Who is Pen Farthing and why he helped 170 cats and dogs out of Afghanistan

Who is Pen Farthing and why he helped 170 cats and dogs out of Afghanistan (Image: PA)

PEN FARTHING has landed in the UK from Afghanistan with several of his rescue cats and dogs. So who is Pen Farthing?

07:35, Mon, Aug 30, 2021 Updated: 08:25, Mon, Aug 30, 2021

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Pen Farthing, the founder of an animal rescue shelter in Afghanistan, has arrived in the UK after rescuing several animals from the country. Mr Farthing has been campaigning to get the animals evacuated from Afghanistan since the country fell to the Taliban earlier this month.

Mr Farthing has referred to his quest to get rescue animals out of Afghanistan as Operation Ark.

In a tweet on Sunday, Mr Farthing said: "Arrived Heathrow with partial success of #OpArk.

"Mixed emotions & true deep feeling of sadness for Afghan today. Heathrow Ops centre, Border Force, HARC & Air Pets were all bloody amazing.

"Witnessed 1st hand the compassion Heathrow is showing Afghan refugees."

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Pen Farthing has referred to his quest to get rescue animals out of Afghanistan as Operation Ark (Image: Nowzad/PA Wire)

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Dominic Dyer, an animal welfare campaigner and supporter of Mr Farthing, said Mr Farthing arrived at Heathrow Airport on Sunday morning on a privately funded charter flight.

Some 170 dogs and cats were saved from the animal shelter, but the 24 staff members and dependents were not able to board the flight.

The UK Government approved visas for Mr Farthing's staff in Afghanistan.

Mr Dyer said the staff were denied entry to the airport in Kabul on Thursday as the Taliban claimed they did not have the right paperwork.

Pen Farthing has now arrived in the UK from Afghanistan with several rescue animals (Image: Nowzad/PA Wire)

He added: "Tragic and not the ending we wanted, but we fell victim to the chaos and the difficulties of getting through those gates."

Mr Farthing's campaign to help rescue staff and animals from Afghanistan became a major story on social media in recent weeks.

But speaking to LBC, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: "I think it has taken up too much time of my senior commanders dealing with this issue when they should be focused on dealing with the humanitarian crisis."

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Pen Farthing has run an animal shelter in Afghanistan for several years (Image: Nowzad/PA Wire)

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