#operation ark

Nowzad is an animal rescue charity based in Kabul, Afghanistan, founded in 2007 by former British Royal Marine Sgt. Pen Farthing.

As a British citizen, is valiantly refusing to evacuate Afghanistan and leave behind his Afghan staff, their families and the animals at the rescue centre.

Nowzad are desperately trying to raise the funds to charter a cargo plane to evacuate the animals, staff and their families to the United Kingdom, where the veterinary staff have already been offered jobs.

These brave people, particularly the female veterinary staff, deserve to be helped. Please consider donating anything you can spare via the Nowzad website, https://www.nowzad.com/donate , or at least by sharing the message and spreading awareness of their need for help.

For UK residents, please consider sharing this story with your MPs to try and make this story one of the topic discussed in parliament tomorrow.

Operation Ark has not gone to plan.

On Thursday night the whole of the Nowad team, their families and the animals were inside the airport circle in Kabul, but were refused entry due to a change in America's rules (two hours previously!) as to which Afghans were allowed to travel.

Despite having all the required paperwork to travel to the UK, the Nowzad team and their families have been left behind in Afghanistan because they do not have visa-stamped passports - an American requirement.

They were forced to head back to the rescue centre, narrowly avoiding getting caught up in the terror attacks that evening. Only then did the Ministry of Defence offer to help ensure their safe passage, by which point it was too late to secure the passage for the Afghans. Too little too late. And still patronising referring to the charity's animals as "Pen's pets", when they know full well that this has been a humanitarian mission from day 1.

Pen and the charity's dogs and cats are on their way to the UK. That is brilliant news. But I'm devastated for those left behind. Veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses and animal care staff who had job offers waiting for them in the UK have all lost out on a chance at a better life in safety. Brave, selfless people who told Pen to go without them and take as many dogs and cats as he could. They deserved better.