Outrage in Russia
Train attendant throws cat out of train in freezing cold – dead
Russian Railways train (symbolic image)
© Ken Scicluna/ / Picture Alliance
The cruel fate of Twiks the cat moves Russia: a train attendant threw the animal out of the train in the icy cold and the cat died. There was great public outrage and the state railway had to apologize.
“The passengers noticed the tomcat that was running around in the carriage without supervision,” said a statement from the state railway. The train attendant then threw the animal out of the carriage because she suspected that the owner might be looking for his cat at the station.
Invasive species
Hello, we are the new neighbors
Ten hours later the owner gets in touch
It was only ten hours after departure from Kirov that the passenger, who had probably been sleeping, reported the cat missing to the train staff. According to the media, there was a ticket for the animal; Because in Russia all IDs, papers and tickets are checked for every passenger before boarding, the hangover was also recorded in the system.
Russian state railway RZD apologized for the incident and announced a change in its policies. Accordingly, in such cases, animals should only be handed over directly to train station staff in the future – so that they can find the owner or place them in a home.
Horrified citizens published a resolution on the change.org platform calling on the railway to fire the employee because of the brutal treatment of the animal. By Sunday afternoon, more than 300,000 signatures had been collected. Horrified citizens also posted videos calling for the woman to be punished.
Tomcat dies from dog bites and hypothermia
According to Russian Railways, the train attendant assumed that it was a stray animal that might have climbed into the carriage during a stop in Kirov. It was said that the railway had initiated an internal procedure. The woman asked passengers on the train from Yekaterinburg on the way to St. Petersburg whether the animal belonged to someone. Nobody answered.
According to the state railway, the incident occurred on January 11th. After days of searching, it was announced on Saturday that Twiks was found dead that morning around a kilometer from Kirov train station. According to initial findings, the cat died after being bitten by dogs and from hypothermia. He is said to have recently had an operation and did not survive in the freezing temperatures in the snow.