Pen Farthing

Despite popular support from many quarters, the events surrounding the evacuation from Kabul were not without criticism. Criticisms included:

• Farthing's personal behaviour and that of his supporters[13]
• whether Farthing and his supporters used their connections to influence the UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson to personally intervene[14]
• whether UK troops were put in danger to facilitate the removal of animals
• the morality of prioritising the removal of animals over the removal of human beings when the animals were in no immediate danger[15]
• the cost of the removal and subsequent rehoming of the animals. The Charity Commission launched an investigation into whether the cost was in line with Nowzad's purpose[16]
• the welfare of the animals and whether they suffered as a result of the journey.[17]

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace accused Farthing of interfering with efforts to evacuate British nationals and Afghan allies from Kabul, and said he and his supporters were using intimidation tactics and misrepresenting events. The Sunday Times obtained a recording of a threatening voicemail Farthing sent to Peter Quentin, a special adviser to Ben Wallace, accusing him of blocking his flight, while also warning he would "destroy" Quentin if he did not approve the flight and immediately grant travel documents to Farthing's staff and their family members.

Farthing's supporters accused the defence ministry of deliberately leaking the audio as part of a smear campaign.[18][19] Farthing later apologised for the voicemail, stating that he made it out of frustration.[20]

The Tonbridge and Malling MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, who had served as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan, questioned whether evacuating animals from Afghanistan was the best use of resources. "The difficulty is getting people into and out of the airport and we’ve just used a lot of troops to bring 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?'"[21]

Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff likewise questioned whether animals should be prioritised over human lives: "What a story to tell the world about ourselves, amid the chaos of our leaving. What a gift to extremist movements across the Middle East and beyond, who draw their power from the idea that the west holds foreign lives contemptuously cheap; that cats of no conceivable interest to the Taliban can be airlifted out but not human beings at risk of being hunted down and executed."[22]

Controversy surrounded whether Farthing and his supporters indirectly lobbied the UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson to intervene - something Johnson denied.

Nowzad campaign coordinator[23] and chief executive of the Badger Trust Dominic Dyer stated that he had lobbied the Prime Minister's wife Carrie Johnson and he was in "no doubt" that she had persuaded her husband to intervene.[24][25][26] When asked by reporters if either himself or his wife had intervened in the Pen Farthing case, the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied any personal intervention: “I’ve had absolutely no influence on any particular case, nor would that be right.”[27][28]

Raphael Marshall, a former employee of the UK Foreign Office, stated in written evidence to the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee that the Foreign Office had “received an instruction” from Prime Minister Boris Johnson to use “considerable capacity” to help evacuate animals from charity Nowzad, run by former British Royal Marine Paul “Pen” Farthing.[29] He also alleged that British soldiers were put at risk to help the charity. In January 2022, an email to a Foreign Office team managing part of the evacuation was revealed. In it an official (name redacted) said that the animal charity Nowzad had "received a lot of publicity" and that “the PM has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated”. This contradicted Johnson's statement of 7 December 2021 when he said it was “complete nonsense” that he had intervened. Zac Goldsmith had also told the House of Lords at that time that the prime minister’s claims were “entirely accurate”. In light of the email evidence of January 2022, shadow defence secretary John Healey stated that the prime minister had “once again” been “caught out lying about what he has been doing and deciding” and that he should "never have given priority to flying animals out of Afghanistan while Afghans who worked for our armed forces were left behind.”[30][31] On 27 January 2022, Johnson denied intervening, and said that claims that animals had been prioritised over people was "total rhubarb".[32]