Court orders Turkish Airlines to pay for lost cat

Court orders Turkish Airlines to pay for lost cat
The airline lost a cat during a domestic flight across Turkey last year.
1 min read
23 December, 2020
Cats are particularly beloved in Turkey [Getty]
A Turkish court has ordered the country's national carrier, Turkish Airlines, to pay compensation to the owners of a cat which went missing during a flight.

The cat was lost during a 2019 domestic flight between the eastern city of Gaziantep and the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, BirGun reported.

The cat's owner had arranged with a courier company for the cat to fly unacommpanied to Izmir, where it would later be claimed by his daughter, a university student.

But the cat never arrived.

The owner, who was not identified by local media, filed a lawsuit against Turkish Airlines, claiming the family had suffered material and emotional damage.

This week, the 11th civil chamber of the supreme court upheld an earlier judgement ordering the national carrier to pay 4,700 lira ($615) in damages.

Turkey is world renowned for its love of cats. 

Residents often feed and take care of stray cats in their neighbourhood.

When Ankara imposed stay-at-home orders on parts of the population earlier this year, the interior ministry urged local municipalities to make sure stray animals didn't go hungry.

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