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The UK government worked hard to get 200 rescue cats and dogs out of Afghanistan but critics are asking why animals were priortized

The UK government worked hard to get 200 rescue cats and dogs out of Afghanistan but critics are asking why animals were priortized

Bethany Dawson
Ex-Royal Marine Pen Farthing at the 2014 CNN Hero of the Year Awards (left) and a photo of dogs at the shelter he founded in Kabul (right).
Paul "Pen" Farthing won CNN's Hero of the Year Award in 2014 for his efforts to reunite soldiers with animals they cared for in Afghanistan.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage for CNN, Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images
  • Former Royal Marine Paul 'Pen' Farthing runs an animal rescue charity in Afghanistan.
  • The UK Government ordered a charter flight to evacuate Farthing and his 200 animals out of Kabul.
  • Critics have asked why the animals are out when people are still stuck.
  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

The British Government intervened to support Paul 'Pen' Farthing and his 200 rescue animals' journey from Afghanistan to the UK.

Farthing, a former Royal Marine, founder of the Nowzad animal care charity in Kabul, has now left Afghanistan with his animals.

Confirming the news on Twitter, the UK Ministry of Defence stated that British armed forced had assisted Farthing and his animals through Kabul airport, with a charter flight awaiting them that had been sponsored by the British Government.

Read more: The UK is in a frenzy about the death sentence of an alpaca called Geronimo. It says a lot about the British national psyche, experts believe.

As the safety of the animals was confirmed – but that of Farthing's staff was not – voices have been raised as to why the animals got out when people are still stuck?

The Telegraph reports that Ben Wallace, the UK Defence Secretary, told MPs that the mission to rescue the animals - and the attention it was receiving - was taking away resources from evacuating vulnerable people.

The LBC radio host Matt Frei asked: "What would you say if I sent an ambulance to save my dog rather than your mother?"

Tom Tugendhat, a Member of Parliament and a former army officer who served in Afghanistan, said on LBC Radio: "The difficulty is getting people into and out of the airport and we've just used a lot of troops to get in 200 dogs. Meanwhile my interpreter's family are likely to be killed."

Wallace hit back at critics on Twitter, saying that such views had resulted in bullying, falsehoods, and threatening behavior by some towards our MOD personnel and advisors, which he calls "unacceptable."

There was speculation that Prime Minister Boris Johnson used his influence to make the evacuation of Farthing's animals possible, as his wife, Carrie Johnson, is an animal rights activist.

Asked about the reports, Johnson said: "I've had absolutely no influence on any particular case, nor would that be right. That's not, that's not how we do things in this country," the Evening Standard reported.

The UK evacuation efforts stopped on August 28.

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