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SNCF fined over crushing cat taking refuge under TGV at French station
The state-owned railway operator was found guilty of negligence
France’s state-owned railway operator SNCF has been found guilty of negligence and fined after a train crushed a cat to death.
Neko was run over by a TGV at Montparnasse station in Paris on January 2.
It had a ticket to travel with its female owner on a service from Paris to Bordeaux. But as the woman and her 15-year-old daughter were boarding, the cat escaped and hid underneath the train.
Despite the pair’s protests, the train with 800 passengers on board departed, crushing the cat.
‘Are you not ashamed?’
SNCF Voyageurs - the subsidiary responsible for transporting passengers - said Neko was not visible until the train left.
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In the aftermath of the incident, SNCF was criticised.
The animal welfare foundation set up by French actress Brigitte Bardot - Fondation Brigitte Bardot - asked “Are you not ashamed?” while France’s Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, said he was “particularly shocked” by the incident.
The day after the cat’s death a petition was launched to ask the SNCF “to set up suitable procedures to safeguard the integrity and life of animals in the same position as Neko”.
Read also: Scammers use cute kitten pictures to con animal lovers in France
‘We stop for abandoned luggage but not an animal’
Complainants, with the support of the animal welfare foundation 30 Millions d’Amis, took SNCF to court.
On Tuesday (July 4), the tribunal de police - which judges less serious offences - found the firm guilty of negligence.
The president of the police court criticised "the lack of commitment of human resources necessary to recover the cat" crushed by the TGV.
SNCF Voyageurs was ordered to pay €1,000 to each of the complainants.
The plaintiff’s lawyer in court said the SNCF’s refusal to delay the departure of the train which ran over Neko was an “unacceptable act”. He added: “We stop a train for abandoned luggage but not for an animal”.
SNCF’s lawyer said the incident had been “manipulated” by animal welfare charities.
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