On January 2, 2023, twenty minutes before the departure of the TGV, Neko escaped from his transport suitcase to take refuge under the train cars. Its owners had tried in vain to get it out, had asked for help from SNCF agents, but the latter had estimated that the departure should take place on time and the cat had been cut in two by a wheel of the convoy.
Big excitement
The death of the animal caused a great stir. A petition in favor of legal proceedings had collected nearly 100,000 signatures and two posts on the SNCF Voyageurs Facebook page went viral before being deleted. Even Gérald Darmanin, then Minister of the Interior, said he was “shocked by the way the SNCF had handled the situation”.
Sentenced in July 2023 for “negligence” to a fine of 1,000 euros and 2,000 euros in damages, the company appealed this judgment. On September 27, 2024, before the Paris Court of Appeal, the controller explained that he had “given a whistle, longer and louder than usual, hoping to scare the cat”, reports France Bleu. In a press release published in June 2023, the SNCF had already assured that, “when the train started, we had no idea where it had run off. »
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