Paul "Pen" Farthing (born May 1969[citation needed]) is a British former Royal Marines commando and founder of the Nowzad Dogs charity.
[6][7] During the Fall of Kabul, Farthing accused the British Ministry of Defence of blocking the evacuation flight from landing at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
The Defence Secretary Ben Wallace rejected these claims, stating his department could not get his staff as well as pets through the Taliban checkpoints and the crowd around the airport, and the plane would have had to wait for hours.
[17] In December 2021, a Foreign Office whistleblower alleged that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had authorised the evacuation of the animals and Nowzad staff.
[19] Farthing was evacuated again from Kabul on 6 January 2023 after Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, claimed in his memoir Spare that he had killed 25 members of Taliban while serving in Afghanistan.