Wild True Story of 171 Cats and Dogs Airlifted From Kabul

LONDON—When the Afghan capital fell in August 2021, former British Royal Marine Pen Farthing raised a million pounds of private funds within days to evacuate 171 cats and dogs and his Afghan staff from the Kabul shelter he ran.

Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing set up the Nowzad charity in Kabul 18 years ago to care for strays, military dogs and the animal victims of war. Over the years, he rescued thousands of cats and dogs and reunited them with soldiers they’d formed bonds with during their deployment in Afghanistan.

As the situation in Kabul descended into a horror show after U.S. and NATO forces abandoned the country and the Taliban seized control, there were traumatic scenes of people stampeding the airport, some even clung onto moving planes and fell to their deaths in their desperation to leave the country. Farthing’s animal-rescue efforts amid the madness caused huge controversy in Britain as he was accused of valuing the lives of ‘pets over people’ and leaving Afghans at the mercy of the Taliban.

Read more at The Daily Beast.