EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Detectives with the El Paso Police Department’s Animal Cruelty Investigation Unit arrested a 51-year-old man who’s accused of practicing veterinary medicine without a license.
Rafael Padilla Marquez was arrested on Friday and booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility. He was charged with two counts of non-license vet and one count of cruelty/torture to non-livestock animal. His bonds totaled $15,000.
Investigators were alerted after a 3-year-old German Shepherd died of renal failure following a series of eight injections that Marquez administered in November 2020.
Detectives learned that a second canine, a female poodle, had also received multiple injections from Marquez. It was determined Marquez did not have a license to practice veterinarian medicine.
Detectives ask anyone who sought veterinarian care from Marquez to contact the ACIU Hotline at (915) 212-0800.
