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An Irvine couple working a canine coaching service was charged with a number of felony counts Monday involving the deaths of no less than 11 canines, with among the animals being cremated earlier than they may very well 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 house owners tipped off authorities a day earlier than the couple’s arrest. They stated they’d obtained 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 form of suspicious that their wholesome canine died with this coach,” Irvine police spokesperson Kyle Oldoerp informed The Occasions final Thursday.
Upon investigating, the division’s Animal Providers Unit discovered a couple of canine sufferer.
The Orange County district lawyer’s workplace confirmed in a information launch Monday that no less than 11 canines died in Sit’s possession. All the our bodies, together with these cremated, had been recovered.
Investigators discovered that two canines died from heatstroke, and one died from blunt-force trauma. Two canines had been cremated earlier than they may very well be examined, and the stays had been later turned over to the house owners.
Not less than six animals have pending necropsies, prosecutors stated.
Authorities imagine the couple dropped off the primary canine at a crematorium on June 13. By June 18, the entire variety of useless our bodies rose to 11.
“Our canines love us unconditionally, and to have somebody who marketed himself as a canine lover who would deal with his shoppers’ canines as his personal be not solely chargeable 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 stated in a press release. “No animal deserves to be killed after which tossed apart like a bit of rubbish. The abuse of any animal is not going to 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 canines 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 stated 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 expenses, in line with the Orange County district lawyer’s workplace.
K9 Academy provided quite a lot of coaching packages, reminiscent of one to 4 periods on behavioral coaching ranging in value from $999 to $3,999. The Irvine Police Division stated there may very well be extra victims on condition 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.
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