In this emergency episode of the Wunderdog Podcast, I’m speaking to Pen Farthing, the founder of Nowzad, since he is in Eastern Ukraine as Russian forces are advancing.
Pen is a British former Royal Marines commando, although today he is mainly known as a leading dog rescuer. His transformation began around 2007, when he was stationed on a peace-keeping mission in Helmand Province inAfghanistan, where he broke up a street dog fight. One of the dogs adopted him, and eventually he adopted the dog and called him Nowzad, after the town they were stationed in.
That chance meeting turned into a charity: Pen sought to reunite four-legged battle buddies with service personnel who had finished their tour. Often, soldiers returned home wounded or traumatised, and having their Afghan dogs by their side helped their recovery. Over time, Nowzad – the charity – grew into a sizeable operation that included an animal hospital in Kabul.
Then, in the spring of 2021, the US and UK forces suddenly announced they were pulling out of the country. It was clear that neither Pen, as a Westerner, nor the Nowzad staff, as collaborators, would be safe, so Pen arranged to evacuate everyone, including the dogs and cats in their care. He named it Operation Ark, which turned into an almighty political saga.
I met Pen when he had returned to the UK and settled into a home in Devon, for the cover story of issue 5. I still remember the day: the press coverage of the withdrawal from Afghanistan was brutal, yet here he was, sitting in the sunshine, drinking tea and petting his three Afghan dogs. Mission accomplished.
But that calm was never going to last, as Pen contemplated what to do next.
The war in Ukraine would only start five months later, and as Pen said in our podcast, he didn’t have another active war zone on his Bingo card for Nowzad. But the charity has the knowledge to help in these extreme situations, and eventually, Pen headed to Eastern Ukraine to help people with their pets and shelters with the repair works after Russian attacks.
But the situation is getting ever more serious. Yesterday, April 29th, Nowzad announced it was staging a major operation in the town of Kramatorsk, as Russian forces are only 7 kilometres away, and an entire shelter needs to be evacuated.
Please share this podcast episode to help Pen spread the word. And if you can, please donate at nowzad.com.
