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Alia Muslih, 39, of Montclair was charged with animal cruelty, among other counts, after Passaic County prosecutor’s detectives raided the Totowa Animal Hospital along with local police, the DEA, the state Division of Consumer Affairs and animal control officers from Paterson and Clifton.
Her late husband, Adel Hamdan, was renowned in his field, having previously operated the Maywood Veterinary Clinic for 17 years before buying the Totowa Animal Clinic in 1993.
He was 73 when he died of COVID late last year, prompting Gov. Phil Murphy to pay tribute to Hamdan as "a friend to human and four-legged creatures."
Authorities announced on Monday that Alia Muslih has been illegally operating Hamdan's clinic for an unspecified length of time from a 9,200-square-foot facility on Furler Street that also houses her Seven Star Pet Resort business.
Muslih “created and reinforced a false impression that she was a licensed veterinarian,” Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes said in a joint release with Totowa Police Chief Carmen Veneziano.
The New Jersey Board of Veterinary Medicine confirmed that Muslih – who’d identified herself in previous news stories as a veterinary technician -- isn’t a licensed veterinarian and that the Totowa Animal Hospital isn't a licensed veterinary clinic, Valdes and Veneziano said.
Muslih was charged with theft by deception, corporate misconduct, animal cruelty and unlicensed possession of prescription drugs, they said.
A Superior Court judge in Paterson released her on Friday, with pre-trial monitoring, pending the resolution of the case.
Conditions include an order restraining her from returning to the business at 140 Furler Street, Valdes and Veneziano said.
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