Sam Ashworth-Hayes Sam Ashworth-Hayes

What the Afghan animal airlift says about Britain

An animal clinic in Kabul. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images.)

The evacuation of Pen Farthing and his pets from Afghanistan this week is not a ‘feel-good’ story. It is not a charmingly eccentric rescue mission. It’s a moral abomination that shames Britain. While American soldiers lifted their dead for their final flight home, British soldiers were carrying dogs onto a plane. When time was running out to get people who served with us out alive, ministers were sponsoring clearance for his charter flight and senior commanders were dealing with his supporters.

Before we go any further, I’d like to be clear about one thing: I don’t particularly blame Pen. I’d probably want to get my pets out of a warzone too. I blame the government for going along with it, and for that I blame the British public too. This one is on us. 

Put yourself, for the briefest moment, in the shoes of one of the Afghans left behind. Jamal Barak worked as an interpreter for British soldiers in Afghanistan. He fled to Britain after being shot twice. His brother has been murdered, his cousin kidnapped, and now his father – who worked as a gardener for those same forces – has been abandoned by them. When he asks why ‘animals are somewhere safe but human beings are being left behind in hell’, how exactly are we meant to answer him? Sorry, we know your family served us loyally at great personal risk, but…

Or listen to Tom Tugendhat describing the situation at Kabul airport. ‘The difficulty is getting people into and out of the airport and we’ve just used a lot of troops to get in 200 dogs, meanwhile my interpreter’s family are likely to be killed… as one interpreter asked me a few days ago, why is my five-year-old worth less than your dog… I didn’t have an answer.

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