Yahoo News Pen Farthing’s animals to be rehomed in ‘next few weeks’
Watch: Pen Farthing’s animals to be rehomed in ‘next few weeks’
Hundreds of dogs and cats flown out of Afghanistan by a former Royal Marine will start to be rehomed in the “next few weeks”, an animal welfare campaigner has said.
Paul “Pen” Farthing arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport in a privately funded charter flight at about 7.30am on Sunday, following his Operation Ark campaign to get workers and animals from the Nowzad shelter in Kabul out of the country.
Dominic Dyer, a supporter of Mr Farthing who assisted with the operation, has said the 100 dogs and 70 cats are in a “very good condition” in quarantine kennels across the UK, with hundreds of people looking to adopt them.
Mr Dyer said: “We had a good plan of action and the animals are doing very well in the kennels – and despite the difficult journey, they’ve been durable and tough.
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“Over the next few weeks the animals will start to be rehomed, we have hundreds of people for each dog or cat- so it’s very likely all of them will be adopted and taken in by different families.
“They are some of the most famous animals in the world right now, so there will be no shortage, but we want to be clear it’s not first come first served.
“Nowzad is only a small charity so the process will be a slow one and there is an awful lot of work to be done.”
He said there will be a “screening process” to pick the most “suitable homes” for the animals.
Mr Farthing is still working to help evacuate 68 Nowzad animal shelter staff and family members, including 25 children and one newborn baby, from Afghanistan.
The Operation Ark campaign has caused controversy, despite receiving a huge amount of public support.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace complained some of Mr Farthing’s more militant supporters had “taken up too much time” of senior commanders.
The ex-Marine also apologised for leaving an expletive-laden message for a Government aide as he was trying to carry out the evacuation.
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First pics of Pen Farthing’s animals after Afghanistan escape
