Eleven people were sentenced to prison for selling the meat of nearly 1,000 dogs killed by poisoning, a court in Changde, Hunan province, said.

"The three main defendants were sentenced to five and a half to seven years in prison and all of them got huge fines for selling poisonous and harmful food," Shen Qiqin, the judge who heard the case in the People's Court of Dingcheng district, said on Wednesday.

Five people involved in the dog meat scheme were excluded from this trial because they are involved in other cases, he said.