So he got the dogs out and left the people behind?!

[Sillysuzie]

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/30/britain-dogs-afghan-people-pen-farthing

He's living proof that bullies win if they shout and threaten to destroy people.

I cannot imagine how it must have been to sit in the sewage channel watching cat and dogs drive past to the front of the queue.

Odious man. I hope he's prosecuted for his threats and disappears up his own arse where he so often is.

He sounds like an absolute prick.

He HOGGED army time for his animals - he hogged personnel time getting his papers in order. This is a humanitarian disaster and he’s putting in phone calls about dogs???

How anyone can say what he did was ok is beyond me

Lesson to learn from this is that those who are able to use social media to promote their cause do better than those who are not - irrespective of the relative merits of their causes.

1) the man hours used to process the animals at the airport when those man hours could have been used to process refugees.

2) the fact that his plane took up one a of a limited number of remaining landing slots. His plane held 300 (although we are not told if it did). A military plane would have held 600.

This is the issue. And the huge social media campaign which was in no way comparable to the efforts made on behalf of actual human beings. I care about animals but the whole thing is mawkish and reflects incredibly badly on us as a nation. It's an insult to the people left behind. That said, the government are ultimately responsible for the whole situation.

Just on this thread alone I've been informed that this is the fault of

Pen Farthing
The Taliban
The UK government
The UK military
The MoD

Any takers for Joe Biden?

From what I understand. He tried to get staff and animals out. The animals got clearance but the staff were blocked as they had the wrong paperwork. The Americans changed criteria two hours before they got to the airport. The chartered aircraft had people space, but the charity was told there was no-one for the seats.
The whole thing is a bloody upsetting tragedy for staff and animals. Look what happened to Kabul Small Animal Rescue.

Ben, seriously, get back to work.

There were tweets days before he left saying he & the staff could get on a military plane but not the animals - he decided to dig his heels in & say all or nothing, which ended up with the people being left behind.
Now we’ve seen him & the animals back home the hugely vocal fan club in Twitter have stopped being bothered - so much for caring about the staff too.
In fact rather than carrying on with the campaign to get the staff out the supporters then moved their attention to a US animal rescue also trying to evacuate dogs & cats.

@Sillysuzie

I'm fully aware the animals don't take seats. I'm not an idiot. But they don't just trot on into the hold themselves. Someone has to put them there. And that someone was the military, who could have been loading refugees on to planes instead

Its reported in the daily mail that it was not british troops that loaded the animals onto the plane. Brit troops had all but left by then. So it was most likely US military.

@nancy75

There were tweets days before he left saying he & the staff could get on a military plane but not the animals - he decided to dig his heels in & say all or nothing, which ended up with the people being left behind. Now we’ve seen him & the animals back home the hugely vocal fan club in Twitter have stopped being bothered - so much for caring about the staff too. In fact rather than carrying on with the campaign to get the staff out the supporters then moved their attention to a US animal rescue also trying to evacuate dogs & cats.

All those poor people. What must they think? Their lives are less valuable than an animals? Makes me sick.

This whole thing is an incompetent farce created by shorted sighted idiots with truely awful consequences. It makes me so angry and upset, that so much hurt, damage and harm has happened.

The man shouldn’t have been put in the position he found himself in in the first place.

There was no need for the evacuation to be the shambles that it has been, that is entirely the fault of western governments. Whether you think the man handled the situation well or not, he was in a situation that the vast majority of us will be lucky enough never to find ourselves in, so it might be worth holding back on the judgement. I’m sure not everyone on here will be able to handle every difficult situation they face in life perfectly, and to the satisfaction of everyone who wants to shout an opinion.

If he’d abandoned the animals he would still have received criticism, especially considering how many people donated money in good faith to help the animals as well as the people.

So what if he took up a landing space? He had a right to get out of there the same as everyone else and it wasn’t his fault that our government hasn’t made proper arrangements to ensure that everyone is out.

The whole thing is absolutely disgusting, the idea of a plane full of animals being flown out - with all the effort that would take - with all those desperate people at the gates. It genuinely is awful.

Ah and another thing to note is that clearly, a big part of uk public cares more about the dogs and the donkeys (were there donkeys on the plane as well?) led by their British countryman than about some anonymous foreign humans from a third world country.

This is not surprising and I am not even judging - much easier to like a dog than a human who will then require accommodation, might turn out to be unpleasant, violent etc. Just stating this as a fact.

But it’s not as simple as dogs and cats taking up places that people could have occupied.

But it is as simple as dogs and cats taking up the valuable resources, time, focus of the people who were trying to get people out. Several of those who were caught up dealing with him have complained publicly about that, as has the government aide who he threatened. “You either get me that fucking Isaf number and you get me permission to get on to that fucking airfield, or tomorrow morning I’m going to turn on you and the whole fucking country, and everybody else who’s invested in this rescue, is going to know it’s you, you..”

What a lovely guy, eh?

I heard one of the lead organisers on the radio this morning talking about this.

It wasn't the UK forces helping at all, they'd all already left the area, it was the American forces.
They couldn't load people on the flight because there were no people in the area that could be loaded - their choice was to fly the flight with only the animals or just not fly it at all. The flight was privately funded by an American donor as well, so it wasn't taking any existing resources away and used zero UK tax money.

I thought he was going to stay and "not leave anyone behind" if all his wishes weren't met. But alas.

much easier to like a dog than a human who will then require accommodation, might turn out to be unpleasant, violent etc. Just stating this as a fact.*

How is that fact? The dog can just as easily turn out to be unpleasant and violent. I’d say that was far more likely. And in fact, these particular dogs may well have to be destroyed if they turn out to be carrying diseases.

Also the excuse that the people did t have the right paperwork. I’m guessing the animals needed paperwork, we don’t usually allow a plane load of strays to fly in with no paperwork.
Maybe if Pen & co had spent more time sorting out paperwork for the staff & less time on the animals they would be here now.
I’m no fan of this govt, the evac process was clearly too little too late & a shambles BUT even a well planned & organised evacuation would not have planned for a plane load of dogs & cats. They were supposed to be getting people out.

Read the Spectator article about him and the political and other consequences of saving animals as he’s done. I just can’t understand how it could be considered worth anyone giving any thought and energy at all to animal rescue in the midst of such human catastrophe.

*if I hear “the animals were in the hold…” one more time I’m going to combust. Who put them there? Not Pen Farthing by himself, it would have been the British Military. There was no baggage handlers or any other staff at Kabul airport, it wasn’t bloody Gatwick.

I think he and a lot of his supporters have behaved terribly. At a time when the MOD needed to be completely focussed on the job in hand they had people phoning leaving abusive messages and death threats*

This. The effort to get the animals out was effort that could have been spent getting people out.

It wasn't the UK forces helping at all, they'd all already left the area

Of course they will spin it that way.

MOD press office tweeted they were assisted by U.K. armed forces. U.K. gov sponsored the clearance of the flight and gave visas to the staff. Support him if you must, but don’t pretend it didn’t cost us.

Or that it didn’t cost his staff. They were all ready to leave on a military flight. He refused to go without the animals and in the end the people were left behind.

@SpindleWhorl I'm apportioning a share of the blame to Carrie for bending BJ's ear about animal rescue at a time of international crisis, you can add her to the list.

Article is by James Kirkup, don’t know how to link.

They were all ready to leave on a military flight. He refused to go without the animals and in the end the people were left behind

Just this. His call, his fault.