Jury deliberations began late Monday, June 15 in the trial of an Irvine dog trainer criminally charged with the deaths of nearly a dozen canines under his care, along with a woman accused of helping him try to cover up the demise of the canines.
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The trainer, Kwong “Tony” Sun Sit, is facing more than 20 felony animal cruelty and abuse charges, among other criminal counts, while the woman he worked and lived with, Tingfeng Liu, is accused of being an accessory after the fact.
Suspicious pet owners helped officers prevent the cremation of most of the dogs. The case drew widespread news coverage, as emotional families faced the loss of their cherished pets.
Sit ran Happy K9 Academy largely out of a park near his Irvine apartment, where he would train dogs that owners turned over to him for several weeks at a time. Sit posted countless videos of his training interactions with dogs on his social media accounts and, according to attorneys, charged owners around $900 to $1,000 a week.
One dog, Shadow, died in Sit’s care on June 12, 2025, while 10 others — Ziggy, Miko, Rosie, Theo, Puffin, Cody, Zoe, Luna, Bang Bang and Saint — apparently died on June 18.
The exact details of the dogs’ deaths remain unclear, even after two weeks of testimony in a Santa Ana courtroom.
But evidence showed that Sit and Liu reached out to four different pet crematoriums across Southern California after the dogs died, and split up to drop the bodies of the dogs off. Their owners, meanwhile, were all sent to texts claiming their dog had unexpectedly, but peacefully, passed away overnight, that Sit was saddened by their loss and would give them refunds and that the dogs had been cremated.
Some of the owners called police. An officer spoke to Sit at his apartment and saw his van was full of dog carriers and smelled of bleach.
Investigators intercepted the bodies of nine of the dogs before they were cremated. Eight were found to have died of heat stroke. Another died from blunt force trauma. Prosecutors previously told jurors that some of the dogs had blood on their faces, fur or paws.
During closing arguments on Monday, Deputy District Attorney Michael Chay told jurors that the dogs died after being left in carriers within in an enclosed van.
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“The van was their death bed,” the prosecutor said. “This dog trainer — experienced dog trainer — and the person who helped them get rid of the bodies betrayed the trust of all 11 families.”
Sit’s attorney, Kate Corrigan, countered that “None of us know, based on the evidence, what happened…
“The van was a death bed?” Corrigan asked. “There is no evidence to tell you that any of those dogs died in that van.”
Liu — who was 23 at the time — was in the country on a visa and had sought out Sit — who was 53 — to learn about his dog training techniques, according to the defense.
Liu’s attorney, Frederick Fascenelli, argued that his client wasn’t aware that anything illegal was happening, a requirement for being an accessory after the fact. Liu, the attorney argued, was only doing what Sit told her to do.
“You are in a country that is not your own, with a language you do not speak,” Facenelli told jurors about Liu’s experience. “You have a girl who just finished her semester at school and is now working a summer job.”
The prosecution countered that Liu was aware of what was going on.
“Ms. Liu doesn’t just get to put her head in the sand and say ‘I was just doing what I was asked,’” Chay said during his rebuttal argument.
Jurors began their deliberations in the case shortly before the courtroom closed for the day. They are scheduled to return to resume deliberations on Tuesday morning.
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