{"id":437283,"date":"2026-09-16T02:58:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T02:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/437283\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T02:58:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T02:58:18","slug":"el-paso-man-with-history-of-animal-abuse-indicted-in-puppy-beating-choking-case-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/437283\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso man with history of animal abuse indicted in puppy beating, choking case"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 A 73-year-old El Paso man with a history of animal abuse has been indicted after he was arrested in August for allegedly beating and choking a puppy, according to court records and police.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 1, Carlos Jose Fernandez was indicted on two counts of cruelty to a non-livestock animal.<\/p>\n

\"Mugshot<\/p>\n

Mugshot of Carlos Jose Fernandez. Credit: EPPD<\/p>\n

RELATED: El Paso man with a history of animal cruelty arrested again for allegedly beating puppy<\/a><\/p>\n

Fernandez was arrested in August after the El Paso Police Department said its Animal Cruelty Unit investigated an incident from July 8 involving a 2-month-old puppy boxer mix named \u201cHarmony.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arrest affidavit stated the incident happened around 5:45 p.m. near the bus stop in the 600 block of Mesita, near Kern Place in West El Paso. According to the investigation, witnesses saw Fernandez drag and kick the puppy across hot pavement before choking the dog by pulling on its collar for five to six seconds, then putting the puppy inside a shopping bag.<\/p>\n

Police said a veterinarian examined the puppy and found burns on all four paws and a fractured rib. Police said Fernandez voluntarily gave up ownership and the puppy was surrendered to El Paso Animal Services.<\/p>\n

\"Paw<\/p>\n

Paw showing burn injury. Credit: EPPD via Instagram<\/p>\n

EPPD said Fernandez was also cited for an animal-related offense involving the unlawful possession of a canine because he is not allowed to have animals after previous animal-cruelty convictions.<\/p>\n

Court records show Fernandez was convicted in 2015, when he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison. He was convicted again in 2024 and sentenced to five years, but that sentence was suspended and he was given five years of community service.<\/p>\n

RELATED: El Paso puppy with burned paws and a fractured rib finds new home after recovery<\/a><\/p>\n

The puppy was later adopted by a new family and renamed \u201cDarcy De La Rosa.\u201d KFOX14\/CBS4 spoke with the puppy\u2019s new owner, Marcia De La Rosa, who described deciding to take the dog in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there to take my senior dog for shots, and the technician was talking about this little puppy who needed to go to a foster home, and without even seeing her, I said, I\u2019ll take her. And they looked at me, and they said, \u2018You don\u2019t even know what she looks like.\u2019 I said it doesn\u2019t matter. She was abused, and I\u2019ll just take her, so that\u2019s how she ended up in my home,\u201d De La Rosa said.<\/p>\n

\"El<\/p>\n

El Paso puppy with burned paws and a fractured rib finds new home after recovery (Credit: KFOX14\/CBS4)<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a very happy dog, and she\u2019s easy to train, but she gets bored really easily, and if she doesn\u2019t like you know, when we play fetch, she walks away. She loves people and kitties, and my senior dog at first was not very happy, but now they\u2019re best friends,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A person identified as Ramirez said the dog has recovered but is still adjusting. \u201cShe is a little wary about walking with the leash, but it\u2019s understandable given the experience and the traumatizing events that she had. But with a lot of love and patience that mama\u2019s giving her, she\u2019s really, really good,\u201d Ramirez said.<\/p>\n

\"El<\/p>\n

El Paso puppy with burned paws and a fractured rib finds new home after recovery (Credit: KFOX14\/CBS4)<\/p>\n

Sign up<\/a> to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 A 73-year-old El Paso man with a history of animal abuse has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-437283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}