Twix the cat, whom a Russian Railways conductor mistook for a stray and threw him out of the carriage at a station in Kirov, was found dead, volunteer Olga Kudryashova told RIA Novosti.
“The cat was found dead. The man was found in the morning at an intersection a kilometer from the station, where he was thrown out,” Kudryashova said. 78.RU and REN TV wrote about the same with reference to volunteers.
More than 300 volunteers were looking for Twix. Today in the volunteer telegram channel they canceled the search for the cat and wrote that they were waiting for confirmation of his death from the owners.
Later, Twix's owner identified the cat in the volunteers' photographs. He told Izvestia that he was going to appeal to the prosecutor’s office and the court. Volunteer Dmitry clarified that he found Twix near the village of Likhachi.
A few days ago, Kudryashova said that on January 11, Twix and his companion were traveling on a train from Yekaterinburg to St. Petersburg and got out of the carrier. Surveillance camera footage showed that a Russian Railways employee threw the cat out into the cold.
Photo: Olga Kudryashova’s page on VKontakte
According to the conductor, she interviewed the passengers of the carriage and couldn’t find the animal’s owners, which is why she decided that the cat was a stray.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to initiate a case under the article on arbitrariness (Article 330 of the Criminal Code). The press service of the transport police told NGS.ru that the cat ended up on the street due to the inattentive attitude of the attendant.
Russian Railways apologized to the owners of Twix and began an internal investigation. “The company treats animals with great attention and love and takes care of them in every possible way along the way. In the meantime, the volunteer railway workers of Kirov are making every effort to search for the cat,” they wrote yesterday in the official Telegram channel of Russian Railways.
Today the company expressed regret over the death of Twix: “Individual shortcomings in regulatory documents, the lack of mutual responsibility of staff and passengers, and a combination of circumstances led to a tragic incident.”
Russian Railways announced that it is right now changing the rules for transporting animals on long-distance trains — conductors will be prohibited from disembarking them from the cars. Instead, they promise to hand over lost animals to animal protection organizations.
Updated at 14:13. The owner confirmed the death of Twix the cat. Comment from Russian Railways added.