( CNN ) -- Preeti Varma was inconsolable after seeing her pet cat crushed to death at Delhi 's Indira Gandhi International Airport as the creature was loaded onto a flight to Singapore . `` You see a crowd forming round her but she is given no medical aid and no one does anything , '' Varma says of the March 23 incident . Her grief soon turned to rage among tens of thousands of online pet lovers worldwide . The day after Varma 's cat , James Dean , died , a friend published online an open letter to Jet Airways , the international airline that had been carrying the cat . The letter demanded a full explanation and apology from the privately owned Indian airline and blasted its `` insensitive '' handling of the tragedy and pet travel procedures . The blog post spread quickly across social media sites and within 24 hours had 20,000 hits from across the world . Hundreds of furious animal lovers also unleashed Twitter fury at Jet Airways , forcing the airline to issue two public statements on Facebook . Varma , 26 , a brand strategist , paid Rs 4,500 ( US $ 83 ) to fly her rescued Indian street cat called James Dean on her flight . She got engaged last August and moved to Singapore six months ago to be with her fiancÃ© but left her pet with friends in New Delhi while she sorted out the paperwork and quarantine . After check-in , Varma was asked to remove James Dean from the cage so it could be X-rayed . The cat immediately escaped Varma 's grip and scuttled under the machine . Half an hour later Varma got her cat back inside the IATA-approved cage . She added an extra wire on top , double checked it was locked and handed her to the staff . But her biggest nightmare came while waiting at the gate to board her 8.55 a.m. flight . Jet Airways staff approached her and informed her : `` The cage is empty . The cat is no more . '' Shocked , she broke down in tears and refused to board the flight demanding to see her one-year-old kitty . After having her Duty Free bottle of gin confiscated , she was escorted back to check-in where she was handed her beloved cat 's corpse in its cage . Jet Airways staff then tried to escort her out of the airport but she demanded to see the CCTV footage . After waiting for two hours , she watched in horror as footage showed her cat jumping out of a luggage trolley onto the tarmac and being run over by a trolley coming in the opposite direction . `` She squirms a bit and then dies . Three airline staff stand around and they motion to a garbage man to pick her , '' Varma says , speaking from Singapore. `` He picks her up with newspaper by the neck and drops her into the cage . '' More than 300 people have since signed a petition calling for better training of Jet Airways staff on handling pets and better infrastructure for pet travel . A Jet Airways spokesperson tells CNN.com : `` On close inspection of the container , it was observed that the wire mesh in the front of the container was bent outwards and pushed out of the main frame . `` It is inferred that the pet forced itself out of the container by pushing the wire mesh and thereby creating a gap for it to come free . '' Varma insists negligence by Jet Airways caused the death of her cat . `` I think either the cage was thrown so violently onto the trolley that it snapped open , or someone let her out . There is no way my cat could have pushed the cage open by herself , '' she says . Varma now wants Jet Airways to apologize not just for the incident but the `` insensitive way '' she claims she was treated , being left alone shaking and crying for hours . She also wants the airline to tell her what steps they are taking to improve pet travel safety . `` I do n't want any compensation . They should make a donation to an animal organization , '' she adds . `` They should have a vet present at the airport and an animal handler to accompany the pet to the aircraft . '' The Jet Airways spokesperson says the airline has embarked on a global review of other airport and airline procedures . The spokesperson said : `` We sincerely regret the accidental demise of James Dean , pet cat of Ms. Preeti Varma . All our staff are fully conversant and trained in the process of handling household pets and necessary infrastructure is available at the airports to deal with such movements of pets . `` If the actions of any members of our team came across as insensitive we would like to assure that this was unintentional and to apologize to Ms . Varma . '' International Pet Travel Consultant Anupama Vinayak , who runs pet relocation service Furry Flyers in India , which flies 40-50 pets in and out of India each month , said she had never heard of an incident like this . But she added : `` Pet travel is still in a very nascent stage in India . Airlines are trying to put their best foot forward but there still is a lot of room for improvement because India itself is not a very pet-friendly country , '' she said .
Preeti Varma books to fly pet cat from New Delhi to Singapore . The cat , named James Dean , escapes from cage and is hit by trolley . Airline staff inform Varma , `` The cat is no more , '' and confiscate her gin . Friend posts Open Letter demanding apology from Jet Airways online which goes viral .