an informant, to look on the property for buried dog carcasses and tools.

Commonwealth attorney Gerald Poindexter was out of town on Friday morning and was not aware of the latest federal search warrant, according to his office.

Surry County Sheriff Harold Brown was also out of office for the day. The Hampton Daily Press is reporting that local authorities are on the scene.

Vick, a registered dog breeder, had declined to comment on the investigation, citing the advice of his attorney. In his one statement on the issue, speaking from New York before the NFL Draft, Vick told the AJC he was not involved in dogfighting and claimed relatives were responsible for his trouble.

Vick is due to report to Falcons training camp on July 26.