The obituary of a cat who was killed while being transported by Jet Airways onto a flight to Singapore went viral on Sunday with social media users and pet lovers condemning the callousness of the airline in the incident.
The obituary of a cat who was killed while being transported by Jet Airways onto a flight to Singapore went viral on Sunday with social media users and pet lovers condemning the callousness of the airline in the incident.
The cat’s owner, Preeti Verma, who lives in Singapore, had returned to India on March 18 to collect her cat James Dean since the paperwork to take the pet abroad had finally been completed.
While waiting to board her flight on March 23, Verma was told that her cat was missing from its cage . When she probed further, airline personnel callously informed her that, “she is no more.” Verma was then asked to hurry to her flight.
The obituary and open letter to Jet Airways that went viral was written by Verma’s friend Tara Chowdhry.
The cat was killed after it escaped from its cage while being transported to the aircraft. It jumped onto the tarmac and was run over by one of the trolley trains.
A distraught Verma for whom the cat “was like a child”, says she locked the cage herself after putting it through an X-Ray.
“It was IATA approved and had 10 locks on it. She could not have opened it herself with her paws.”
When she demanded to see CCTV footage, she was made to wait for hours and then shown footage of the cat escaping on to the tarmac and being run over. She wasn’t shown who was handling the cage or how the locked cage was opened.
In a statement, the airline said the death was accidental. “Jet Airways sincerely regrets the accidental demise of a pet cat which was accepted as baggage to be flown on 9W18 from Delhi to Singapore on March 23,”
Verma has not received an apology from the airline yet. She says she is overwhelmed by the support she received on social media and hopes this doesn’t happen to any other animal. “The airline should have had someone who knows how to handle animals.” People have been using the hashtag #Jamesthecat to tweet their condolences to Verma.
On Facebook, Jet Airways says it regrets the accidental demise of pet cat.
@aditimallya
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