Evacuation of Farthing in the Naval Pen and Pets for the Evacuation of Afghanistan | Afghanistan

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The Defense Department said Paul “Ben” Farthing, who founded an animal shelter in Kabul, has passed airport security and is waiting for a flight from Afghanistan.

The former Royal Marine and his supporters were campaigning to bring his staff from the Nawzad Charitable Asylum as well as their families and the 140 dogs and 60 cats evacuated from the country in a scheme he called Operation Astronomy.

In a tweet posted on Friday evening, the MoD said: “Pen Farthing and his pets are being assisted through the system at Kabul Airport by the UK Armed Forces. They are currently being supported while awaiting transfer.”

She added: “At the direction of the Secretary of Defense, the charter flight permit has been sponsored by the UK government.”

The Department of Defense did not mention the situation regarding the NAWZAD employees and their families.

Farthing’s campaign, which had significant public support, was criticized. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace complained that it distracts from those focused on evacuating the most vulnerable.

Speaking to LBC on Friday, Wallace said, “I think it has taken a long time for my senior leaders to deal with this issue when they should focus on dealing with the humanitarian crisis.”

Wallace also used a series of tweets to criticize Farthing’s supporters and condemn “bullying, lies, and threatening behavior” toward Department of Defense employees.

When asked about the tweets, he told LBC: “I’ve had to sometimes listen to the pleas of abuse to my advisers, to my officials, based primarily on lies, that someone, somewhere, had blocked a flight. No one blocked the flight.”

“Essentially, as we’ve seen in the media, there are desperate and desperate people out there, and I wasn’t willing to push these people out of the way for it.

“When people’s time comes, they get called up, and that’s the right thing to do. But I hope he’ll come back. Advise him to come back. His wife came back last Friday, so I hope he does too.”

Farthing, originally from Dovercourt in Essex, set up the Nowzad Animal Shelter in Kabul, where he rescued dogs, cats, and donkeys, after serving in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s.

He said his team was 300 meters inside the perimeter of Kabul airport on Thursday but was turned away and as a result got caught in the terrorist attack that killed Afghan civilians who were queuing to escape from the Taliban. The bombing also resulted in the killing of 13 American soldiers.

In a tweet, Farthing wrote: “We went through hell to get there and banished to the chaos of those devastating explosions.”

Evacuations of civilians from Afghanistan ended on Saturday.

General Sir Nick Carter, the commander of Britain’s armed forces, said troops were preparing to return home after a “heartbreaking” effort.

He added that the pitting – trying to evacuate eligible UK nationals and Afghans from Kabul airport – “goed as best it could in the circumstances”.

The Defense Department said Farthing does not use military flights, so it could not comment further, adding that it was a matter for the State Department.

The Guardian has contacted the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Department.

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