Eleven dogs were entrusted to an Irvine trainer. None of them came home alive.
Kwong “Tony” Chun Sit, 54, was sentenced to 11 years and 10 months in state prison on July 10 after being convicted of animal cruelty and destroying evidence, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Sit, who operated Happy K9 Academy, kept the dogs in small crates inside a hot van, according to prosecutors. Necropsies found that eight dogs died from heat stroke. Rosie, a puppy, died from blunt-force trauma and heat stroke. Two other dogs had already been cremated before investigators could determine how they died.
The dogs were Shadow, Ziggy, Miko, Rosie, Theo, Puffin, Cody, Zoe, Luna, Bang Bang, and Saint.
One guardian contacted Irvine police after receiving a message from Sit claiming Miko had died peacefully in his sleep and had already been cremated. Messages sent to two guardians were nearly identical apart from the dogs’ names, according to CBS Los Angeles. Investigators recovered several dogs’ bodies from different crematoriums, and prosecutors said Sit impersonated the dogs’ guardians in an effort to conceal how the animals died.
His co-defendant, Tingfeng Liu, 24, was sentenced to three years in custody after being convicted of assisting in the cover-up.
At the sentencing hearing, guardians described the dogs they loved and the futures they had imagined with them. Bang Bang was training to become a service dog, KESQ reported. The dog’s guardian told the court that her family had been “torn to pieces.” Chris Davis, Luna’s guardian, said he had struggled with depression since losing her.
Lady Freethinker is grateful to the authorities for treating this case with the seriousness it deserved and for helping secure accountability for the 11 dogs and the families who loved them.
