Last night, nearly 300 dogs and cats arrived in Vancouver, Canada after a massive effort to get them evacuated after a failed attempt last summer.
I am fiercely proud of my friend’s niece, Charlotte, who led this effort as the founder of Kabul Small Animal Rescue, an animal rescue group that was in Kabul through much of the war. At the height of the evacuation crisis last summer, she chose to stay behind when many of the same animals were close to being evacuated but were denied within hours of departure and released into the airport.
Charlotte has been steadfast in her determination to care for the animals even under Taliban rule. She has played by the rules , and with a host of partners - rescue groups, four nations, and a massive fundraising effort, fiercely and successfully get them evacuated. All were either the pets of people who evacuated or street dogs and cats whose numbers soared as a result of the Taliban’s ban of pet ownership in the '90s.
The plane landed in Vancouver last night and we’ve been in celebratory tears ever since. Charlotte is staying behind in Kabul to do more rescues, spay and neuter, and provide medical care for the countless street animals in this cold winter. I don’t know how she is doing it. Many dogs are strays due to the Taliban’s orders of making pet ownership illegal in the '90s.
