{"id":2555,"date":"2026-07-11T05:07:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T05:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=2555"},"modified":"2026-07-11T05:07:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T05:07:34","slug":"dog-trainer-sentenced-to-nearly-12-years-in-prison-after-dogs-die-in-hot-van","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=2555","title":{"rendered":"Dog trainer sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison after dogs die in hot van"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Southern California trainer who had 11 dogs die in a hot van, tried to have them cremated and lied to owners was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison Friday, officials said.<\/p>\n

Read more Judge grants DOJ\u2019s request to toss remaining Jan. 6 convictions of Proud Boys<\/a><\/p>\n

Kwong Chun Sit, 54, of Irvine, was arrested in June 2025 and convicted last month of 11 counts of felony animal cruelty and other counts, the Orange County District Attorney\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n

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Sit, who went by the first name Tony, operated Happy K9 Academy and the dogs were in his care when they were kept in crates in a hot van and died, the district attorney\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

One died of blunt force trauma and heat stroke, eight others died of heat stroke, and two of the dogs had been cremated and no cause of death was determined, the office said.<\/p>\n

Sit sent one of the owners a text that read: \u201cI\u2019m so sorry to let you know that Miko passed away peacefully during the night while resting. There were no signs of pain or struggle, and it was truly unexpected. I am deeply saddened by this loss,\u201d according to the district attorney\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

Miko had been cremated and the owner went to Irvine police, who started an investigation, officials said.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Sit was sentenced to 11 years and 10 months in prison.<\/p>\n

He was convicted of 11 felony counts of animal cruelty, seven misdemeanor counts of attempting to destroy evidence and one misdemeanor count of destroying evidence, the office said.<\/p>\n

Sit\u2019s girlfriend, Tingfeng Liu, 24, was also convicted in the case on charges that she helped try to cover up the deaths, and she was sentenced Friday to three years in prison, the district attorney\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

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She was convicted of a felony count of accessory to a felony, one misdemeanor count of destruction of evidence and two misdemeanor counts of attempted destruction of evidence, the office said.<\/p>\n

One of the dogs that died was a Christmas present for an 8-year-old that was \u201cpicked out of the litter because he licked the little boy first,\u201d Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of years of memories with their beloved pets, eleven families must forever relive the horror of knowing their loved ones died stuck in tiny cages and trapped in a hot van with no way out until they died horrifically painful deaths,\u201d Spitzer said.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Sit\u2019s attorney, Kate Corrigan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon. She told NBC Los Angeles that the dogs\u2019 deaths were a tragedy and not intentional.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dogs were discovered in the early hours of the morning when my client woke up,\u201d Corrigan told the station. \u201cI think, from there, it was something he had never experienced before, and panic took over. … It took over what his thought process would normally have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irvine is a city in Orange County around 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Read more Water rescues ongoing in southeast Missouri amid heavy rainfall<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Southern California trainer who had 11 dogs die in a hot van, tried to have them cremated and lied to owners was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison Friday, officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-news"],"yoast_head":"\nDog trainer sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison after dogs die in hot van - Trusted Moving Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=2555\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dog trainer sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison after dogs die in hot van - 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