PEN: I’M SO GRAT
Charity boss praises British troops who helped bring 170 cats and dogs to UK
‘I hope they knew they were safe’
Pen Farthing yesterday praised the ‘phenomenal’ efforts of British troops in getting his animals to the UK.
The former marine revealed almost all of his 170 Afghan strays have already been lined up for loving British homes.
But he said five cats lost their lives on the first leg of the journey due to the effects of the trauma of the Isis-K airport bombing and subsequent tear gas.
Mr Farthing, 52, landed at Heathrow yesterday, where he oversaw the safe removal of his 70 rescue cats and 100 dogs into the care of animal welfare experts.
Bandaged and bruised from heaving their crates during a gruelling trip from Kabul to Uzbekistan and on to London, Mr Farthing promised not to rest until he is reunited with his loyal Afghan staff.
Largely unaware of the Government’s alleged ‘smear campaign’ against him – and the leaking of an explosive voicemail in which he threatened to ‘destroy’ one of the Defence Secretary’s advisers – he said he could not even remember leaving the message. ‘I haven’t seen what has been said about me so I can’t really comment’, he told the Daily Mail.
Mr Farthing credited the work of British forces on the ground in Kabul during the chaotic withdrawal.
‘From the second I met the British troops, during the Taliban-British handover, oh my God, those guys were absolutely amazing, fantastic,’ he said. ‘The marines and the Army tend to have a little bit of a rivalry, but I could not have been happier to see them at the checkpoint.
‘We only had an hour to put the animals in in Kabul. Some American troops on the airfield said “are you the dog guy?”, and they dropped everything to help. The guys all came around, people who were off duty came over, and said what can we do to help. And within one hour we had the animals all on board.
‘It was amazing to be back in that fold of military people who actually cared, and are passionate about the Afghans and their plight.’
Mr Farthing, who was met at Heathrow by a team of vets, added: ‘As the animals came off on the tarmac at Heathrow, I think they were shocked and stressed after that journey, but as they were coming off, I hope they knew they were going to somewhere safe. A lot of the animals are already adopted. We are not short of offers so I don’t think we will have much trouble rehoming the rest.’
Vet Dr Iain McGill had earlier said he had examined ‘more than 150 healthy dogs and cats from [the charity] nowzad in Kabul’.
Mr Farthing’s supporter Dominic Dyer last night tweeted pictures of three of the dogs, writing: ‘Wonderful to see nowzad dogs coming back from Afghanistan at Heathrow today, looking so fit and well despite the MoD smear campaign claiming they would need to be put down.’
On the cats who died during the journey, Mr Farthing said: ‘We had a veterinarian fly out to [Uzbekistan] to meet us and we did everything we could for them but sadly it was too late.’
He said 25 staff and 46 dependents are entitled to resettle in the UK, but he was fearful that the Taliban would stem the flow of emigration after Western troops leave. ‘We all had a massive emotional cry. They said to me you can’t do anything more for us here, you must leave, so I had to go,’ he said.
Referring to military and charity efforts at the end of a 20-year conflict, he said: ‘everything we worked for all these years is gone.
‘It is what it is, you can blame who you want but it has gone back to just how it was before we arrived.’
Mr Farthing is now heading to Oslo to reunite with his wife. ‘I can’t wait to see my wife and to hold her. I think there will be some tears.
‘We will probably have a night off, have a glass of red wine, and then tomorrow we will be straight back on it seeing how we can get the guys over here where they belong.’