BVNA are delighted to announce that Nowzad Dogs, which was founded in 2007 by Royal Marine Sergeant Pen Farthing is their chosen charity for the year 2013/14. The charity’s story began when Pen and his colleagues were posted to Now Zad in Helmand Province of Afghanistan. The main purpose of their visit was to provide stability for the local people but they soon realised that it wasn’t only them who needed help.
Pen Farthing with Joe at the Nowzad clinic
After hearing commotion right outside their compound the Royal Marines sadly discovered an organised dog fight and one dog later to be known as ‘Nowzad’ was being beaten as he wouldn’t fight. Pen with the help of colleagues managed to break up the fight but unbeknown to Pen, that action was to mark the beginning of not only his lifelong friendship with ‘Nowzad’ but would ignite the start-up of his charity organisation Nowzad Dogs.
‘Nowzad’ attached himself to Pen after the rescue and spiralling on from this The Royal marines started to rescue more dogs during their 6 month station. Despite having to spend their rest time looking after the dogs, by the end of their post they had rescued 20 dogs. Using precision planning and local resources they managed to agree the transport of the dogs to a rescue centre based in Kabul and were delighted when they received notification that nearly all the dogs had made it there safely.
The charity has grown ever since and is currently the only organisation to operate a humane stray dog control programme to reduce the spread of rabies within Kabul whilst promoting animal welfare to the Afghan population. It also operates and manages the only animal welfare shelter in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Pen Farthing founder and chairman of the Nowzad Dogs charity said “I am delighted to have the support and backing of the BVNA, this relationship can only help us to produce even better results with developing animal welfare programmes in Afghanistan”.
Kirstie Shield, BVNA President, said “BVNA are delighted to have chosen Nowzad Dogs as its charity of the year. We look forward to helping with fundraising and increasing awareness of this deserving charity over the following 12 months”
To find out more about the charity go to the ‘Nowzad Dogs’ website