{"id":772811,"date":"2023-06-20T08:06:01","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T12:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=772811"},"modified":"2023-06-20T08:37:05","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T12:37:05","slug":"justice-for-neko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=772811","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Justice for Neko&#8217;: French rail firm faces court action after killing cat on train lines to avoid delays to services"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<blockquote  class=\"bs-quote bs-quote-1 bsq-t1 bsq-s1 bsq-left\">\n\t\t<div class=\"quote-content\">\n\t\t\t<p>The cat escaped from his travel bag and got underneath a stationary train. People pleaded for the train to be delayed, but instead it set off as planned and Neko was sliced in half. The rail staff stated that 'it was just a cat' .<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><strong>PETER ALLEN:<\/strong> Cat lovers have called for French railway staff to be sent to prison after a much-loved family pet was \u201dsliced in half\u201d because they refused to delay a train when he ran on the track. The death of Neko, aged four, has caused widespread anger across the country, and a criminal prosecution that on Tuesday was being considered by judges in Paris. Animal rights activists have called for tough action against SNCF, France\u2019s national rail operator, following the cat\u2019s death in January.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>He was with his owners \u2013 named by the Paris Police Tribunal as Georgia and her 15-year-old daughter Melaina \u2013 at Paris Montparnasse station when he escaped from his travel bag and got underneath a stationary train bound for Bordeaux. After a 20-minute search, they pleaded for the train to be delayed, but instead it set off as planned&#8230; \u201cWe saw him sliced in half,\u2019\u201dsaid Melaina, who is being supported by the animal rights group 30 Million Friends. \u201cThe rail staff told us it wasn\u2019t their problem \u2013 that it was just a cat and that we should have had him on a leash&#8221;&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>The case opened on Monday, with SNCF facing the charge of \u2018inflicting involuntary harm on a domestic pet,\u2019 but 30 Million Friends lawyers said the offence should be raised. Prosecutors have initially asked for the charges to be dropped, but judges were on Tuesday mulling over the case, and could still order a trial. \u201cNeko has not said his last word,\u201d said Georgia. \u201cThis must never happen again. A trial is important symbolically&#8221;&#8230; Demonstrators have gathered across the country, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mesopinions.com\/petition\/animaux\/justice-neko\/199759\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cJustice for Neko\u201d petition<\/a> is approaching 40,000 signatures. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/news\/world\/cat-hit-by-train-animal-campaigners-legal-action-sncf-justice-for-neko-b1088960.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SOURCE&#8230;<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED VIDEO:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m6q0-e3nSus\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PETER ALLEN: Cat lovers have called for French railway staff to be sent to prison after a much-loved family pet was \u201dsliced in half\u201d because they refused to delay a train when he ran on the track. The death of Neko, aged four, has caused widespread anger across the country, and a criminal prosecution that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":772817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,18,20,22,23,25],"tags":[27,32,35,37],"class_list":["post-772811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-ethics","category-justice","category-morality","category-rights","category-welfare","tag-cruelty","tag-free-living","tag-protection","tag-speciesism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=772811"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772818,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772811\/revisions\/772818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/772817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=772811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=772811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=772811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}