Forum Topic

Pen Farthing and his rescued pets

This was posted on FB yesterday and it is quite enlightening!  It is long but well worth a read!"We've taken this from a page called 'Tuks Law'. It's a letter from a Veteran of Afghanistan: I am a Royal Marine Veteran who served on the frontline in Afghanistan 2006-2007.I write with heartbreak and exasperation to name just a few of the fraught emotions I have felt over the last few weeks seeing the freefall into utter chaos and desperation that so many of my comrades and the people of Afghanistan fought tooth, nail and heart to build-up over the last 20 years.The mistakes and the choices from those in the high positions of authority and the turning of backs over the last 18mths can be argued and reviewed on another day. Today and tomorrow is our priority, we need to deal with the present. And that means saving as many lives as possible and finding some light in the darkness of this situation for those that in the highest echelons of Washington, the MOD and Whitehall sadly choose to neglect.The soldier in combat yearns for home. Yearns for the smell of mum’s roast dinner not eaten from a bag. Yearns for the quiet of a lazy Sunday without the noise of gunfire and mortars, yearns for a walk down the street without the threat of a mine or an IED that would change his and his mates lives forever, yearns for a deep sleep without having to keep one eye open, years for safety, security and comfort that is home.In 2006 in a small compound in the town of Nowzad, exposed to the Taliban and the impending winter, myself and my brothers of K-Coy Royal Marines led up. It was as far away from home as you could imagine and sadly two of our guys didn’t make it back there, with many others baring wounds seen and unseen, I also had my own emotional and physical scars.But in the midst of our time in that dusty, dirty compound, sleeping in bullet and blood-stained cells, a roughed-up dog came into our lives and made his home with us. After being rescued from a fight with other strays by our Sergeant ‘Pen’ Farthing, the dog was aptly named Nowzad. He was cared for by Pen and built a space with us to live in. As you watched this fella with a new lease of life bouncing round, playing and loving being loved, it was not only a great comfort and distraction from combat, but bought a profound sense of ‘home’. It is no surprise that in our next outpost in Kajacki we befriended another dog called ‘Tangey’ who would even join us on patrol.  You may think of this just a superficial story that ends when the operational tour ends. But I want to say that couldn’t be further from the truth.Over 1600 dogs and cats have been reunited with their soldiers from Afghanistan because of the tireless work of Pen and his team of Afghan staff. And these are not ‘just’ animals. These were comrades, comforters, companions to us. These animals provided lights in the darkness of an ongoing battle and a sense of home away from home. They provided grounding and purpose away from the chaos of battle and might I say someone to care for and love so far away from our loved ones. They were not simply pets and not simply animals but in so many ways much more as they put smiles on solemn faces, lifted morale when the well was dry and the feeling was always mutual. I can boldly say that the animals of Nowzad are truly life-savers. I have no doubt that many who been reunited with their Veterans from combat have kept their comrade alive, when the black dog of PTSD and depression looms around the corner. And it is why other animal charities are linked with the armed forces provide dogs and cats for wounded Veterans who have experienced injury and illness as part of their ongoing therapy.So when many many people profess, call and lobby with heart, vigor and passion for Pen, his team and his troop of animal soldiers to be bought safely ‘home’.  When external supporters provide all the resources and everything possible to provide a plane, a plan and a mission to bring them all to Britain without any cost to our nation. When Penn says I will leave none of my team behind. Perhaps you might understand the reason for this fight.The least our government can do is grant them safe passage. Perhaps another light in this darkness, another story of hope.Photo Credit Nowzad"

Ivonne Holliday ● 1384d26 Comments

That is good news indeed. So when will they be air-lifted here from Islamabad?

Michael Winstanley ● 1372d

Thank you Andy, that is very good news indeed!

Ivonne Holliday ● 1372d

The staff of this charity have now crossed the border into Pakistan and are with the British High Commision in Islamabad

Andy Pike ● 1372d

HiI'm saying the plane shouldn't have gone to Afghanistan in the first place. The crowd funders were just idiot meddlers wasting their money.As regards the Afghani diet, Afghanistan has just had the worst drought and harvest for 50 years. The country was being substantially sustained even before that by foreign aid and income derived from servicing the occupying forces. Following the withdrawal, and pausing of the work of many aid agencies, a humanitarian catastrophe looms. Protein will be in short supply, whatever normal behaviour is.

Michael Winstanley ● 1378d

Michael W,I am sure Gerald Durrell would have disagreed with your comment about the rescue of cats and dogs being frivolous.One question please.  Are you saying that the plane, the cost of the flight was crowd funded here in England (not at taxpayer's expense), should have returned empty because the staff were not allowed to board it due to Biden's instructions?If I understand you correctly, I was unaware that Afghanis eat dog meat.  As a matter of fact, I thought they had dogs and cats as pets.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1379d

Amusingly the resident forum troll has their identity confused.Be that as it may, the rescue of Pen Farthing's staff would not have been frivolous - far from it. The "rescue" of cats and dogs certainly was. An extra plane landing and taking off, extra luggage to process (pet crates) inevitably kept our soldiers there a little longer.Admittedly Farthing was not to blame for the US and UK government's complete mis-assessment of the situation and Dominic Raab's characteristic "failure of intelligence". However, once this played out, he should just have left asap and not put anyone else at additional risk for the benefit of a few cats and dogs. There are thousands of cats and dogs in Afghanistan. None are going to be deprived an education because they are female or shot in the head for befriending  our troops. All Farthing has achieved is to deprive the people of Kabul of what will become a very scarce food resource.

Michael Winstanley ● 1379d

Now that the 9/11 archives are going to be released, shouldn't we do the same?I guess as with a lot of history we will have to find out from the Americans.https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/

Ed Robinson ● 1380d

Very good post Ivonne, a pity you had to explain the situation again for the hard of understanding.  However perhaps this time the resident forum troll will process it properly. It was inevitable that the Taliban would seize control at the first opportunity, i.e. immediately after American and British military was withdrawn. To think that the Taliban will govern the country with moderation and without resorting to brutality is naive in the extreme.  The emergence of ISIS-K is an even bigger threat to peace and will draw us and the US right back into the conflict.  Afghanistan is a huge powder keg ready to blow up. Very worrying. "The UK is "ready" to launch strikes at ISIS in Afghanistan, after it was revealed by the Pentagon there are at least 2,000 "hardcore" ISIS-K fighters in the country."Read in Sky News: https://apple.news/A7pjaCZAcR4yc1z_p1VlbCQ

Sue Hammond ● 1380d

Michael W,I am not too sure about your posting.The crowd funded airplane was there at the airfield (unless you know which other airport they used) for the sole purpose of repatriating Pen Farthing, his staff and animals. It was an additional plane, not taking over a military plane for evacuees.Pen Farthing and his staff were going to move the animals to the hold of the crowd funded airplane.Unfortunately, the staff were not allowed board the plane because of Biden's decision two days before that only people with visas in their passports would be allowed to board a plane.  The staff, by the way, had the necessary UK paperwork to show but no visas in their passports. Your use of the word "frivolous" is a misconception of the basis for the rescue.  The staff were/are mostly Afghanis whose lives were under threat from the Taliban so the rescue was not misguided.  You could use the word questionable perhaps.But the messy and horrible situation in Kabul is entirely the fault of the US and UK governments who had 18 months in which to organize things but left it all to the chaotic last minute. I think it is disingenuous for people in charge to say they had no idea the Taliban would take control that quickly.  The moment you said you were leaving, they were going to make sure you did so.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1380d

Michael,It must be difficult for the Afghan families that were victims of MOD operations over the decades which resulted in the deaths of innocent children. Compensation where settled seems to have ranged from a couple of hundred to a couple thousand pounds.

Ed Robinson ● 1380d

There is absolutely no way that Farthing and his menagerie were processed through Kabul airfield and flown out without extra risk to the allied forces running the operation and no way that this could have happened without taking resource, at the margin, away from human refugees. The "rescue" of cats and dogs under these circumstances was utterly frivolous. The fact that people cose to crowd fund air transport for animals in preference for famine aid for Afghanis, suffering their worse drought for decades shows much about our total misunderstanding of the situation in that country.

Michael Winstanley ● 1380d

Yes Ivonne all correct,but it doesn't alter the fact if he taken the previous offer his staff would be here but not the animals.Not for me to say which was right or wrong just stating the facts.Situations change very quickly in war zones - so any delay may increase risk.As for Biden this was probably an addition security measure I assume. The US were securing the airport which cost them lives - the UK could have set up their own airport if of course they had the capability and were willing to put more UK service lives at risk.We will probably have to wait a few decades to get the truth if at all regarding this whole war.https://twitter.com/SecKermani/status/1431517279859224579

Ed Robinson ● 1384d

I heard that there were planes going out in the week earlier that were not full. Is this true.  I heard there were a lot of female university students who desperately wanted to leave so that they could be sure to be able to continue their studies.

Philippa Bond ● 1384d

A very good question Caroline.  I do not know the answer.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1384d

When Pen Farthing flew out the animals were in the cargo hold, so who was with him on the plane?

Caroline Whitehead ● 1384d

As I said in another post, the situation is a mess so it will probably take a while for all facts to emerge (perhaps 30 years!) and it's probably not surprising if there was robust language at times.  This is the Wikipedia version:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowzad_DogsI agree with Sue that the rescued animals are very unlikely to have rabies as the rescue organisation would presumably deal with that as a priority and, in any case, as I understand it the animals all went straight into quarantine on arrival in the UK. Given the circumstances at Kabul airport I don't see any reason at present to blame Farthing for his staff being unable to leave Afghanistan, in the confusion many others couldn't be evacuated.

Michael Ixer ● 1384d

@AdamRabies is incurable and invariably fatal so none of Pen's animals will have it.  They are all rescues and not pets which is how they have been erroneously labelled by some in the media.  It is not Farthing's fault that his staff were not allowed to leave.

Sue Hammond ● 1384d

Hello Ed,Also, Pen Farthing, his staff and pets were all inside the airport ready to leave but, because Biden had issued two days before the order that only people with stamped passports would be allowed to board planes, his staff could not go.  They had all received the relevant paperwork from the British Government but their passports had not been stamped....

Ivonne Holliday ● 1384d

I understand why Pen wanted to evacuate the animals and the staff who became his friends, what I dont understand is why the staff 'needed' to leave, were they at great risk from the Taliban because they care for animals or were they simply opportunists? If they love animals so much and they have the training to look after them, why not stay? All the money raised in the UK could have funded their animal charity in Kabul. btw rabies is a very serious problem in Afghanistan, I hope we dont regret this animal evacuation.

Adam Tripp ● 1384d

It is not as straight forward as it seems. According to reports he and his staff were offered flights days earlier but he refused as it meant leaving the animals.He took a gamble and it almost paid off, but that's war I guess."Although visas were granted for his 24 staff and their dependents, Mr Farthing refused to leave without his pets and aimed to get 200 dogs and cats out of the country."https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/recording-pen-farthings-expletive-laden-21429367

Ed Robinson ● 1384d

Yes, Judy sums it up well from what I know of the facts. I'd also say, if this was an additional aircraft paid for by crowdfunding, then as the cats and dogs were carried in the hold this exercise must have provided extra seats for people? The fact the evacuation was left to the last minute is down to the government.

Michael Ixer ● 1384d

I wholeheartedly agree with you Judy.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1384d

I do not disagree with you Michael W.  But the article I posted highlighted how important the animals were for the soldiers in Afghanistan...His words "I write with heartbreak and exasperation to name just a few of the fraught emotions I have felt over the last few weeks seeing the freefall into utter chaos and desperation that so many of my comrades and the people of Afghanistan fought tooth, nail and heart to build-up over the last 20 years." resounded enormously.Between you and me, I really do not know what I would have done in Pen Farthing's shoes.  I have never been a soldier in a war; I may have suffered unspeakable terrorism in my teenage years, but not war per se.  The greatest regret, of course, is that his staff were not allowed into the airport by the Taliban. This is beyond unforgivable.Yes, he and the animals flew to the UK in a private flight funded by people who crowdfunded for this - they did not take the place of other people on British rescue planes whatsoever.Do you really, hand in heart, repudiate Pen Farthing's communication with the British Minister?  As far as I am aware, the deal signed by Trump with the Taliban, on behalf of all the allies, happened 18 months ago.  Without going into the discussion that the deal was not discussed in Parliament, the British Government were not ready for any of the repatriation arrangements until a few weeks ago?I thought at the time when the news broke about the deal, "What was all the war about?"  If you had been a soldier in Afghanistan, what do you think you would have thought? But excellent on Pen Farthing for rescuing what he  could. He will forever resent his staff were not rescued too.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1384d

The animals traveled in the hold of the aircraft, where humans are not permitted to ride.  No animal was put in a place that could possibly have been used by a human. I agree it is absolutely  terrible that British passport holders and Afghani interpreters and others who helped the British and Americans have been left behind.  But Pen was in no way responsible for this. Also as it happens he has apologised for his outburst, though I for one think it was entirely justified given the stress and pressure he was under and the runaround he was getting from government ministers.

Judy Allen ● 1384d

After this 20 years of war no Afghan will be able to accuse the UK of not loving animals!

Ed Robinson ● 1384d

Message removed following complaints by other users

Michael Winstanley ● 1384d