A pet cat died in Russia after being thrown off a train into frigid temperatures and, now, people are calling for the conductor of the train to be fired and potentially prosecuted.
Twix, a ginger-and-white cat, was travelling with his owner on the state-owned railway company RZhD on Jan. 11 when he reportedly escaped from his carrier and began wandering the train car.
The female train conductor mistook the cat for a stray, reports BBC, and tossed it unceremoniously from the train, which was stopped at the time, into the snow in Kirov, east of Moscow.
When word finally got out about the incident, hundreds of volunteers began searching near the train station, according to The Guardian.
Unfortunately, it was too late for Twix. He was found dead on Jan. 20 and local media reports that he had likely died from a combination of severe cold and a number of suspected animal bites.
Temperatures in the area had plunged as low as -30 C in time Twix was ejected and missing.
Now, after watching the story unfold on social media, hundreds of thousands of Russians are outraged and calling on the conductor to lose her job.
According to the Associated Press, two separate petitions are circulating asking that the conductor be fired. Once has gained more than 300,000 signatures and another has gathered 100,000 signatures.
Local authorities have so far declined to prosecute the conductor, who has not been publicly named.
However, RZhD issued a statement saying it “sincerely regretted” what transpired, and it will change its rules on how employees deal with unaccompanied animals.
“We sincerely regret the death of Twix the cat and apologize to his owners,” the company said in a statement on social media.
“To ensure similar incidents will not happen in the future, amendments are already being made to the documents used to transport pets on long-distance trains. Conductors will be prohibited from disembarking animals from carriages: instead, animals will be handed to station workers who can contact animal welfare groups.”
The fate of the conductor has not been announced but one of Twix’s owners told state media he intends to take legal action, reports BBC.
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