Afghanistan crisis: Former British soldier, with his 200 pets, finally gets to leave Kabul

In a positive development, according to the British Ministry of Defence, the founder of an animal welfare organisation has finally managed to pass through the security checkpoint at Kabul airport and leave the war-ravaged country. When the twin blasts took place at the Hamid Karzai international aiport on Thursday, Paul "Pen" Farthing was attempting to take the help of his staff and rescue his animals comprising 200 pets, from the war-stricken Afghanistan. Farthing, his staff, and the animals were assisted by the UK Armed Forces on Friday evening, as per the UK MoD. 

Farthing has been campaigning to leave the country since the Afghanistan govt collapsed

After serving in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s, Farthing, a former Royal Marine from Dovercourt in Essex, founded the Nowzad animal shelter in Kabul. The organisation rescues dogs, cats, and donkeys. Farthing and his allies have been campaigning since the collapse of the Afghanistan government to have his personnel, their families, and 140 dogs and 60 cats rescued from the country in a proposal dubbed "Operation Ark." 

Despite the fact that visas were approved for his 24 employees and their dependents on Friday, Farthing refused to leave without the animals. Farthing along with the animals, cats and dogs, were transported to the Kabul international airport with the assistance of armed personnel, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

Farthing had previously stated that he was rejected and 'turned away' when he tried to leave Kabul on Thursday. After that, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace claimed that his staff had received vitriol from Farthing's online supporters, who accused the MoD of holding back their trip out of Kabul; this was before the UK MoD revealed that Farthing and his animals were scheduled to fly out. According to BBC, Wallace said that the bullying, lies, and threatening behaviour by Farthing's supporters, that was directed at MoD employees, diverted the attention from the most vulnerable people who needed to be evacuated.

'US changed the policy of who may exit'

Earlier this month, Pen Farthing initiated a well-publicised campaign to evacuate his shelter's 200 animals, as well as his workers and their families from Kabul. According to The Express, he rented a $500,000 plane to land at Kabul airport for the rescue operation. On Thursday, Farthing took to Twitter to report that he and his entire team, as well as the animals, were securely inside the airport perimeter when Biden "changed policy" on who may exit. He justified the statement by saying that because the US had internal control of the Kabul airport, their laws "trumped" the British documents that he was carrying.

Image- @Michicha1/Twitter