NYPD reviewing $734K contract with horse veterinarian who has decades-long history of violations: ‘Not a criminal'
The NYPD is reviewing its $734,000 contract with a veterinarian overseeing the agency's mounted horse unit after his history of violating racehorse care rules surfaced, The Post has learned.
Camilo Bravo Sierra, of Northport, New York, who has been a contract veterinarian with the Department of Health since 2019, was fined at least seven times and suspended twice while working as a horse racing veterinarian at Queens' Aqueduct Race Track, according to state data first reported by Gothamist.
'While there have been no complaints or problems with the care that our horses have received, we take any allegations of abuse very seriously, and we are reviewing the contract,' an NYPD rep told The Post.
A rep for the DOH, which oversees the city's carriage horses and has a $3,000 horse veterinarian contract with Sierra until late 2026, declined to comment on 'personnel issues.'
Sierra was awarded the massive NYPD contract last October to treat the city's fleet of roughly 50 horses for the next five years after the agency's longtime vet died in 2023, a source familiar with the matter said.
In an interview with The Post last year, Sierra called his violations 'minor' and contended that he was only suspended from the racetrack grounds, and that his license itself was never suspended.
A rep from the state gaming commission did not return a request for comment on the violations.
'If I had committed serious violations, my license would have been suspended, period,' said Sierra, who declined a phone interview this month.
According to ruling documents, Sierra 'committed an improper, corrupt and fraud act' in 2017 at Aqueduct by submitting health certificates for horses he didn't evaluate, prescribing the now-banned drug Albuterol to a horse he hadn't treated and using a fictitious horse name on documents.
Sierra was fined $4,500 and suspended for 21 days.
Other violations issued to Sierra over the years include allegedly submitting health certificates for horses he didn't evaluate in 2016; breaking the gaming commission's rules regarding steroid drug use in horses in 2013; and failing to 'follow proper licensing requirements' in 2006.
Separately, the New York State Board for Veterinary Medicine fined Sierra in 2020 for 'professional misconduct' for failing to sign a medical exam form, list medication he gave and provide information to support his treatment of a horse in Queens in 2016, records show.
His veterinary license was ordered suspended for two years, though he was put on a probation instead, Gothamist reported.
The doctor, who has been licensed in the state since 1992, has a troubled past aside from the state-level volitions, animal activists say.
Sierra performed the autopsy for carriage horse Aysha who collapsed while working and was euthanized in February 2020 after suffering from a treatable genetic disease.
Sierra's autopsy contended the horse was 'in good condition' and showed 'no injuries consistent with abuse or mishandling,' despite online videos depicting carriage drivers pushing and dragging the mare directly following its collapse.
Medical records also show Aysha was given a clean health exam from another vet in October 2019, but the mare would have had symptoms for a while that went ignored, according to Edita Birnkrant, executive director of animal advocacy group NYCLASS.
'The reason there was no animal cruelty investigation into Aysha's death, and the mishandling that led up to her death, was because Camilo Sierra was the only vet to do the autopsy and declare that there was absolutely no wrongdoing on anyone's part,' Birnkrant told The Post.
Sierra has also treated sloths owned by Larry Wallach, documents show, whose Long Island-based Sloth Encounters was shuttered last year amid animal abuse allegations.
'If somebody calls me to care for an animal I don't ask if they went to jail or if they have a criminal record or speeding tickets,' Sierra said. 'That's none of my business.'
Sierra added he is 'not a criminal.'
'I have saved countless horses' lives over the years,' he said.
'I have an excellent reputation as a large animal vet.'
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