Book Review: Filling the Ark: Animal Welfare in Disasters

Abstract

When the Afghan government collapsed in the wake of the Taliban takeover in August 2021, a huge humanitarian evacuation got underway (Wadhera 2021; Zalan 2021; Sabbagh et al. 2021). During this evacuation, UK and international news media reported widely on the actions of former Royal Marine Pen Farthing who, along with his animal rescue charity Nowzad, was engaged in an attempt to get around one hundred and forty dogs and sixty cats out of Kabul to the UK on a privately chartered plane (see for more information Kim 2021; Jackson 2021; Tanner 2021). Farthing complained that the UK Ministry of Defence had obstructed this rescue on the ground, despite the fact that Nowzad had arranged a flight paid for by donations and so did not represent either a financial cost to the Ministry and, as the animals would travel in the hold, didn’t represent a ‘waste’ of space on evacuating flights either. There ensued something of a war of words between Farthing and the Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace MP, with Wallace eventually declaring ‘I’m not prepared to prioritise pets over people’ (BBC News 2021a). Several media commentators expressed disgust that Farthing seemed to be doing precisely that (see for example Downham 2021; Kirkup 2021; Hinsliff 2021). The (frequently vitriolic) debate went viral on social media, with opinion divided as to whether Farthing was a hero or a nuisance whose priorities were offensively misplaced. The foregrounding of this sensationalised, momentarily viral debate, this perceived direct competition of interests, in media of all types served to distract from other discussions about the situation in Afghanistan at the time, including whether or not the UK Government was really being honest with the public, and doing all it could to facilitate the evacuation in general. Farthing had dubbed his rescue attempt ‘Operation Ark’.