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What is puzzling is why it costs so much - £4,000 - to transport each dog abroad. Other charities doing similar pet rescues from war zones quote similar high costs for transport. There has to be another way. Perhaps persuading airlines or military planes to charge a lower fee in exchange for a little PR.
Nowzad was founded by former British Royal Marine Pen Farthing
It currently houses 50 cats, 30 dogs and even an injured donkey
It costs over £10,000 a month to run the clinic and they accept all animals
Once nursed back to health, the animals are sent to new homes around the world, costing the charity £4,000 in transport costs per animal
Muslims consider dogs unclean, so they are routinely neglected and mistreated.
Afghans use dogs for their sport of dog fighting
Dog Atish arrived at the shelter with wounds from battery acid that had been poured on his back
The authorities in Kabul have undertaken a brutal operation of poisoning with 8,000 stray dogs on the streets
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Hidden behind an eight foot concrete blast wall and approached through a maze of heavily armed checkpoints, it has to be one of the most extraordinary animal clinics anywhere in the world.
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| Louise Hastie with a friend |
But then as Louise Hastie, the former British soldier running the UK-registered Nowzad charity’s remarkable operations in the Afghan capital Kabul admits :
‘The security situation is deteriorating and it is the minimum necessary if we are going to continue to help the country’s dogs and cats both in their care and in finding new homes, often thousands of miles away in Britain, the United States and elsewhere around the world.’
So many have been helped already - In the seven years it has been operating since being founded by ex-Royal Marine Commando Pen Farthing, Nowzad has helped send more than a 1,000 dogs – the majority to UK and the US – to live with service men and women who befriended them on remote bases, towns and cities across Afghanistan while fighting the Taliban.
A further 1,000 have been transported across the world as far away as Australia, South Africa and Canada to be reunited with diplomats, aid workers and civilian contractors who found they could not leave the so-called dogs of war behind when they returned home.
Most of the troops have long gone but Nowzad is busier than ever with its specially trained team of four local vets – two women – treating hundreds of animals at the clinic off a street behind the Afghan Parliament building.
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