Pen Farthing: Watchdog has no concerns over Afghan animal rescue

The UK animal charitable organization has been cleared of wrongdoing by a watchdog over its fundraising effort to evacuate animals from Afghanistan.

The particular Charity Commission found no regulatory concerns more than Nowzad’s campaign, referred to as Operation Ark.

Led by founder Pencil Farthing, the campaign raised more than £200, 000 in days as the Taliban grabbed power.

The watchdog said the operation’s objectives had been made clear to contributor and trustees actions were reasonable.

The Charity Commission opened up a regulatory compliance case into the Essex-based charity in August 2021 after media reports about its initiatives to evacuate individuals and animals through Afghanistan.

Former Royal Marine Mr Farthing and his supporters brought a vociferous evacuation strategy which garnered lots of public attention .

In a twitter update about the conclusion from the Charity Commission’s case, Mr Farthing mentioned it had been “11 weeks of stress” plus there was “obviously no wrongdoing to be found”.

The watchdog mentioned it did not recognize “any regulatory worries about Operation Ark, concluding that it do fall within the charity’s purposes”.

In a declaration it said: “The commission concluded that the objectives of the operation were made clear in order to donors during fundraising, that trustees’ decision-making and actions in that time were affordable, and that consequently it had been valid to spend funds raised for Procedure Ark on the expulsion of animals plus staff from Afghanistan. ”

Tracy Howarth, assistant director associated with casework and positive regulation at the Charitable organisation Commission, said: “In this case, we all did not find evidence of wrongdoing and recognized the trustees’ ongoing efforts to manage the particular charity under hard circumstances. ”

However the commission said it had been not within its remit to consider the particular role the government “may or may not possess had” in the expulsion.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has earlier refused that he personally sanctioned the evacuation after email messages published by the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee suggested he had intervened.

Nowzad has said its campaign saw most its staff and their families, as well as 162 dogs and cats, delivered to security.