The Pentagon on Tuesday denied that the US military had left its dogs at Kabul airport when it finally left Afghanistan. Why make this clear?
On August 27, the Animal Welfare Association of Afghanistan issued a warning about the large number of animals left at the Kabul Small Animal Rescue (KSAR) factory, explaining that its volunteers were trying to evacuate the country at all costs.
We need help to get permission to use the aircraft parking lot to evacuate the animals. We do not want to take the place of humans, use only bunkers (…) We need these animals to go. (…) They will not be allowed to die at Kabul airport.
Kabul Small Animal Rescue, Twitter
A crowdfunding-funded eviction operation was launched to evict the animals in question, mainly dogs. In its tweets, Kabul Small Animal Rescue did not claim that the animals trapped at Kabul airport belonged to US military personnel.
A viral photo
At the same time, in recent days, the photo of dogs being caged at the airport in front of a US military-owned helicopter has gone viral on social media.
Following the spread of this photo, several associations were offended, promising that these animals were military dogs serving in Afghanistan.
The animal rights group PETA on Tuesday launched a separate appeal to President Joe Biden, claiming he relied on photos spread on social networks and informed sources, allowing him to return the animals.
The association specifically mentions “sixty exploding sniffer dogs sitting in cages at the airport barracks” and another sixty special dogs “stuffed in a kennel in the airport hangar.” “In addition, dozens of pets belonging to the families of expelled Americans … have apparently been released on the streets, leaving them to fend for themselves with little chance of survival,” PETA said.
On Monday, when the American Human Rights Association withdrew from Afghanistan, the US government promised that “brave American military dogs have been left behind, which will be tortured and killed at the hands of our enemies.”
The statements were echoed in the United States by Republicans who oppose Joe Biden, including Donald Trump Jr., the son of a former U.S. president. “The Biden administration has not abandoned the Americans in Afghanistan, it has even abandoned the hard-working military dogs!” He exploded on Twitter.
American activists and conservatives have launched a hashtag on the social network: #NoPawsLeftBehind, which means “no feet behind”.
“US Army does not let dogs in”
The allegations prompted Pentagon spokesman John Kirby to react. “Contrary to misinformation, the U.S. military did not release dogs into cages at Hamid Karzai International Airport, especially so-called military dogs,” he said. On Twitter, cage dogs seen in John Kirby photos include animals kept by a shelter run by Kabul Small Animal Rescue, which has been trying to evict its residents in recent days.
“We have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in these dogs and we will never let them go,” U.S. Defense Department spokesman Eric Bahon told the US media. Military Times. “The photos circulating online are of animals in care of a small animal rescue in Kabul,” he said, adding that the United States had tried to help the association evict the dogs.
Eric Bahோன்n clarified that about 150 service dogs who worked with Western companies based in Kabul were actually lagging behind. Among them, GradaWorld, a Canadian company specializing in security. The company, contacted by the Military Times media, assured that its teams “work tirelessly with several associations to help the dogs responsible for the rescue of small animals in Kabul.” “We will continue to work with them to get all of our dogs out.”