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Added rights in Russia. Transporting animals on trains has become cheaper and easier
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.For a humorous story on the transportation of pets in the Soviet days click here. by Kirill Velesov [REGNUM] Another step towards humanizing the transportation of animals on Russian railways was taken almost a year after the tragic death of the cat Twix, which once again raised the issue of attitudes towards animals. Updated rules for transporting animals by rail came into force on the first day of the new year. The main innovation introduced by Russian Railways is that all seats in a compartment for traveling with pets no longer need to be purchased. In addition, other passengers, when purchasing a ticket, will be able to find out who will be their compartment neighbor. This is especially important for those who suffer from allergies or are simply afraid of animals. FROM TRAGEDY TO HUMANITY A year ago, Twix the cat became a victim of literally following service instructions. The tragedy, as reported by IA Regnum, occurred on January 11 last year. Then the conductor of the train, traveling from Yekaterinburg to St. Petersburg, threw him out into the 30-degree frost during a stop in Kirov. The cat was not a stowaway. His fare was paid, and the animal was accompanied by his owner's father. However, the furry fidget got out of the carrier and fell into the hands of a Russian Railways employee, who decided on his fate in her own way. Despite the efforts of volunteers who joined the search, the cat was found dead on January 20. It is curious that if Russian Railways immediately apologized to the owners of Twix, then its subsidiary Federal Passenger Company (FPC), having reconstructed the chronology of events from video camera recordings, placed part of the blame for what happened on the man who was transporting the cat. Moreover, FPC Director Vladimir Pyastolov reported on the results of the internal investigation at a round table in the State Duma. As a result, the public outcry over the cat's tragic death triggered a wave of changes in the regulations governing animal rights during rail travel. Ten days after Twix's death was reported, the Federal Passenger Company announced a ban on removing animals from long-distance trains. Railway workers were required to make every effort to find the owners, and if none were found, to allocate a "special space" for the animal, take it to the station and hand it over to the duty officers. And Russian Railways, having supported the initiative, soon announced its intention to extend the ban on driving animals out to commuter trains as well. SIZE MATTERS However, the updated rules make life easier only for owners of small animals that fit into a carrier whose dimensions, in sum, do not exceed 180 centimeters. Dog owners who are going on a long journey in the company of, for example, a Central Asian Shepherd or a St. Bernard, will still have to fork out the full amount. "Transportation of dogs without containers is carried out in a separate compartment under the supervision of their owners (accompanying persons) with payment of the full cost of all unoccupied seats without additional payment for their transportation," says a document published on the Russian Railways website. The need for such measures is understandable: large dogs may suddenly develop guard or hunting instincts. Owners should be aware that a trip on a rattling train can be very stressful for an animal. This is what happened last February, when a Central Asian Shepherd named Gelya disappeared at a train station in Novosibirsk. The animal had arrived from Yekaterinburg to a new breeder. According to her owner, the conductor, in a hurry to get rid of the large dog, thrust the leash into the hands of a man who came to pick up Gelya. The shepherd dog got scared when he saw the approaching train, broke free and ran away. They searched for her for two days and found her dead. As it turned out, she had been run over by a train. The railway workers denied this tragedy, saying that the car in which the dog was traveling had a subtenant. He was supposed to ensure the safety of the dead Alabai. By the way, despite the innovations, lovers of reptiles will not be able to take the symbol of the coming year on the road. The transportation of snakes on trains is prohibited, explained to the correspondent of IA Regnum in the information service of Russian Railways, therefore the proximity of a person and a snake on trains is excluded. DEADLY FLIGHTS The rules for transporting animals by plane are also changing for the better. After all, there are many dangers in the air for them too. For example, in May 2022, the body of Timon, an American Bully, was found in a carrier in the luggage compartment of an Aeroflot plane that landed in Moscow. According to his owner, Timon was an experienced air traveler and had no illnesses. The owners' first version was that he died from hypothermia, which was apparently indirectly confirmed by the fact that the airline staff did not release the animal's body for three and a half hours. The airline, however, conducted an investigation into the circumstances of the incident, according to the results of which the version about the animal's death from extremely low temperatures was not confirmed. But already in April 2024, the rules for transporting pets were relaxed. Small pets and birds can now fly with their owner, sitting in the adjacent passenger seat. According to last year's data, the number of pets in Russia has grown by 11% in three years and reached 74.8 million. There were 49.2 million cats and 25.5 million dogs. Thus, last year Russia took third place in the world in the number of cats, and the number of dog owners brought it to fourth place. Russians without pets admitted that they do not have animals due to a lack of time to care for them. This also includes the hassle that accompanies pet owners during long trips, which sometimes require significant expenses to pay for travel for furry companions. The new rules for transportation will make such trips more comfortable, and it is quite possible that even more animals will find homes and owners. Posted by: badanov 2025-01-04 |
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