More than 226 thousand people signed a petition calling for the dismissal of a Russian Railways conductor who reportedly threw a cat named Twix off a train in Kirov. The campaign appeared on Change.org as citizens voiced their dissatisfaction with the incident.
The petition states that the woman allegedly threw the cat onto the station platform, arguing the animal should not be allowed on the train. The call, launched on January 19, rapidly gained momentum, with more than 200 thousand signatures gathered by the weekend.
According to the petition text, the authors demand the conductor be fired for violating the scope of the job, for torturing the animal, and for damages to the cat owners due to moral harm. They also seek appropriate compensation for the owners of the pet Twix.
Earlier, Russian Railways issued an apology for the incident and announced that it would revise the rules and documents governing the transportation of animals on trains to prevent similar situations in the future.
On January 18 in Kirov, reports indicated that a conductor threw a passenger cat out of the car in cold weather, assuming the animal was homeless. The cat had received a travel ticket and briefly left its carrier to explore the carriage before the conductor decided the animal had entered the train from the street and ejected it onto the platform shortly before the train was due to depart. Additional details were reported by Newspapers.Ru as the story developed.
In related news, the Kaliningrad cat named Sergei had been nominated for the Shaggy Oscar Award in a lighthearted event that drew attention to animal welfare discussions across the country.