What a story to tell the world: Britain values dogs more than Afghan people

The rescue mission may become a useful distraction for the UK government who are rightly on the rack over this fumbled, catastrophic evacuation from Afghanistan, but military circles are angry and frustrated at having to help a planeload of cats and dogs leave the country. 

Pen Farthing, founder of animal rescue charity Nowzad. The former Royal Marine has succeeded in evacuating to the UK around 170 dogs and cats from an animal shelter in Afghanistan, a friend has said. 

As the gates of hell closed on Kabul, they were among the last to make it out. They landed in the early hours of Sunday morning, to a hero’s welcome from some, and shamed silence from others. 

For this was a planeload not of human souls – those desperate Afghans who had huddled knee-deep in sewage for days outside the airport in hopes of being saved – but of cats and dogs.