PARIS: In 2023, a departing practice in Paris ran over a cat that had escaped from a traveller’s bag, in a case that induced an uproar in France.
Regardless of requests from the animal’s homeowners to delay the departure and rescue the animal, the Paris-Bordeaux high-speed TGV practice with 800 passengers on board left, slicing Neko the cat in two. France’s nationwide rail operator SNCF insisted on the time that the animal was “not seen.”
After two years of deliberation, SNCF has now issued clear guidelines.
In case your pet escapes and falls onto the practice tracks in France, a practice might be delayed by a most of 20 minutes, in keeping with the brand new protocol, a replica of which was seen by AFP.
The protocol “formalises practices which have all the time been in place in the sort of state of affairs and are utilized with widespread sense and humanity by our workers,” a spokesman for the rail infrastructure administration unit SNCF Réseau instructed AFP on Friday (Might 16).
The brand new guidelines had been spelt out in a memo to SCNF workers on Thursday.
As soon as a passenger has reported an animal lacking, SNCF workers have 10 minutes to “clear up any doubts” by attempting to identify the animal from the platform, in keeping with the brand new guidelines.
If the lacking pet is noticed, workers have a most of 10 minutes “to take away the animal with out getting into the hazard zone” and accessing the tracks.
If the animal nonetheless doesn’t emerge, the practice is required to proceed at a really low pace to offer it a ultimate likelihood to flee.
Neko’s homeowners sued SNCF however misplaced on attraction.
After the cat’s demise, Clement Beaune, the transport minister on the time, had requested the SNCF chief government to look into “all potential choices for altering your inside procedures”.
