What Did Operation Ark Tell Us About Our Attitude to Animals?

Katie Webb, Year 2

On the 15^th August 2021, Kabul fell to the Taliban (Brader 2021). The speed of their takeover shocked most western governments and left them scrambling to evacuate thousands of citizens, diplomatic staff and Afghans. (Faulkner 2021) Amidst the chaos, the news story of ex-marine and animal sanctuary owner Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing’s mission to evacuate his staff and animals out of Kabul, dubbed “Operation Ark,” cut through with the British public and fiercely divided opinion. Farthing successfully crowd-funded for a chartered plane but needed authorisation from the British government to be given a landing slot in Kabul. Eventually it was granted and Farthing and his 94 dogs and 68 cats were evacuated (Jackson 2021) but not before his mission had become a fiercely partisan topic and raised questions over our love of animals.

Farthing’s supporters claimed he was a “hero” for trying to save his animals and argued that the spare seats on plane could be used to evacuate more Afghans at risk of Taliban reprisals (Adams, 2021). Critics claimed his mission would prioritise pets at the expense of people, encapsulated in an Afghan interpreter’s question to MP Tom Tugendhat asking “why is my five year old worth less than your dog?” (Peat, 2021).

Personally, I felt the arguments supporting Farthing’s mission failed to appreciate the context of the situation. Capacity in physical aircrafts was not the limiting factor in the evacuation. Civil servants battling against the clock to make life and death decisions, as they hurriedly tried to sort through the vast volume of assistance pleas, and the far from unlimited resources of the dedicated armed forces to process people at Kabul airport were (NATO, 2021). Farthing’s continued requests to the Ministry of Defence and his angry and demanding supporters wasted valuable time and resources. This time and resources could almost certainly have been better spent. A whistle-blower reported that at any given time approximately 5000 emails of people asking to be evacuated were left unread and only 5% of the 75,000-150,000 people asking for assistance were given any help (Land and Lee, 2021). The idea of diverting time and resources away from people in grave risk of death or torture at the hands of the Taliban, and towards evacuating dogs and cats instead, was truly sickening to me.

However, what was striking was that much of the population fiercely disagreed with me. Accepting the premise that Operation Ark took time and resources away from people, it would be logical to assume those that supported it did so due to their belief in the sanctity of life of animals. In short, they believed that these animal’s lives were worth just as much as people’s. In fact, a YouGov poll seemingly confirmed much of this, with less than half the people polled believing that human lives were worth more than animals (YouGov, 2021). However, current levels of vegetarianism and veganism in the U.K. (Wunsch, 2022), not to mention the levels of pharmaceutical and cosmetic animal testing, suggest that a large proportion of the population does not believe strongly enough in these principles to act upon them (or is completely fine with cannibalism and human-testing which seems the least likely of the two!) 

It is sadly very possible that racism played a role here, with people more inclined to abandon predominantly brown Afghans, in order to save animals, than they would have been had white Europeans been involved. Yet it is unlikely that this provides a full explanation, as this story of people prioritising animals is not a new one, nor is it an isolated event.

In 1824, in a coffee shop in London, the RSPCA was founded as what is thought to be the world’s first animal welfare charity (RSPCA, no date). Yet it took 60 years later for a similar charity aimed at protecting children – the NSPCC – to form (Dibb, 2010). It would be misleading to suggest that there weren’t other charities looking out for children at the turn of the 19^th century but it is still somewhat surprising that there was the appetite to protect animals when children faced treacherous conditions in factories, extreme poverty and corporal punishment (Platt, 2003).

Just last year a donkey sanctuary in Devon’s income amounted to £37 million (Charity Commission for England and Wales, no date) and Battersea Dogs’ and Cats’ home took in £53 million (Charity Commission for England and Wales, no date). Both had higher incomes than Refuge, the largest women’s domestic violence charity, which received £34 million (Refuge, 2021). While all three are worthy charities, it highlights how people dig deeply into their wallets when animals are involved.

It would be an oversimplification not to mention the benefits that animals provide people with. The mental health benefit of having a four legged friend love you unconditionally is easy to grasp. It would also be erroneous to suggest that wanting to support both animals and people are two mutually exclusive concepts – they most certainly are not. The range and scope of human generosity is absolutely something that should be celebrated, as is the mutual benefit that animals and people can bring to each other. 

However, it’s also worth acknowledging that there will be certain times – which the evacuation of Kabul demonstrated – when it is not possible to help both people and animals; there will be times when we have to choose. So it’s worth becoming comfortable with whatever that decision may be before we’re faced with a similar situation.

References

Adams, T., (2021) ‘Interview, Pen Farthing: “Animals in a cargo hold never got in the way of people getting on a flight”’ The Guardian, 06/12/21. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/06/pen-farthing-animals-afghanistan-evacuation-nowzad-faces-of-year (Accessed: 20/04/22).

Brader, C., (2021). ‘Timeline of Taliban offensive in Afghanistan,’ House of Lords Library. Available at https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/timeline-of-taliban-offensive-in-afghanistan/ (Accessed: 27/04/2022).

Charity Commission for England and Wales, (no date.) ‘Battersea Dogs’ and Cats’ Home, charity number 206394’. Available at: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/206394/charity-overview (Accessed: 28/04/22). 

Charity Commission for England and Wales, (no date.) ‘The Donkey Sactuary, charity number: 264818’. Available at: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?subid=0&regid=264818 (Accessed 28/04/22). 

Dibb, R., (2010.) ‘National Society for the Prevention of cRuelty to Children (NSPCC).’ Available at: https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-0-387-93996-4_851 (Accessed: 28/04/22). 

Faulkner, D., (2021). ‘Afghanistan: UK troops sent to get Britons out as Taliban advances,’ BBC News, 13/08/21. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58195286 (Accessed: 20/04/22).

Jackson, S., (2021). ‘Afganistan: Pen Farthing “on his way home with his dogs and cats” after charter plane picks them up from Kabul,’ Sky News 29/08/21. Available at https://news.sky.com/story/afghanistan-charter-plane-arrives-in-kabul-to-collect-pen-farthing-and-his-animals-12393262 (Accessed: 20/04/22).

Land, J., Lee, J., (2021) ‘Afghanistan: Foreign Office chaotic during Kabul evacuation – whistleblower.’ BBC News 07/12/21. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59549868 (Accessed: 22/04/22)

NATO (2021) ‘Press conference by NATO secretary General Jens Stoltenberg following the extraordinary meeting on NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs.’ [Press conference} Available at: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_186088.htm (Accessed: 22/04/22).

Peat, J., (2021) ‘Watch: Tom Tugendhat reacts to news of animal rescue from Afghanistan.’ The London Economic, 28/08/21. Available at: https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/watch-tom-tugendhat-reacts-to-news-of-animal-rescue-from-afghanistan-287948/ (Accessed: 21/04/22)

Platt, L., (2003). ‘Putting childhood poverty on the agenda: the relationship between research and policy in Britain 1800-1950’. Available at: https://www.younglives.org.uk/publications/putting-childhood-poverty-agenda-relationship-between-research-and-policy-britain-1800 (Accessed 28/04/22).

Refuge, (2021). ‘Annual report and financial statements’. Available at: https://www.refuge.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Annual-Report-nosig-Refuge.pdf (Accessed: 29/04/22).

RSPCA, (no date.) ‘Our history.’ Available at: https://www.rspca.org.uk/whatwedo/whoweare/history (Accessed: 28/04/22.) 

Wunsch, NG., (2022) ‘Veganism and vegetarianism in the United Kingdom – statistics & facts’. Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/7297/veganism-in-the-united-kingdom/ (Accessed: 29/04/22).
YouGov, (2021.) ‘Do you think human lives are worth more, less, or the same as animal lives?’ Available at https://yougov.co.uk/topics/philosophy/survey-results/daily/2021/08/27/efc5e/1?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=website_article&utm_campaign=daily_agenda_27_Aug_2021_animal_lives (Accessed: 27/04/22.)