York-based veterinary group VetPartners offers to employ veterinary team members from Afghanistan’s animal sanctuary Nowzad

In less than 12 hours, the York-headquartered veterinary group smashed its £5,000 fundraising barrier to help with the repatriation of the Nowzad team and animals in their care to the UK through donations to the group’s JustGiving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/vetpartners-nowzad.

In a statement, the management team at VetPartners said it had been dismayed to see the suffering in Afghanistan and the plight of Nowzad.

The statement added: "The charity’s animal shelter and veterinary clinic was set up by ex-Royal Marine Commando Pen Farthing, who is fundraising to hire a cargo plane to fly out his colleagues and as many of their dogs and cats as possible in a mission called Operation Ark, as the charity faces the heartbreaking prospect of putting rescue animals in their care to sleep.

"We cannot help everyone, but we can make a real difference to the people and animals involved in this charity."

Established in November 2015, VetPartners, has 160 veterinary practices, with more than 6,000 employees working in 550 sites across the UK and from its headquarters in York.

The company is led by CEO Jo Malone, who is behind the move to employ the Nowzad veterinary team