operation ark

In this episode of The Off the Leash Podcast, Charlie Moores and Dominic Dyer discuss the previously fairly unknown  Conservative MP Chris Loder after the idiotic tweet he posted after learning that two White-tailed Eagles from the Isle of Wight reintroduction project had been found dead in 'suspicious circumstances' by investigatorswhich said that he didn't want Eagles in Dorset and that he didn't want the police investigating what happened to them; the idiotic footballer Kurt Zouma and his idiotic brother for posting a video of him abusing his cat on social media; the repulsive vivisection industry and the Animal Welfare Act; what links fox hunting and organised crime gangs; a couple of ongoing petitions; and we name our Heroes and Villians - but we begin with something that has again been keeping Dominic very busy...the political fallout from Operation Ark.

• Off the Leash Podcasts Shortcast #28 Dominic Dyer | Rescue the Animal Rescuers
• The Off the Leash Podcast 2.5 (OperationArk)
• Chris Loder MP Tweet "Dorset is not the place for eagles to be reintroduced" 
• Off the Leash Podcasts Live #08 | Voices against Vivisection outside ParliamentOff the Leash Podcasts  Live #03 | #FreetheMBRBeagles Protest Home Office
• Off the Leash Podcasts Live #07 | Voices from Camp Beagle
• Camp Beagle Website
• Camp Beagle Facebook page and Twitter Feed 
• Animal Aid petition  Make the use of free-running snares illegal for trapping wildlife (Deadline 09 May 22)  
• Government Petition Suspend trade agreement with Faroe Islands until all whale & dolphin hunts end (Deadline 21 March 22)
• Peta Petition Replace the real bearskins used for the Queen’s Guard’s caps with faux fur (Deadline 06 July 22)

In this Off the Leash Podcast 2021 Year End Special, Dominic Dyer and Charlie Moores focus on the madness of foxhunting's Boxing Day 'meets' with reference to the disgraceful attacks by hunt followers on protestors in Lacock, a National Trust owned village in Wiltshire; the Faroes and the Grind; the use of Black Bear fur in military hats; and announce plans for an Operation Ark and Operation Magic Carpet New Year Special podcast.  Sandwiched inside all of that is animal sentience, moorlands, and much more. 

We also discuss a planned series of shortcasts on snares and snaring to support the recently re-launched Animal Aid petition to ban the use of free-running snares. 

We can't really make an episode of The Off the Leash Podcast without our Heroes and Villains, and in this one we slam the fossil fuel industry, the pesticide industry, the shooting industry,  foxhunting, and the so-called Countryside Alliance, and heap praise on everyone who helped get people (and animals) out of Afghanistan and the hunt sabs and monitors who put their bodies (and minds) on the line to protect wildlife and stop wildlife crime from taking place (heroes one and all). 

Finally, we thank everyone who has supported us in our first year online, and look forward to 2022.

• Wiltshire Live Boxing Day hunt descends into violence amid protest in idyllic Wiltshire village
• Wiltshire Hunt Sabs Twitter feed and PayPal funding page
• PETA  Stop Bear Slaughter: PETA Unveils Faux-Fur Queen’s Guard Cap
• Animal Aid page on snares
• Government petition  Make the use of free-running snares illegal for trapping wildlife 
• Government petition  Suspend trade agreement with Faroe Islands until all whale & dolphin hunts end
• Off the Leash podcast Interview #12 Crustacean Compassion | Decapod Sentience
• Unearthed  Europe and the UK’s vast shipments of banned, bee-killing ‘neonics’

In this one-off special episode we focus exclusively on the inside story of 'Operation Ark', the campaign set up by Afghanistan-based animal rescue charity Nowzad to evacuate its staff and animals from Kabul as the city fell to the Taliban. 

In a remarkable two week period social media lit up as people everywhere demanded action to get Nowzad staff and their animals out of danger;  British media first embraced former marine and  Nowzad founder Pen Farthing then turned against him as a government minister and his special advisor spun what had always been a humanitarian rescue mission into a false argument about putting 'pets before people'; and with an aircraft ready to fly into Kabul Airport the story became a race against time to land as air corridors shifted and the few remaining troops that controlled access to entrance gates and landing strips were pulled out.

While all this was taking place, Off the Leash's Dominic Dyer found himself becoming the public face of Operation Ark,  explaining the same points over again on multiple TV and radio appearances and - in increasingly frustrated and exasperated tones - on his own social media platforms. 

Operation Ark continues to work for the evacuation of all Nowzad staff, but with at least Pen Farthing and many of the charity's animals safe Dominic can now look back on a tumultuous fortnight, the barriers he came up against, and the extraordinarily compassionate and courageous people he found himself fighting for. As he explains in this podcast he initially had no idea how consuming the battle to 'rescue the animal rescuers' would be but felt compelled to do whatever he could because, as he reflects, "if you're fortunate enough to be part of a team like that, make the most of it - that's what makes life worth living".

• Nowzad Website and Facebook
• Nowzad Operation Ark updates
• Pen Farthing Twitter feed