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.

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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’s Office said.

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’s office said.

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.

Sit sent one of the owners a text that read: “I’m 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,” according to the district attorney’s office.

Miko had been cremated and the owner went to Irvine police, who started an investigation, officials said.

Sit was sentenced to 11 years and 10 months in prison.

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.

Sit’s 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’s office said.

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.

One of the dogs that died was a Christmas present for an 8-year-old that was “picked out of the litter because he licked the little boy first,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.

“Instead 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,” Spitzer said.

Sit’s attorney, Kate Corrigan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon. She told NBC Los Angeles that the dogs’ deaths were a tragedy and not intentional.

“The dogs were discovered in the early hours of the morning when my client woke up,” Corrigan told the station. “I 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.”

Irvine is a city in Orange County around 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.