Pen Farthing passed through Taliban-controlled barbed wire into Kabul airport...

When former British marine Pen Farthing finally passed through the Taliban-controlled barbed wire gateway into Kabul airport with his 150 dogs and cats from his animal rescue charity four days ago, he received a sobering text. ’It was from my mate Dave who ran a security company in Kabul. He got out literally two hours before me, but kept his compound and left his two pet dogs with the staff. ’He texted, ’The bastards just shot Brutus. They went round the compound, saw the dogs, dragged them into the open and shot them’.’ Pen, 52, said he sat for more than 24 hours in a hangar at Kabul airport waiting for the plane which would take him on the first leg of his journey to the UK with the terrible image of the dogs being slaughtered ’playing on a loop all the time in my head’. He recalls the anguish and uncertainty of leaving Kabul and is visibly pained when he talks about the fate of so many Afghans left behind. Donate, help us continue saving lives