Documents imply that Boris Johnson helped Nowzad cats and dogs to get out of Kabul when he said he didn't help

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a story that has been rumbling along for a while. If you are up-to-date with the Boris Johnson news you will know that he is under a lot of pressure at the moment for allegedly breaking Covid social distancing rules and allegedly lying about it. It is the latter which is probably more important than the former. The knives are out for him. He may not remain as the Prime Minister of the UK as a consequence.

Letter from Ms Harrison MP to Paul Farthing of Nowzad showing the alleged involvement of Boris Johnson in the evacuation of animals from Kabul. Source: MSN News.

Thrown into the mix is the story of Mr Pen Farthing and the animals from his Nowzad operation in Kabul. This was and probably still is an animal rescue organisation based in Kabul. There was a big story about how he would get his animals out during the mass evacuation when thousands of people were flown out of Kabul after the Taliban took over.

RELATED: Breaking news: Nowzad animals and staff cleared to evacuate to the UK. - this was breaking news last summer.

Mr Farthing did get out using a chartered aircraft flown from Pakistan to Kabul paid for by a sponsor or sponsors. But at the time there were discussions about animals being prioritised over people. And the question was whether Boris Johnson, on the encouragement of his wife Carrie Johnson, had intervened to ensure that the animals got out of Kabul. He denied that he had been involved.

Nowzad staff getting out of Kabul to safety. Photo in public domain.

And now, documents have emerged in the news media which indicate that he did get involved. And if he did it would have been with the encouragement of his wife who is a known animal advocate.

Email implicating Boris Johnson in lying about his non-involvement. Image: The Sun.

It appears that an email trail leaked from the Foreign Office and which started or were initially sent on August 25, pins the order for the animal airlift on Boris Johnson. As mentioned, he claimed that he did not authorise the evacuation of more than 160 stray cats and dogs from Afghanistan. In fact, he boldly stated that it was "complete nonsense" to suggest that he had been involved. The Times newspaper states that a Foreign Office whistleblower released the emails yesterday suggesting that he approved the rescue mission.

The ironic point about the story is that it's a good thing that he was involved. I can't see the issue with that. It should be something which he could and should be praised for. However, in the higher echelons of the UK government the silver-haired white male is typically not a great animal lover. They wanted to exclusively prioritise people over any animals. That is my interpretation of the back story.

THE PRIME MINISTER ABSOLUTELY DENIES THIS ALLEGATION. MR FARTHING BELIEVES THAT THE PRIME MINISTER IS TELLING THE TRUTH. 

To put a bit of detail on it, Boris Johnson's PPS (personal private secretary) Ms Harrison, the MP for Copeland, worked in quite a committed way with a charter flight employee to make arrangements to get the animals evacuated. And in those letters she referred to her "boss". She was referring to Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of Britain.

She says that the work that she did on this was not with the involvement of Boris Johnson but, as mentioned, she referred to him in her communications. This, as stated in the title to this article, implies that she did this work at his direction or at least with his knowledge.

That contradicts what he has said in the past that he was uninvolved. If this is all true then this would be another allegation that the Prime Minister is being less than honest with the truth. This, in turn, goes to the original problem about his breaches of Covid social distancing rules and allegedly lying that he didn't break them.

Dominic Dyer and animal rights advocate who helped Pen Farthing evacuate the animals worked closely with the UK government. He says that the UK government intervened.

Someone is being economical with the truth. We don't know where lies.

Therefore, in this rather convoluted story we have a connection between cats and dogs, Boris Johnson, and a political crisis 😒. My personal view is that Boris Johnson is a decent bloke. He's quite liberal-minded. I think he was encouraged to briefly take part in these "parties" by perhaps his wife (on his birthday party) and in other gatherings by staff who arranged them. I don't think he organised them he simply was invited to them and didn't want to stop them happening because he's that kind of person.

Boris Johnson is a rule breaker. This has been made clear by teachers in his days when he was a student. One teacher stated that he doesn't believe that the normal social norms and rules apply to him. It is exactly why he's become so successful, ironically.

I also believe that his charming wife who I admire because she is a very dynamic animal advocate, is or has been a problem to him in his premiership. She has a hold over him because he loves her and wants to please her. She is quite headstrong and wants to get her way. Allegedly, she has asked him to do things which ostensibly have undermined his position. There's nothing to currently back that up in terms of evidence it looks like that to me.

The Sue Gray report will be coming up very soon and these points will be clarified. Although the Nowzad operation and Boris Johnson's involvement or not is not part of her mandate.

Foreign Office official Raphael Marshall claims British government prioritised rescue animals over people when evacuating Kabul

Raphael Marshall, who has now left the Foreign Office but who at the time was a junior civil servant, has made some pretty tough claims against the British government's handling of the evacuation of Kabul after the Taliban took over the country. And they are anti-animal claims too. Or human-centric.

Raphael Marshall. Pic in public domain.

What he is saying, in essence, is that British troops were used to support the evacuation of Nowzad cats and dogs (mainly dogs) from Kabul when they could have been used to help the evacuation of people instead. And because of this he claims that some people were left behind to be murdered by the Taliban. This claim is strongly denied by Dominic Raab the Foreign Secretary. Also many people with a good reason to be evacuated to the UK were not for many reasons which are not connected to the animal evacuation. One of them is the claimed disorder and even chaos at the Foreign Office at the time. Raab was on holiday for example although in close touch.

Marshall's claim is also strongly denied by Mr Paul "Pen" Farthing who ran the Nowzad animal rescue shelter. You may remember that at the time he was quite vociferous and outspoken, which he had to be, in order to successfully achieve the near impossible and get his rescue animals out of a chaotic Kabul. At the time, Mr Farthing felt that the British government wasn't doing enough and he was being jerked around. That alone flies in the face of Mr Marshall's claims.

Let’s make this bloody crystal clear & on the record. NOT 1 single British soldier was used to get me or the @Nowzad #dogs & #cats into #Kabul airport. This whistleblower lied to Parliament #nowzad supporters paid for cargo flight not the useless British government #operationark

— Pen Farthing (@PenFarthing) December 7, 2021

Note: This is an embedded tweet. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

In fact, Mr Farthing has tweeted his response (above) in saying that not one single British soldier was used to get him or his animals out of Kabul. He claims that Raphael Marshall is lying. He alleges that Mr Marshall lied to Parliament and that Nowzad supporters paid for the evacuation flights.

RELATED: 25-30 cats at US Embassy Kabul have been abandoned.

In response Marshall says that this isn't the point. The point is that British troops were used to help evacuate the animals when they would have been better used evacuating people. Mr Marshall claims that he is not accusing anybody of lying. He says that he is simply correcting the facts.

He says that he received an instruction from the Prime Minister to use considerable capacity to transport Nowzad's animals out of Afghanistan. He also claims that there was "no justification for concluding that Nowzad's staff were at significant risk". And that "the protection of domestic animals was not a UK war aim in Afghanistan".

RELATED: Whistle-blower's claim of direct trade-off between animals and people evacuating Kabul is wrong.

A man concerned with campaigning for the evacuation of the animals has spoken to LBC radio and said that he is sure that both Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson personally intervened in getting the animals evacuated. Boris Johnson has strongly denied that. 

However, Boris has gained a reputation for being a liar among the voting public. I think they have judged him harshly to be fair but he brings the problems upon himself. A lot of them are sick to death of his shenanigans as they see it. There is a current claim that he lied about the Christmas party last Christmas. 

It appears to have happened against the then Covid lockdown policy and to have been organised by staff at Downing Street but he denies it happened. There's a recording of employees talking about it and laughing, which has been aired on the radio. However, it is not clear that the party existed. The recorded gossip may have been about a fictional party.

A leaked letter suggests that the Foreign Office covered up PM’s involvement in animal airlift from Kabul, MP claims.

RELATED: Breaking news: Nowzad animals and staff cleared to evacuate to the UK - Aug 28, 2021.

Marshall says that there was limited ability to get people out of the country and as a result thousands of Afghan friends of the UK were at risk of being murdered. Many people were rejected for evacuation flights due to limited capacity. He claims that "this capacity was subsequently used to transport animals".

Further, he said "There was a direct trade-off between transporting Nowzad's animals and evacuating British nationals and Afghan evacuees, including Afghans who had served with British soldiers."

There it is: he is making a clear claim that in saving the lives of animals Britain jeopardised the lives of people and in some cases he has implied that people left behind who were friends of the UK have been murdered.

In light of Marshall's claims some Afghans who made it to the UK but who left behind relatives in danger of Taliban reprisals have chipped in and said that they are disappointed.

Mr Mohammed, an interpreter who was evacuated, said: “Dogs and cats have a life too and should be rescued. But in my opinion, the priority should be humans and more should be done to help those facing danger in Afghanistan.”

Comment: I don't want to comment on the claims about people being prioritised over animals unjustifiably. I would just like to make the point that in my opinion the animals deserved to be saved. It wasn't as if there was a huge animal airlift out of Kabul. This was quite a small contingent of animals and they were all rescue animals under a very high profile animal charity. Pretty well all the work was conducted by Mr Farthing and his supporters. He had to struggle to get the British government to pull their digit out to help them. And for me, it's a wonderful success story. I commend Mr Farthing. You can't prioritise people over animals exclusively all the time. You have to give some respect and some status to animals if we are to create a balanced balanced and compassionate world.

Nowzad staff escape Afghanistan to the British High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan

The Nowzad staff have successfully escaped Afghanistan and are now at the British High Commission in Pakistan from where they will be travelling to the UK in due course. Animal advocates the world over will be delighted to hear the news.

Mr Farthing, who founded the Nowzad organisation managed, as you may recall, to escape with almost 200 cats and dogs in a privately funded jet among a lot of controversy. However, he did remarkable work and showed great fortitude in getting the animals out with himself.

Nowzad staff escape Afghanistan to the British High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan. Note: this is a screenshot and not an embedded tweet.

Nowzad staff escape Afghanistan to the British High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan. Screenshot of tweet.

Mr Farthing was forced to leave his staff behind because of the great difficulty of evacuation from Kabul airport and because of Taliban barriers that were constantly being put up together with President Biden's change in policy. And now we can report that the Nowzad staff are out of Afghanistan. We are not told how they got there but it must have been overland to the border with Pakistan. We do know that the former Royal Marine, Pen Farthing, is "so bloody happy" that his staff made it out of the country.

Mr Farthing said: "This is bloody mind-blowing. It has still not really sunk in". And the Foreign Secretary Dominic Rab also tweeted that he was pleased that the group had crossed the border into Pakistan and were being assisted by the diplomatic service and that "we look forward to welcoming them to the UK in the coming days".

Mr Farthing can now declare his "Operation Ark" a success although it was carried out in two phases. Nowzad's primary purpose as an animal rescue centre in Kabul was to reunite military personnel with mainly dogs that they had rescued, while being deployed in Afghanistan, on their return to America or other country from which they had been deployed.

Of course, Kabul is now without an animal rescue center of great quality. The lives of the animals of Afghanistan will be worse as a result.

Update October 11, 2021: is now reported that his staff have just arrived in the UK. They were flown from Islamabad, Pakistan. Amongst them are I believe a couple of veterinarians and they will be checked out and they can then work as veterinarians in the UK. The other staff will also be able to find new jobs I believe in veterinary clinics in the UK. It's great news and they can now build new lives in a relatively safe country.

First pictures of Mr Farthing's animals in the UK at a Welsh animal rescue centre

Mr Paul 'Pen' Farthing and his animals landed at Heathrow Airport, near London, UK, on Sunday morning. He was accompanied by 173 cats and dogs. They have to enter a four-month quarantine period as I understand it. With that number of animals, they have to be distributed to other shelters around the UK. And one of those shelters is the Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary who took to Twitter to share images of the animals. The only animals that I have seen are dogs. A staffer at the sanctuary said in a tweet that they are very happy to be able to help.

Note: all the pictures that I have seen of Nowzad animals are dogs. I have not seen one cat. Do they really exist? I am concerned I have to admit. Surely, we would have seen some cats by now. I have seen all the photos from Nowzad and no cats.

The Sun headline: "Pen Farthing says most of his 173 cats and dogs are lined up for new homes in UK as he praises ‘phenomenal’ UK troops" - good news.

First pictures of Mr Farthing's animals in the UK at a Welsh animal rescue centre. Photo: Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary.

It is nice to see these animals in what I hope is the calm and safety of a British animal shelter. And let us hope that they find beautiful new homes after the expiry of the quarantine period. I am hopeful that the animals are healthy because Nowzad, the shelter in Kabul which was managed by Mr Farthing until he had to evacuate, has veterinary support. They have a decent veterinary clinic as far as I can tell and therefore, I would hope that the animals coming in with Mr Farthing are healthy.

First pictures of Mr Farthing's animals in the UK at a Welsh animal rescue centre. Photo: Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary.

I know that the veterinarians at Nowzad used to treat the 25-30 stray cats that were fed at the US Embassy. I do not know what is happening to those cats now that the embassy staff have evacuated. It's a concern to me and I am sure others. These cats were fed by embassy staff so are they going to survive?

Here is a tweet:

We were honoured to assist & very happy to help you transport some of your dogs to a quarantine facility in Berkshire. Keep up your great work!! 🐶🐵 #OpArk https://t.co/DvdXna7Uf0 pic.twitter.com/LghCwxiKSw

— Wales Ape & Monkey Sanctuary (@walesape) August 29, 2021

Pen Farthing flew back to the UK last night with his menagerie of animals rescued by the Nowzad charity

Mr Paul 'Pen' Farthing and his rescued cats and dogs from his Nowzad animal rescue charity based in Kabul, Afghanistan, landed at Heathrow airport last night and immediately took a connecting flight to Oslo to see his wife who had left Afghanistan last week. The cats and dogs are in quarantine and they will remain there for four months as per the usual procedures. This will obviously be a very difficult time for them to add to the trauma already suffered.

Some of the cats and dogs in Kabul on the way to the airport. They were probably offloaded to get air. Photo: The Daily Mail.

I understand that his flight from Kabul went via Muscat. Initially the reports were that he was going to fly to Uzbekistan first and then on to Heathrow. Mr Farthing said that he has mixed emotions in his tweet which stated:

"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."

Mr Farthing's tweet on landing.

To be clear, he used a privately funded chartered jet for the evacuation operation. He did not commandeer any military plane and therefore we did not take any seats for people. In fact, he offered available seats on his plane but there were no takers. This runs entirely counter to what we read in the news media that a lot of people qualified to evacuate Kabul have been left behind. Why couldn't they have been found and placed on Mr Farthing's flight?

Also, to be clear, Mr Farthing has evacuated 94 dogs and 79 cats as I recall. A large number indeed but some animals have been left behind at Nowzad. The report indicate that Nowzad is currently closed because the staff are at home perhaps for their own safety. The staff could have evacuated because they were issued with visas but because of the chaos and complications of getting to the airport they couldn't make it. I think the Taliban stopped them.

Mr Farthing blames the MoD for being obstructive and an audio recording is on my website of Mr Farthing leaving a voicemail on Peter Quentin's answerphone in which he threatens him. At that time Mr Farthing was obviously very desperate to get his animals out. There is quite a big discussion about Mr Farthing's behaviour but I wholly support him because he was under great stress as were the animals. And it does seem that the MoD was being obstructive. They appear to have decided that the optics, to use a modern term, were not good if animals were seen to be evacuated before people.

Indeed, there are people now, quite senior people, who are continuing to criticise Mr Farthing for evacuating animals over people. But that is entirely incorrect because Mr Farthing was adding to the aircraft inventory at Kabul airport and was not taking away one of the military aircraft. He was adding seats and therefore had the right to evacuated animals. In fact, he offered seats for people on that particular flight but there were no takers. And he says that you can't put people in the hold where there are cats and dogs because it is not allowed.

You have to admire Mr Farthing and his forcefulness for achieving this. And for setting up Nowzad in the first place. It would not have been set up without this kind of forceful personality. The issues now do not go away because the animals concerned will have to leave quarantine, all being well, and be rehomed. And there are issues back in Kabul to do with animal welfare because Nowzad which he founded will now have to be entirely about rescuing animals in the region rather than reuniting support animals with military personnel who have returned home. This will be a repositioning of the operation as I see it. How will they manage to do this and will they be successful?

And the evacuation of Americans and the military is going to weaken animal rescue and animal welfare in Afghanistan. A lot of money was sloshing around which help animal welfare. That's going to go away because the donations were provided to operations like Nowzad on the basis that animals were reunited with military personnel. Will Nowzad be able to raise that kind of money to rescue cats and dogs that were owned by Afghanistan citizens?

One British politician, Tom Tugendhat has criticised a decision to use soldiers to evacuate Mr Farthing's animals while the lives of Afghans who assisted the British were under threat. I think he's wrong and being melodramatic. As mentioned, Mr Farthing added to the aircraft inventory. He added seats and did not take them away. And why shouldn't animals have some rights as well? Even under the most severe circumstances. Why should people be always superior to animals under these circumstances?

The story actually divides people between those who care about animals and those who don't. But for me, it is entirely correct that the animals were evacuated. We're talking about less than 200 animals that have been rescued from Kabul compared to 100,000+ people. Is that not fair, sensible and reasonable?

Taliban presence may close Kabul animal shelter Nowzad. Animals may be euthanised

This is an example of why we must include animals in the conversation about the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan. Pen Farthing is an ex-marine who has had two tours of duty in the Middle East. He is the founder of Nowzad, an animal rescue which reunites military personnel with the animals that they rescued on the frontline. 

Pen Farthing at Nowzad the animal charity and rescue he founded and runs in Kabul. Photo: Nowzad.

As I understand it, Nowzad ships these animals out to the USA normally where they can be reunited with their human companion after their tour of duty. It's a very expensive operation as you can imagine and Mr Farthing had an amazing ability to raise money to rescue cats and dogs and get them out of Afghanistan into nice homes. It's an invaluable service to the animals and indeed to his 24 employees which include women.

Dr Hamida one of 24 personnel at the shelter. Photo: Nowzad.

You can imagine how Nowzad workers are feeling as just this morning the Taliban took control of Kabul and the rest of the country. They've promised that they won't harm people and that girls can go to school et cetera but who believes them? They constantly carry weapons. They have an incredibly poor track record in terms of human rights. They have demonstrated violent misogynistic behaviour. The women of Kabul are terrified and as mentioned there are several employed by Nowzad. And if their human rights record is crap, how do you think they treat animals?

Mr Farthing is terrified for his staff and the animals. I don't think he can function normally under the Taliban. It would seem likely that he has to close his excellent animal rescue organisation but I sincerely hope that he does not feel that he has to put to sleep all 216 animals comprising 140 dogs, 60 cats, 12 donkeys, two horses, one goat and one bull currently in his care.

Mr Farthing said:

"Were desperately worried and concerned and I think probably now a very real sinking realisation that we may well have to just put all our animals to sleep because that'll be the kindest thing to do.”

He also said:

"We know from prior experience the Taliban don't have much thought for human life, let alone animal welfare."

He has also said:

"The Taliban banned dog ownership when in power last time. And it's just too much of a risk. Never, ever did I want to put dogs to sleep."

One of the female employees appears to be a veterinarian as shown in a photograph is on this page with a puppy. Mr Farthing is shocked at the developments. And he said that he feels ashamed at the turn of events following the decision to pull out US troops. A move followed by allies including British troops. The world is shocked at the speed at which the Taliban have taken control of the country.

What has happened leads us to believe that the past 20 years and $1 trillion of investment into the country has been a complete waste of time. The US and allies have poured money and people into the country to try and change it but all they've achieved is to prop up a weak and ineffective government who have run away as soon as the Allies decided to go home. 

They propped up a shell government and they left behind hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of military equipment which I presume has been seized by the Taliban. The highly trained Afghan military dissolved and disappeared in the face of Taliban with Kalashnikov rifles. It's pathetic, sad and embarrassing.

And now, animal advocates are facing the prospect of 216 animals being put down. It's horrible. And depressing. And what about all the other companion animals in Kabul, for instance? Many people are leaving the city. Are they leaving behind the pets? And the stray and feral animals? What about them? We must remember them and their suffering.

Update: there are calls for the staff to be evacuated to the UK. Mr Farthing will not leave his team of 24 Afghan nationals. There is a campaign to get them to the UK and it is backed by comedian Ricky Gervais's and actors Dame Judi Dench and Peter Egan. They are calling for the entire staff at the shelter to be given British visas. In addition, Nowzad is fundraising to hire a cargo plane to fly out as many of the dogs and cats as possible. It is called Operation Ark. 

Update: The flight was initially blocked by the British government as they did not want animals flying out before humans even though the flight is privately funded. Today, 25th Aug, Wallace the Defense Secretary has relented and will allow the flight to take place and the staff and animals to enter the UK (Sky News). The problem now is that the Taliban has refused Afghanis to leave the country.

The shelter has not only saved the lives of many animals but also educated many people on animal welfare. The staff have worked tirelessly to protect and treat animals in their care. They cannot be left to the Taliban and their murderous ways.

Ricky Gervais's is a patron of Nowzad and he has put his weight behind the campaign and said:

"Pen Farthing and his team Nowzad have done amazing work for over a decade in Kabul, they have saved thousands of dogs and provided work for the local community and instigated educational programmes which have benefited their community. Their lives are now in danger. They need our help now."

Update one day later: In a news conference, the Taliban made all the right noises to try and convince the world that they want a peaceful Islamic state. Let's see if they are genuine.

This video is shocking. WARNING. It shows Afghani nationals falling from a plane that they had clung to. Totally impossible and a certain death. CLICK HERE TO SEE IT ON YOUTUBE. I can't show it here as it may upset Google Adsense.

Update: this is October 10, 2021. You may have heard the news that Mr Farthing managed to get back to England with the animals in a specially chartered plane. There was great difficulty and a lot of stress. But he achieved it. The animals were taken to shelters for quarantine in England. He had to leave the staff behind. Today, the news is that his staff went overland to Pakistan and from Islamabad in Pakistan they have now all managed to fly into the UK during September. 

So he has got his animals and his staff out of Afghanistan which is an enormous achievement. His staff are in the UK to stay and they will forge the new careers in this country. I believe that one or two of them are veterinarians and they will be checked and if necessary retrained to make sure that they comply with UK standards. Then they can work in this country as vets because there is a need for more veterinary surgeons in this country.

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