It is the mediatized crushing of the Neko cat at Paris-Montparnasse station in January 2023 which highlighted the absence of a formal protocol in the event of a dog, cat or other animal slipping on the rails, in a company that does not lack procedures.
Despite the requests of the owners of the cat to delay the departure, the Paris-Bordeaux train, with 800 passengers on board, had left by crushing Neko who, according to the SNCF, was “not visible”.
The case had made noise. “”You are not ashamed?“, asked the SNCF the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. The Minister of the Interior of the time, Gérald Darmanin, said”particularly shocked“.
The mistresses of Neko, a mother and his daughter, had continued SNCF travelers in court and each won 1,000 euros for moral prejudice at first instance, before the company was released on appeal.
The Minister of Transport at the time, Clément Beaune, had officially written to the CEO of the SNCF to ask him to study “All possible options for the evolution of your internal procedures and the awareness and training methods of your agents to these questions“.
An instructions note released Thursday to SNCF agents and obtained by AFP finally fixes the procedure to follow, and answers the question: how long is it reasonable to delay hundreds of travelers to try to find an animal?
A SNCF Network spokesperson indicates on Friday to AFP that the protocol “formalizes uses in force forever in this type of situation and applied with common sense and humanity by our agents “.
From the report by a passenger, the SNCF staff give themselves 10 minutes of “lifting of doubt”, to try to see the animal from the quay. If it is spotted, then trigger 10 minutes maximum “To get the animal out without engaging in the dangerous area“, that is to say without going down on the track.
If the animal still does not come out, the departure of the train is ordered …. but slowly, at speed “of a man with a step“, in order to give it a last chance to escape the wheels.