Russia: Anger as conductor throws pet cat from train in sub-zero temperatures - after mistaking it for stray

A video of a cat being tossed out into the snow by a train worker has sparked widespread outrage - after the cat was found dead over the weekend.

More than 300,000 people have signed a petition calling for the Russian train conductor to lose her job after she threw a pet cat off a train, believing it was a stray. The white and ginger tom cat, known as Twix, had escaped from his carrier on a train travelling between Yekaterinburg and St Petersburg on 11 January.

He was found by the conductor, who forcibly ejected the animal from the carriage while the train was stopped in the town of Kirov, east of Moscow. Hundreds of people later banded together to search for the animal as temperatures approached minus 30C, who was later found dead on Saturday (20 January) - about half a mile from where he had been left.

Volunteers told AP they believed that Twix had been killed by the extreme cold, and it looked like he had suffered numerous animal bites. The incident has sparked widespread outrage in Russia and across the world - with thousands following the story on social media, and others resharing viral footage of the cat being dropped into the snow.

A separate petition calling for criminal charges to be brought against the conductor had gathered more than 100,000 signatures as of Sunday. However, local authorities have so far declined to prosecute the woman -who has not been publicly named.

In a statement, Russian state train operator RZhD said that it “sincerely regretted” the death of Twix, and said it had apologised to his owners. “To ensure similar incidents will not happen in the future, amendments are already being made to the documents used to transport pets on long-distance trains," they said in a social media statement.

“Conductors will be prohibited from disembarking animals from carriages - instead, animals will be handed to station workers who can contact animal welfare groups.”