No photographs of cats from Mr Farthing’s 173 animals evacuated from Kabul

We have been repeatedly told that Mr Farthing, the founder and director of Nowzad, successfully evacuated 173 animals from Kabul yesterday. Some news website report 200 animals were evacuated.

It is reported that they landed at Heathrow on Sunday. It is also reported in all news media outlets that the 173 companion animals are more or less an even mix of cats and dogs, with slightly more dogs than cats. The numbers vary across the news media. There were meant to be around 70 cats in this group of rescue animals. But where are they? Farthing has recently said that five of his cats died of shock on their way to Hamid Karzai airport. I’d like to see some please.

: Dog from Kabul imported by Mr Farthing with many other cats and dogs. This dog is at the Wales Ape & Monkey Sanctuary. Photo: by the sanctuary.

: Dog rescued from Kabul by Nowzad and evacuated to the UK. Photo taken at and by the Wales Ape & Monkey Sanctuary.

I’ve seen pretty well all the photos of Nowzad animals. There are some cats ready for adoption on the Nowzad website. These are at the Nowzad shelter in Kabul but no pictures of evacuated cats in carriers.

The first pictures of the evacuated animals in the UK are now online via Twitter. They come from the Wales Ape & Monkey Sanctuary. Because of the large number of animals, they’ve been distributed around the country in various shelters and sanctuaries for their quarantine period before they are rehomed.

But I have not seen any pictures of cats. It is always dogs. Can someone find me a Nowzad evacuated cat, please!? I almost beginning to believe that there are no cats in this group. I’d have thought some would have been photographed by now.

There is another side issue. Nowzad reunited dogs and cats with military personnel who adopted the animal while on a tour of duty in Afghanistan and then went home to the US. Nowzad organised and paid for the trip from Kabul to the US. Are the dogs in these photos support dogs adopted by military personnel or not? It seems not but that point needs clarification. It seems that the dogs in this cohort are those that have been rescued from non-military situations.

Update: please see the comments. There is a photo of 2 cats on one carrier presumed to have been taken when they were being transported to the airport. See below:

Two cats in one carrier from Nowzad on the way to the airport – presumed. Photo: JEROME STARKEY.

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Nowzad staff made it out of Kabul to Pakistan and then to the UK where some will train to be vets

Comments

No photographs of cats from Mr Farthing’s 173 animals evacuated from Kabul — 6 Comments

tamara beinlich on August 30, 2021 at 6:15 pm said:
Here’s 2 of Pens cats before their plane ride, it’s the only pic of Pen’s cats I found. Scroll down https://www.the-sun.com/news/us-news/3542477/pen-farthing-dogs-taliban-kabul-airport-die/
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- Michael Broad on August 31, 2021 at 5:16 pm said:
  Thank you.
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tamara beinlich on August 30, 2021 at 6:10 pm said:
Here’s the link. https://www.the-sun.com/news/3566463/pen-farthing-news-latest-voicemail-afghanistan/
Pen said five cats died on the first leg of the journey as a result of the trauma caused by Isis-K’s airport bombing and subsequent tear gas.
The rest were met by a team of vets at Heathrow and it’s understood they will now quarantine for two weeks under UK law.
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tamara beinlich on August 30, 2021 at 6:07 pm said:
Just read article Pen lost 5 kitties on the first leg of the journey 🙁 He got a vet to come to airport but was unable to save them. He blames the bombing and shock. Read it at The Sun.
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- Michael Broad on August 31, 2021 at 5:21 pm said:
  Thanks Tamara. I read about that too. Tragic and it tells us how traumatic the journey was.
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  - tamara beinlich on September 1, 2021 at 6:37 pm said:
    Also read Pen said they lost a dog that had been stabbed by a Taliban after they got stuck outside the airport gate. Dogs have no chance in Afghanistan but they like cats. Said he would report what happened later. https://petrescuereport.com/home/ has another rescue that didn’t get out. It’s their dogs people are yelling that they’re military dogs left behind. They made them turn the dogs loose at the airport and they’re trying to go back and get them.
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