Cat Neko: French railway must pay
The fate of a cat run over by a train at a Paris railway station had moved France — now a court has ordered the French national railway to pay compensation.
A court in Paris found the SNCF guilty of negligence, as broadcaster Europe 1 reported.
Staff refused to cooperate
The cat had escaped from a carrier belonging to a mother and her daughter just before their departure, and both suspected the animal was under the train. However, staff refused to hold the TGV at Paris-Montparnasse station. The two women later discovered the dead animal between the tracks. The presiding judge criticised the fact that “the necessary human resources were not deployed to retrieve the cat” before the train departed.
Animal welfare organisations had set legal proceedings in motion following the incident earlier in the year. A train would be held for a piece of forgotten luggage, but not for an animal, the animal welfare advocates argued in court. On the part of the railway, this constituted a deliberate and cruel act.
The SNCF, for its part, stressed that it had not been at all clear where the cat was hiding. It was only when the train began to move that the cat was spotted between the tracks. The owner had accused the railway of “a lack of empathy,” stating that the SNCF had not responded to any of her letters.
What was the SNCF accused of?
On Monday, 19 June, criminal proceedings were opened in Paris against the SNCF, in which the railway company is charged with “involuntary injury to a domestic animal,” an offence punishable by a fine of 450 euros.
30 Millions d’Amis called, however, for the charge to be extended to “deliberate killing of an animal,” which carries a far heavier penalty ranging from a fine of 75’000 euros to up to five years imprisonment.
On July 4, the Paris court finally sentenced SNCF to a fine of 1’000 euros for “negligence” and concluded that the death of the cat had been caused involuntarily. More on this topic Animal rights.
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