An Irvine couple working a canine coaching service was charged with a number of felony counts Monday involving the deaths of a minimum of 11 canine, with a few of the animals being cremated earlier than they could possibly be examined.
Kwong “Tony” Chun Sit, 53, of Irvine and his girlfriend, 23-year-old Tingfeng Liu of Vista, had been arrested final week, each on suspicion of animal cruelty and destruction of proof, in line with an Irvine Police Division information launch. One of many sufferer’s homeowners tipped off authorities a day earlier than the couple’s arrest. They mentioned they’d acquired a message from the coach saying their canine had died in its sleep and been cremated.
“The one household reached out to us [and] thought it was sort of suspicious that their wholesome canine died with this coach,” Irvine police spokesperson Kyle Oldoerp advised The Instances final Thursday.
Upon investigating, the division’s Animal Providers Unit discovered a couple of canine sufferer.
The Orange County district legal professional’s workplace confirmed in a information launch Monday that a minimum of 11 canine died in Sit’s possession. All the our bodies, together with these cremated, had been recovered.
Investigators discovered that two canine died from heatstroke, and one died from blunt-force trauma. Two canine had been cremated earlier than they could possibly be examined, and the stays had been later turned over to the homeowners.
No less than six animals have pending necropsies, prosecutors mentioned.
Authorities imagine the couple dropped off the primary canine at a crematorium on June 13. By June 18, the full variety of lifeless our bodies rose to 11.
“Our canine love us unconditionally, and to have somebody who marketed himself as a canine lover who would deal with his purchasers’ canine as his personal be not solely liable for the deaths of those pets however then to enlist his girlfriend to cowl up the animal abuse is past repulsive,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer mentioned in a press release. “No animal deserves to be killed after which tossed apart like a bit of rubbish. The abuse of any animal won’t be tolerated.”
Sit, who operated the canine coaching service K9 Academy, faces 30 counts: 11 felony counts of animal cruelty, 11 felony counts of animal abuse by a caretaker, seven misdemeanor counts of making an attempt to destroy proof, and one misdemeanor depend of destroying proof.
Liu, who’s believed to have helped Sit drop off the canine on the crematoriums, faces 4 counts: one felony depend of accent to a felony, one misdemeanor depend of destruction of proof, and two misdemeanor counts of tried destruction of proof.
The couple stay in custody in lieu of $550,000 bail. The bail quantity was elevated after prosecutors mentioned the couple had been packed and able to flee earlier than they had been arrested.
Sit faces a most sentence of 13 years and Liu 4 years if they’re every convicted on all fees, in line with the Orange County district legal professional’s workplace.
K9 Academy provided quite a lot of coaching packages, resembling one to 4 periods on behavioral coaching ranging in worth from $999 to $3,999. The Irvine Police Division mentioned there could possibly be extra victims provided that Sit operated underneath totally different firm names all through Southern California.
Anybody with data associated to the case or whose canine died within the care of coach Sit are requested to contact rsteen@cityofirvine.org.
