MOSCOW (AP) – More than 300,000 people have signed a petition calling for the removal of a Russian train conductor who threw his pet cat from a train because he believed it to be a stray.
The white and ginger tomcat, known as Twix, escaped from the carriage of a train traveling between Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg on January 11. The animal was discovered by the conductor, who forcibly removed it from the train while the train was stopped. It is located in the town of Kirov, east of Moscow.
Hundreds of people banded together in sub-zero temperatures to search for the animal, which was later found dead on January 20, about a half-mile from the abandoned railroad tracks. Volunteers reported that Twix died from the extreme cold and suffered numerous injuries that appeared to be from animal bites.
The incident has sparked widespread outrage in Russia, with thousands of people following the story on dedicated social media accounts. Some people re-shared footage of a cat being dropped into the snow in temperatures close to -22 degrees Fahrenheit (-30 degrees Celsius).
A separate petition calling for criminal charges against the conductor gathered more than 100,000 signatures on Sunday after being published online on January 19.
Local authorities have so far declined to prosecute the conductor, whose name has not been made public.
Russia's state railway operator RZhD said in a statement that it “deeply regrets” Twix's death and vowed to change its rules on how employees interact with unaccompanied animals.
“We sincerely regret the death of Twix the cat and apologize to his owner,” the company said in a statement on social media.
“Amendments have already been made to the documentation used when transporting pets on long-distance trains to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. Conductors will be prohibited from removing animals from carriages, and animals will be It will be handed over to station staff who can contact animal welfare groups.”
