Fingers crossed for Pen Farthing and Nowzad

I suspect that those left behind will blame the US and UK governments for not having the means to get them out. I don't expect they'll be blaming some ex-Marine and his animals.

I'm afraid none of this will matter to those left behind, many knowing they are likely to be faced with an unspeakable death.

Would I prioritise animals over humans - no. Will those left find someone to blame without reading the Gransnet "thread of all knowledge" - yes.

This country is renowned for treating its pets better than some of its citizens. Some organisations and people anthropomorphise them to get money out of pensioners pockets to look after them. There is no way the removal of animals from Afghanistan while people are left behind can be made to look good except to those who treat animals in this way. Facts will not change the optics of this action from the point of view of those left behind. I am not surprised Johnson is washing his hands in public.

Jeremy Vine will be interviewing Pen on his radio program today, he's just said.

And I hope there is an investigation into how the voicemail from a private individual to a Government worker was leaked to the Sunday Times. A thorough investigation. and I hope Pen sues the buggers.

There were some photographs on Facebook on Sunday from various animal shelters throughout the UK that have taken some of the dogs in through their quarantine process.

They've been checked over by Vets - two of which travelled on the plane, I believe - @IainTime Iain McGill - Nowzad update: Op Ark is a humanitarian mission to rescue 68 Nowzad staff including their 25 children and new born child, along with 150 animals. I was lead vet, travelling back with Pen & animals to UK, but most important work remains undone

Tory backlash - any surprise Boris is doing a sideways shuffle? If this had been a unanimous hit with the Great British Public he'd have been leading the parade. However with MP Ben Wallace and his team and the - there's no other word for it - smear campaign against Pen, he's going to be wary until it's off the front pages.

The Sunday Times, quoting a senior official in Whitehall, predicted that the animals from Pen’s Nozad animal charity in Kabul could be condemned to death despite all the efforts and controversy to get them out of the country.

‘If they turn out to be riddled with disease, Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) will have to put them down,’ the official is quoted as saying.

Ah, those senior officials and government sources, all nameless .. That word "riddled" with disease - they've been under vet care in Kabul and I find it disgusting that it's suggested these animals haven't been treated. It's just disgusting.

Someone on this thread stated on Sunday that she despised Pen Farthing after skim reading (and mis quoting) an article. Let me say - I met him briefly in 2011, five minute conversation, and I liked him a lot.

The plane - a commercial plane - was privately chartered and had no costs met by the British taxpayer, the plan was for animals in the otherwise empty hold and seats for Pen, his staff, their families and other spaces offered to people that had the correct paperwork in place. Again, the processing of people stopped on Thursday last week so Pen's staff couldn't leave and there were no other people that had paperwork in place for those empty seats. I don't know if animals were put in the seated area but I have read that 5 cats died in transit - remember, temperatures where in the 30° daytime and plummet at night; before the bombs went off on Thursday the whole team were waiting 36 hours to get entry to the airport.

Pen was authorised by the British Government to go to Kabul Airport on Friday with the animals (who didn't need processing paperwork). His Afghan team drove other vehicles with animals but those people weren't allowed through the Taliban checkpoints around the airport, thus (from what I've read) a British Soldier drove the vehicle into the airport.

And then they waited, Pen and these 170+ animals, in the heat; it was the US soldiers who watered the animals down, and helped Pen load on to the airplane. I'm guessing the British soldiers were ordered not to help - I haven't seen that anywhere but I can take an educated guess that is what happened.

The Nowzad Charity isn't a hobby for Pen Farthing, it's his job. He has commitments to his staff both in the UK and Afghanistan. Without the animals the staff can now look at travelling overland to get out of Afghanistan. They wouldn't have been able to do that journey with animals.

LondonMzFitz

A few points that have been raised in the previous 16 pages but may have been lost -

The Nowzad staff of vets, vet nurses and their families were given the green light by Boris Johnson himself, whether that equates to Visa's I don't know. However people do still have to go through the processing stage which was closed on Thursday last week after the bombings. Of course it is necessary to ensure the right people are travelling on the right papers. It would be a different case for Pen himself as a British Passport holder.

According to the Guardian this morning No10 is denying that Johnson had anything to do with the operation...

There are extended family members travelling with interpreters - televised report last week from an interpreter whose father had been killed by the Taliban because of his son's work with Allied Forces.

It's shameful that so many have been left behind and will be looking to go overland to leave Afghanistan. I said earlier in this thread that these people don't want to leave Afghanistan but will not want to live under Taliban rule. In the link to the BBC report from 14 April 2021 - The speaker of the Afghan parliament, Mir Rahman Rahmani, has warned the withdrawal of foreign forces in the current circumstances will lead to civil war.

Not much of a life, is it?

April 14th 2021 Ben Wallace said the UK "drawdown" of British Troops in Afghanistan would start "from next month" (May 2021)
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56744265

The premise, I presume, would be that the Afghan Army would be trained and confident enough to support the Afghanistan parliament.

The report says - In February 2020, the US (Trump) and the Taliban agreed a deal that would see the US and Nato allies withdraw all troops within 14 months if the Taliban upheld its promises, including not allowing al-Qaeda or other militants to operate in areas it controlled and proceeding with national peace talks.

The BBC had an article on 13 August 2021 saying the Taliban could take over Kabul in 90 days. It took 4 days, and that's when the rush on the airport started. The UK's Foreign Ambassador Laurie Bristow says his staff were working "24/7" to process the paperwork at Kabul Airport as the Embassy was taken over by the Taliban.

A few points that have been raised in the previous 16 pages but may have been lost -

The Nowzad staff of vets, vet nurses and their families were given the green light by Boris Johnson himself, whether that equates to Visa's I don't know. However people do still have to go through the processing stage which was closed on Thursday last week after the bombings. Of course it is necessary to ensure the right people are travelling on the right papers. It would be a different case for Pen himself as a British Passport holder.

legistically logistically

Alegrias1

Yes, yes you are.

Read the whole thread and see where the weight of the argument lies, and see how many people have randomly thrown in comments like "people first" and see how they have been rebutted.

I have been reading the thread and chose not to comment until now. If the decision had to be made by those on the ground in a hurry, and if an enquiry finds there was space that wouldn't and couldn't be filled by people, then they had a very difficult choice to make. An enquiry will no doubt give us the facts rather than the scuttlebutt. I don't see how this would have felt okay for those left behind. I am posting my views, not yours, Alegrais.

I do not feel they ever stood much of a chance in getting everyone out. I was involved in evacuation rehearsals in an area under our control. The British, particularly forces families, tend to be compliant under normal circumstances. They are not so compliant when they are frightened.

Afghanistan was a retreat, and was a far more legistically difficult situation than the one I was involve in. It was bound, in some ways, to fail. I was lucky enough to come home early. However, I do know that it is likely to be some time before we know the truth of this situation.

I do not think putting the animals on the plane was a kindness to the people left behind. People, some of whom know being left behind is a death sentence. I think it was a bad call and decided to say so - without asking your permission to do so Alegrais.

Yes, yes you are.

Read the whole thread and see where the weight of the argument lies, and see how many people have randomly thrown in comments like "people first" and see how they have been rebutted.

Alegrias1

^You don't need to shout. We can all read.^

But some of us choose not to.

Or choose not to give weight to your argument Alegrais. We are allowed to do that.

This thread is getting worse than a Harry & Meghan thread...

Madgran77 I quite agree. Me, I am sick to the back teeth of hearing about him!

You don't need to shout. We can all read.

But some of us choose not to.

Soldiers were taken away from their work processing people seeking to get on a plane to get animals through instead and get them to plane! That is NOT a quick walk through a "boarding gate" is it in Kabul at the moment!!!!

So, different space on plane or not for the animals, PEOPLE were impacted on who might have got through!

Alegrias1

I'm going to shout.

THERE WERE SPACES FOR ABOUT 100 PEOPLE BUT THE SPACES WENT BEGGING BECAUSE HIS STAFF DIDN'T GET THE RIGHT PAPERWORK THAT THE US SAID THEY NEEDED AND NOBODY ELSE WAS PUT FORWARD TO TAKE UP THE SPACE.

There, I feel better for that.

You don't need to shout. We can all read. However, I doubt that the contents of your post would matter one iota to the people trying to leave and their families.

What you say may be a fact. Nevertheless. that fact is irrelevant in the circumstances. That will not be the perception of those left to fend for themselves. Theirs will be that animals were put before them. They may even die with that picture in their mnds. Leaving people behind is not great; there is no need to rub their noses in the fact that they have been.

I will allow it for this thread too then love to all of you xx

JaneJudge

I noticed today the sparrows rule the middle to upper part of hedge, the dunnocks are at the bottom
the blue tits think they are in charge of the tree above but robin thinks it rules all of them
then the blackbird just randomly goes in the hedge to shit them all up
and the kestrel and goshawks just pick them all off and the magpies take their opportunities

It is like being human

Wow I thought how profound and relevant at summing up this thread.
Very disappointed that it was not for this thread.

Whispers very, very quietly:

Animal welfare campaigner Dominic Dyer said Taliban guards would not let Mr Farthing's Afghan staff through the airport, even though they had papers permitting them to come to Britain.

He said Nowzad would continue to work to get them safely to Britain.

ITV Sunday 29 August 2021, 5:33pm

JaneJudge

I noticed today the sparrows rule the middle to upper part of hedge, the dunnocks are at the bottom
the blue tits think they are in charge of the tree above but robin thinks it rules all of them
then the blackbird just randomly goes in the hedge to shit them all up
and the kestrel and goshawks just pick them all off and the magpies take their opportunities

It is like being human

It does have parallels

Alegrias1

I'm going to shout.

THERE WERE SPACES FOR ABOUT 100 PEOPLE BUT THE SPACES WENT BEGGING BECAUSE HIS STAFF DIDN'T GET THE RIGHT PAPERWORK THAT THE US SAID THEY NEEDED AND NOBODY ELSE WAS PUT FORWARD TO TAKE UP THE SPACE.

There, I feel better for that.

If you'd put * * round those capital letters it would have been even louder

sorry, wrong thread