大象传媒

Pen Farthing is the former Royal Marine who ran an animal rescue organisation - NOWZAD - in Afghanistan. During last month's chaotic evacuation of the country, after the Taliban took over, the world watched in shock while he and thousands of others desperately tried to leave by plane.

Operation Ark was a mission to evacuate almost 70 members of NOWZAD staff and more than 150 animals from Kabul. After a failed first attempt where the team were threatened with guns at the airport, Pen had to make the tough decision to leave his staff behind. Days later he was able to fly his animals to safety in a plane that his Tiverton based charity had commissioned. Pen says he did this independently without using the time and resources of British forces. But he HAS faced a barrage of criticism for putting "pets before people".

This week we finally heard that dozens of Pen's staff made it safely over the border to Pakistan.

Pen spoke to Pippa Quelch from Oslo, before heading to Britain.