MOSCOW (NEWSnet/AP) — More than 300,000 people have signed a petition demanding that a 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, escaped from his carrier on a train traveling between Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg on Jan. 11. He was found by the conductor, who forcibly ejected the animal from the carriage while the train was stopped in Kirov, east of Moscow.

Hundreds of people banded together in sub-zero temperatures to search for the animal, who was found dead Jan. 20, a little over a half-mile from the train tracks where he had been left. Volunteers said Twix had died from the severe cold and suffered a number of suspected animal bites.

The incident has sparked outrage, with thousands following the story on dedicated social media accounts. Others shared viral footage of the cat being dropped into the snow in temperatures approaching minus-22 Fahrenheit.

A separate petition calling for criminal charges to be filed against the conductor had gathered more than 100,000 signatures by Sunday, after being published online Jan. 19.

In a statement, Russia state train operator RZhD said it “sincerely regretts” the death of Twix, and vowed it will change rules on how employees should approach unaccompanied animals.

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

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