A 54-year-old Irvine dog trainer is criminally culpable for the deaths of nearly a dozen canines under his care, and a woman he worked with is responsible for helping him try to cover up the demise of the dogs, an Orange County Superior Court jury decided on Wednesday, June 17.
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Jurors deliberated for nearly two days before convicting the trainer, Kwong “Tony” Chun Sit, of either animal cruelty or abuse in the deaths of 11 dogs, as well as attempting to destroy evidence.
The 24-year-old woman the trainer worked and lived with, Tingfeng Liu, was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact, along with other, lesser misdemeanor charges.
The dogs’ deaths drew widespread attention after their devastated and suspicious owners contacted law enforcement, leading to officers preventing the quick cremation of most of the canines and prosecutors filing criminal charges against Sit and Liu.
Sit was the owner and operator of Happy K9 Academy. Liu, according to attorneys, was on a visa from China and staying in the country with Sit in order to learn his dog-training techniques.
Countless social media videos posted on the Happy K9 Academy accounts showed the pair interacting with dogs at or near a park close to his Irvine apartment. Families would turn their dogs over to Sit for weeks at a time, at a cost of up to $1,000 a week, for him to train their canines.
On June 12, 2025, a dog, Shadow, died in Sit’s care. Nearly a week later, on June 18, 10 other dogs also died in Sit’s care: Ziggy, Miko, Rosie, Theo, Puffin, Cody, Zoe, Luna, Bang Bang and Saint.
The exact details of the dogs’ deaths are unclear, even after a two-week trial. But evidence showed that Sit and Liu split up and dropped the dead dogs off at pet crematoriums across Southern California. Sit then texted the shocked owners, telling them their dogs had died unexpectedly, but peacefully, overnight.
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Investigators retrieved the bodies of nine of the canines before they were cremated. Eight had died of heat stroke, a ninth of blunt-force trauma.
Prosecutors told jurors that some had blood on their faces, fur or paws.
An Irvine officer who spoke to Sit detected the smell of bleach in his van, which was full of dog carriers. That led prosecutors to allege that the dogs died in the vehicle, which they described to jurors as a “death bed.”
In all, Sit was found guilty of a dozen felonies and several misdemeanors.
The defense denied that the trainer was responsible for the deaths of the dogs, and told jurors there was no evidence the canines died in the van.
Liu was simply doing what Sit told her to do, her attorney said. The defense acknowledged that both made mistakes after the dogs died, but denied they broke the law.
Sit and Liu will return to court for sentencing on July 10. Both have remained behind bars while awaiting trial.
He faces a possible 13-plus years in prison. She will be released for time served, her attorney said.
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