After the death of the cat Twix, Russian Railways banned the removal of animals from trains

After the incident with the disembarkation of the cat Twix from the Yekaterinburg-St. Petersburg train, Russian Railways JSC changed its internal rules, which now prohibit simply throwing away discovered animals: conductors are required to first look for the owner, and if the search is unsuccessful, hand the animal over to station workers. They must also look for the owner, and if unsuccessful, transfer the animal to a shelter. Representatives of the company stated this during a round table in the State Duma, the participants of which called on the carrier and passengers to treat each other more responsibly and refrain from cruelty towards the conductor, who made a fatal decision for Twix.

New internal rules of Russian Railways prohibit the removal of ownerless animals from trains: employees must first look for the owner throughout the train, and if there are no owners, hand the animal over to workers at the stations. They are obliged to try to find the owner, and if unsuccessful, send the animal to a shelter. This was announced by the head of the Federal Passenger Company (FPK – a subsidiary of Russian Railways) Vladimir Pyastolov during a round table in the State Duma on the rules for transporting pets by public transport.

“We plan to personalize the transportation of animals to some extent so that we can more clearly understand who we are transporting,” said Deputy General Director of Russian Railways Ivan Kolesnikov. “At the moment this is not in our documents.” In the future, the type of animal the passenger is carrying will be displayed in the mobile app used by the conductors. Other passengers will also be able to see when purchasing a ticket whether there are neighbors with animals nearby. “This is important, for example, for passengers with allergies,” explained Mr. Pyastolov. “But such improvements will take time.”

Although the Law “On the Responsible Treatment of Animals” sets the basis for regulating the issue of transporting animals, “internal regulations of companies and the responsible behavior of passengers themselves play a key role in further progress,” noted the head of the environmental committee, Dmitry Kobylkin (ER). Deputy Zhanna Ryabtseva (United Russia) called for refraining from “harsh measures” against the conductor and “carefully look at her biography.” “The man who was transporting a wounded soldier yesterday faces criminal prosecution, punishment and removal from work because of the cat,” said Ms. Ryabtseva.

The reason for discussion in parliament was the story of the cat Twix on January 11. The cat was transported by train from Yekaterinburg to St. Petersburg. According to the owner Edgar Gaifullin, the transportation of the animal was properly processed, but the relative who was transporting the cat fell asleep, and Twix escaped from the carrier. Having discovered the animal, the conductor decided that he was homeless and threw him out of the carriage in 30-degree frost. On January 20, he was found dead in the snow, not far from the railway. There were calls on social networks to fire the conductor and initiate criminal proceedings against her. The cat’s owner contacted the police; they refused to initiate a criminal case under the article on arbitrariness (Article 330) due to the lack of corpus delicti, but the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed the Central Interregional Investigation Department for Transport to organize an inspection and submit a report to him on the fact of cruelty to animals. At the moment, the conductor is temporarily suspended from work.

Vladimir Pyastolov from FPC, during a round table in the State Duma, indicated that, according to CCTV cameras, the passenger transporting Twix did not check the cat in the carrier when he returned from a walk at the intermediate station, during a survey of passengers, which was allegedly conducted by the conductor, having discovered the cat, “for some reason he did not identify the pet,” and reported his loss only seven hours later.

Polina Yachmennikova