French rail company to pay compensation after cat killed by train

A French court has ordered national railway company SNCF to pay compensation after a cat was killed by a train at a Parisian station earlier this year.
The court in Paris found SNCF guilty of negligence on Tuesday, as reported by broadcaster Europe 1.
The railway company is required to pay €1,000 ($1,090) to each of the two owners of the cat, named Neko.
The cat had escaped from a carrier before departure, and both the mother and daughter suspected that the animal was under the train.
The dead cat was later discovered between the tracks, after railway staff refused to stop the high-speed TGV train at the Paris-Montparnasse station.
Animal welfare organizations argued in court that a train would be halted for a forgotten piece of luggage but not for an animal, declaring it an intentional and cruel act on the part of the railway company.
The SNCF responded by saying it was not clear at all where the cat had hidden, and was only spotted between the tracks when the train started moving.
The presiding judge said that "the necessary human resources were not deployed to recover the cat" before the train departed.
The owner accused the railway company of a "lack of empathy" and stated that SNCF had not responded to any of her letters.