Ex-marine says he’s not leaving Kabul without his animal rescue staff

Ex-marine says he's not leaving Kabul without his animal rescue staff

A Royal Marine veteran who created an animal sanctuary in Kabul has made a plea to the British government to assist his staff in leaving Afghanistan.

A Royal Marine veteran who created an animal sanctuary in Kabul has made an emotional plea to the British government to assist his staff in leaving Afghanistan.

Paul Farthing said that he would not leave his staff behind to “suffer a fate” that the West has caused.

Paul’s charity, Nowzad, is asking ministers to “do the right thing” and fly his 71 staff to the UK after the Taliban seized the capital.

His animal clinic and sanctuary trained Afghanistan’s first fully-qualified female vets, now he is fearing for their future. It looks after over 140 dogs and 40 cats and has reunited 1,600 soldiers with the dogs and cats they rescued and bonded with while serving in Afghanistan.

“I don’t think there are words to describe what they are feeling right now,” he told BBC News from Kabul.

“What do you say to someone who is probably going to be told they will have to marry a Taliban fighter and end up living at home, never being allowed to leave and just raising children with someone they absolutely detest?”

Mr Farthing, who served with the Royal Marines as a commando in the Afghan province of Helmand in the mid-2000s, said the West “should hang our heads in shame for what we have just done to this country”.

“We gave people hope, aspirations, dreams for the future. In a matter of weeks, we have just ripped them from them.”

It was while on deployment in Afghanistan in 2006 that Pen Farthing and his troops broke up a fight between two dogs in the town of Nawzad – and one of them followed him back.

A campaign is currently underway on social media but he said he has had no communication from the British government so far.


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Written by

Laura Kemp

Originally from UK, Laura is based in Axarquia and is a writer for the Euro Weekly News covering news and features. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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