Pen Farthing threatened to ‘destroy’ government aide in expletive-laden tirade about Kabul evacuation flight

Supporters of Pen Farthing slammed the leaking of the audio as an attempt to discredit him

The founder of an animal shelter in Afghanistan has reportedly left an irate message for a British government aide accusing him of “blocking” efforts to have his staff and animals evacuated.

But supporters of ex-Royal Marine Paul “Pen” Farthing, who had set up the Nowzad shelter in the mid-2000s after serving in the British Army, have slammed the leaking of the audio message as a smear attempt.

After the Taliban’s return to power this month, Mr Farthing attempted to get hundreds of cats and dogs, his staff, and himself to the UK – in what is known as “Operation Ark”.

He successfully cleared security at Kabul’s airport this weekend with the cats and dogs after much difficulty.

But the Sunday Times said it had obtained a leaked expletive-laden audio recording of him berating Peter Quentin, a special adviser to defence secretary Ben Wallace.

In the recorded message, reportedly sent on Monday, Mr Farthing allegedly threatened to “destroy” Mr Quentin on social media if he did not help arrange the evacuation.

He insisted that putting the animals in the cargo hold of a privately-funded charter flight would not hinder the military evacuation of people.

Mr Farthing said, according to Sunday Times: “I just found out that is you blocking me getting this flight out of Afghanistan for my staff and the animals. So here’s the deal buddy. You either get me that f****** Isaf number and you get me permission to get on to that f****** airfield, or tomorrow morning I’m going to turn on you and the whole f****** country, and everybody else who’s invested in this rescue, is going to know it’s you, you, blocking this f****** move. Alright?”.

He continued: “I will get my staff out of here and I’ll get so many other people out of here on this flight and then the dogs and cats are going in the cargo hold. Nobody can sit in the cargo hold, only the animals.”

He allegedly demanded paperwork to say his staff had been “approved”, otherwise he was “going to spend the rest of my time f****** destroying you on social media and every other f****** platform I can find”.

The report adds that Mr Farthing said he was a Royal Marine for 22 years and he was “not taking this bollocks from people like you who are blocking me”, and insisted that the evacuation flight would be on a “privately funded plane”.

His campaign to get workers and animals from the Nowzad shelter out of Afghanistan has caused controversy in recent days, as well as a huge amount of support from the public and animal welfare activists.

Animal welfare campaigner Dominic Dyer said in response to the Sunday Times report that Mr Farthing was “completely justified in holding this rogue advisor to account attempting to delay flight authorisation for Operation Ark”.

He slammed the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for releasing the audio as a “data protection breach” and “disgusting attempt to smear a British hero”.

Writer Matt Carr said that Mr Farthing had “embarrassed” the government, and that the “Tory attack machine is trying to destroy him before he even lands” in the UK.

Although visas were granted for his 24 staff and their dependents, Mr Farthing refused to leave without the 94 dogs and 79 cats.

On Thursday, he and his staff were in Hamid Karzai International Airport but then got turned away and, as a result, got caught up in the chaos caused by the Isis terror attack that killed US troops and Afghan civilians queuing up to flee the Taliban.

The day after the attack, the MoD announced that Mr Farthing and the animals were escorted through the airport by troops and that clearance for their charter flight had been sponsored by the UK government.

Nowzad staff have been unable to leave the country despite having been granted visas for the UK.

Speaking about his staff members, Mr Farthing said: “It is just so depressing I had to leave them behind. Some of them came with me to the airport but they weren’t allowed to cross the line from Taliban to British control.

“I feel so many things. I feel very sad for them, I’m relieved for me and I feel happy for the animals.

“There were lots of tears when we said goodbye.”

Mr Farthing’s campaign became hugely successful on social media, but Mr Wallace complained it was distracting those focusing on evacuating the most vulnerable people.

Mr Wallace had also said that staff at the MoD had faced “abuse” from Mr Farthing’s supporters.

Additional reporting by Press Association