A French court has found the national rail operator guilty of negligence after a departing train ran over a cat hiding on its tracks, reports The Guardian.
The death of the cat, called Neko – which means “cat” in Japanese – in January at Paris’s Montparnasse station provoked outrage, with the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, declaring himself to be “particularly shocked”.
The animal rights body the Brigitte Bardot Foundation asked the rail operator SNCF: “Are you not ashamed?”
Passengers Georgia and her 15-year-old daughter Melaina said their pet escaped from its travel bag and disappeared under a high-speed train as it prepared to leave Paris for Bordeaux, in south-western France, with 800 passengers onboard.
After 20 minutes of them trying to persuade staff to rescue it, the train departed, killing the cat.
“We saw him sliced in half,” Melaina told the animal rights association 30 Million Friends at the time.