Dog owner and fake vet arrested for animal cruelty in Florida
1Two Florida men face animal cruelty charges after video showed them allegedly performing an illegal cesarean section surgery on a pregnant dog in the middle of a living room.Frankie Huertas-Rivera, 33, was detained last Friday in Hernando County for animal cruelty and practicing without a license. Fifty-year-old Larry Colon, the dog's owner, was charged with animal cruelty in Lake County. In the shocking video, the dog can be seen squirming and half-awake while two men performed the surgery. The French Bulldog - named Lyla - was not properly sedated but did give birth to a litter of puppies, as seen in the footage. Several puppies are retrieved from Lyla and placed together, according to the footage. Animal cruelty investigators were alerted of the TikTok video on Feb. 10, according to an arrest affidavit. Share this article Share Investigators conducted a well-being check on the pooch at a home on Sunrise Vista Drive in Clermont. There, they met Colon who told them that Rivera was a veterinarian, Click Orlando reports.Colon said that he paid $650 to Huertas Rivera so that he could perform the operation, also telling authorities that it was his own 15-year-old daughter who filmed the TikTok video. . .Colon brought the dog into a vet office in Davenport who then alerted authorities, stating that Lyla arrived dead. Two unborn puppies were left inside of her. The three animals 'suffered unjust cruelty and suffering due to unethical medical services performed,' a vet told investigators. While both men were booked last week, they have since bonded out. Deputies added that the vet told Colon that he needed to have the surviving puppies assessed by a licensed vet ASAP. The puppies had not been examined by the time authorities arrived at the owner's Clermont home, WESH reports.Colon allegedly told the vet staff that the surgery was performed by an unlicensed person and added that he knew not to have had it done.