El Paso.- A 20-year-old El Paso man has been arrested and charged with animal cruelty after hitting his dog on two separate occasions, El Paso police reported.
Anthony James Sepulveda was arrested on Wednesday, September 25, and charged with cruelty to animals other than livestock (murder, poisoning and causing great bodily injury), police said.
In June, the Police Department’s Animal Cruelty Investigation Unit was notified of an animal cruelty case in the 1600 block of Lee Trevino in East El Paso.
During the initial investigation, a witness told police he saw Sepulveda hit his dog, named Apollo, several times with a metal bar, to the point where the dog was howling in pain.
In a separate incident, investigators said they learned that Sepulveda had beaten his dog with a belt.
Sepulveda was booked into the El Paso County Detention Center on $10,000 bail. Since the events occurred, the dog has been handed over to a new home.
