Aimee Walker
Pen Farthing has reportedly been left with no choice but to leave Afghanistan without the animals and 25 staff members from his rescue centre.
In an interview with the BBC, the ex Commando explained that President Joe Biden’s new policy means there are changes on who can access flights out of Kabul.
He said: “There’s nothing I can do. The staff are telling me it’s time for me to go. They don’t think a foreigner will be welcome here.
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“Staff have asked me to take as many dogs and cats as I can. But now I can’t get them past the Taliban checkpoints.
“My mission to get them out of Afghanistan has just ended because Joe Biden stopped it.”
Farthing and his team were reportedly at the airport when Operation Ark came to an end.
He recalled: “We were 300m inside. It had taken 36 hours to achieve that.
“I had all my staff, all dogs and cats 300m inside the perimeter.
“We had gone through hell to get there.”
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According to Farthing, when they reached the airfield the Taliban refused to accept his staff’s paperwork to let them out of the country.
He claimed: “We were forced to leave the airfield, and just as we did, that’s when those attacks happened and then all hell broke loose.”
The animal lover said it was the most ‘horrific thing’ trying to find safety.
“As we were trying to flee from the airport, we were getting tear-gassed, so we were obviously trying to drive the vehicle when we can’t see anything,” he explained.
Reportedly, 103 people – including 72 Afghan citizens – were killed in the explosions.
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