As George Eustice struggles to kill Geronimo the alpaca, his Cabinet colleague Ben Wallace is facing a different fight with the animal rights lobby. Faced with the calamity of Kabul, the end of Afghanistan and the potential disintegration of the Western alliance, you might have thought the Defence Secretary already has enough on his plate.
But now the former Scots Guard officer has incurred the wrath of over-zealous zoophilists over the Ministry of Defence’s refusal to allow a charted plane to evacuate animals out of the country. The animal lovers in question belong to the Nowzad sanctuary, which rescues donkeys, cats and dogs in Afghanistan. Run by former Royal Marine Paul Farthing – known as ‘Pen’ – the charity has some 69 staff and is trying to organise a rescue mission dubbed ‘Operation Ark’ to evacuate the employees and as many animals as possible.
A fundraising appeal has raised £145,000 to charter a private plane which can take up to 250 passengers and a cargo hold which Farthing hopes will be filled with animals. But the veteran believes that the government has reneged on its promises to Nowzad, claiming he had not received documents from the Home Office that would allow his staff to get past Taliban checkpoints and leave the country. This is despite Farthing’s assertion that the Prime Minister backed Operation Ark.
Today Wallace angrily hit back on the morning media round, dismissing claims on LBC that Farthing has been ‘cut off’ by the MoD and ‘let to fend for myself’ as ‘bollocks.’ He told listeners:
I have some really desperate people in that queue who are really under threat of life and death, and if we don’t get them out their future is very, very bleak. I simply have to prioritise those people over pets, very important. It doesn’t mean we don’t care about animals, we’re all an animal loving nation.
Wallace added on Sky News that Farthing could get through the gates as a British passport holder and that he was in fact called forward on Friday. The Defence Secretary said: ‘His workforce have been offered, as entitled personnel, places and they will be able to be called forward, but I can’t guarantee in this window they will be processed onto aircraft, all I can say is they qualify.’
Steerpike understands that the issue has set Westminster ablaze, with Tory MPs receiving a deluge of emails about the charity in question. Some have taken to bringing up the plight of these animals in Zoom calls with ministers; presumably the ones who aren’t still on holiday. Unfortunately for Farthing’s animals though it seems exasperated MoD top brass will not be changing their minds any time soon.
Still, after all the claims that the government was listening too much to animal rights activists, what a way to counter the critics.
Comments