Pen Farthing: Watchdog has no concerns over Afghan animal rescue

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

The Charity Commission found no regulatory concerns over Nowzad's campaign, known as Operation Ark.

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

The watchdog said the operation's objectives were made clear to donors and trustees actions were reasonable.

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

Former Royal Marine Mr Farthing and his supporters led a vociferous evacuation campaign which garnered a lot of public attention.

In a tweet about the conclusion of the Charity Commission's case, Mr Farthing said it had been "11 months of stress" and there was "obviously no wrongdoing to be found".

The watchdog said it did not identify "any regulatory concerns about Operation Ark, concluding that it did fall within the charity's purposes".

In a statement it said: "The commission concluded that the objectives of the operation were made clear to donors during fundraising, that trustees' decision-making and actions during that time were reasonable, and that consequently it was valid to spend funds raised for Operation Ark on the evacuation of animals and staff from Afghanistan."

Tracy Howarth, assistant director of casework and proactive regulation at the Charity Commission, said: "In this case, we did not find evidence of wrongdoing and recognised the trustees' ongoing efforts to manage the charity under difficult circumstances."

But the commission said it was not within its remit to consider the role the government "may or may not have had" in the evacuation.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has previously denied that he personally authorised the evacuation after emails published by the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee suggested he had intervened.

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