An Irvine dog trainer who tried to cover up the deaths of 11 dogs in his care was sentenced on Friday, July 10 to more than 11 years in prison after emotional families filled an Orange County Superior courtroom to describe the impact of the loss of their pets.
Less than a month after a jury convicted Kwong “Tony” Chun Sit of either animal cruelty or abuse tied to the deaths of the 11 dogs — and of attempting to destroy evidence — the 54-year-old was sentenced to 11 years and 10 months behind bars.
Tingfeng Liu — a 24-year-old Chinese woman who worked and lived with Sit while in the country on a student visa — was sentenced to three years in prison for charges that included accessory after the fact but will be released due to the time she has already spent in local lockup while awaiting trial.
Sit — the owner and operator of Happy K9 Academy — was responsible for caring for the dogs at the time of their abrupt deaths. The dogs’ stays with him could be up to a couple of weeks. Liu and Sit dropped the bodies of the dogs off at pet crematoriums across Southern California and texted their shocked owners that the dogs had died unexpectedly, but peacefully, overnight.
The dog owners struggled to hold back tears and anger as they described the loss of their pets Friday in a Santa Ana courtroom. Echoing several owners, Aimee Gutierrez — whose husky-mix Saint died in Sit’s care — said the lack of answers about what exactly happened to the pets still weighed on their minds.
“Every single day our minds are forced to relive Saint’s final moments over and over again,” Gutierrez said. “We wonder what she endured, whether she was afraid, whether she cried for us, whether she spent her final moments thinking we abandoned her.”
April Hernandez — whose Malinois pup Ziggy was chosen as a Christmas present by her then-eight-year-old son — described what happened to the dogs as an “atrocity.”
“The death of even one dog in the hands of an animal trainer is a tragedy,” Hernandez said. “The deaths of multiple dogs is an abomination.”
Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger said that based on the evidence presented at trial, it appears the dogs had been kept in undersized cages stacked in a van, where they slept without water or air circulation or with any way to relieve themselves. Sit appeared to earn around $20,000 a month, the judge noted, by promising families their pets would be well cared for.
“Instead, it looks like they stayed in these cages until they died very painful deaths,” Menninger said.
If it wasn’t for several pet crematorium owners getting suspicious and contacting authorities — as well as Sit accidentally texting the wrong name to one owner — the treatment of the animals might not have come to light.
Citing a probation report, the judge noted that Liu had only been working with Sit for two to three weeks when the dogs died, and hadn’t even received a paycheck from him. The judge also noted that despite initial reports claiming that Liu and Sit were in a romantic relationship, she appeared to be dating someone else at the time. But, the judge added, Liu clearly acted to help cover up the deaths of the dogs.
Liu, through a Mandarin-language interpreter, apologized to the families.
“Ever since this happened, every day I am in pain and sadness for the passing of all the dogs,” Liu said. I’m very sorry I made a very wrong decision for my ignorance of the law. … I just want to say I’m really sorry for what happened and for the deaths of the dogs.”
After Liu’s statement, Sit decided he also wanted to address the court. Through the interpreter, Sit referenced his Buddhist belief and the religion’s rule against killing any living being, and his decision to become a dog trainer after going through a divorce and feeling suicidal.
“Please accept my sincere apologies for the deaths of all the dogs,” Sit said. “It is a tragedy. Up to this point, I have never been able to find peace. My own dog died along with them.”
During his statement, Liu told the court that “the dogs did not die in the van.”
“If they did not die in the van, where did they die?” Judge Menninger asked, adding that Sit was under no obligation to answer, but that it was the question everyone in the courtroom was left with.
Sit’s answer — seemingly given against the advice of his attorney — did not make clear exactly where he was claiming the dogs died.
“The dogs were staying in an air-conditioned space,” Sit said. “And I made sure of that before I went to bed. I checked to make sure of that. But then there was a power outage. I only found out the next day.”
Menninger seemed unconvinced, making a reference to the dogs dying in the van shortly after Sit’s comments.
After announcing the sentences, the judge told family members that sentences she decided on for Sit and Liu were about a year less than the maximum possible sentences, but that they were the highest she believed she could hand down without the case being overturned on appeal.