| Type | Charitable trust |
|---|---|
| Industry | Conservation |
| Founded | 1969, New Brunswick, Canada |
| Headquarters | Yarmouth Port, Cape Cod Massachusetts |
| Key people | Fred O’Regan, Thomas C. Ramey |
| Products | Landmark & framework legislation, research, activism. |
| Revenue | $25,149,783 USD (2010 Tax Return) |
| Employees | 300+ (worldwide) |
| Website | ifaw.org |
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is currently one of the largest animal welfare and conservation charities in the world.
The group says its mission is "to improve the welfare of wild and domestic animals throughout the world by reducing commercial exploitation of animals, protecting wildlife habitats, and assisting animals in distress".[1]
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The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) was founded by a small group of people in 1969 to stop the commercial hunt for seal pups in Canada. One of IFAW's founders, and possibly its most well known member, is Brian Davies.
Today (per April 2008), with offices in 16 countries,[2] IFAW is one of the largest animal welfare organisations in the world. The work of IFAW’s global team of campaigners, legal and political experts and scientists is concentrated in three areas: reducing commercial exploitation of wild animals; protecting wildlife habitats; and providing emergency relief to animals in distress.
In the United Kingdom, IFAW played a pivotal role as a member of a coalition of groups campaigning to put a stop to hunting with dogs.[3]
IFAW's AICD department was merged with its wildlife and habitat to create one department known as Programs. This was due to larger restructuring efforts underway mainly resulting from greatly reduced funding. IFAW also reduced its workforce by more than 100 employees worldwide.
IFAW believes that the destruction of natural habitats is a threat to wildlife and people. Therefore they provide operating funds and ranger training to Meru and Tsavo National Parks in Kenya, to Liwonde National Park in Malawi, and to wildlife law enforcement officials in China and other nations. IFAW uses environmental education, job training and human-animal conflict resolution, with the goal to help local communities coexist with wildlife.
Since IFAW believes that international commercial trade in wildlife products, is a major cause of species extinction and cruelty to individual animals, they work with the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to help control this. IFAW also cooperate directly with many nations, from Kenya to China, to train anti-poaching rangers and customs officials. IFAW collaborates with law enforcement agencies and conducts campaigns to stop the trade in elephant ivory, as well as souvenirs and traditional medicines that contain animal parts. In 2007, IFAW supported the United Nations University initiative Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System, a wildlife enforcement and compliance monitoring tool. The project completed the development stage and is planned for national level implementation.
Brian Davies received a payout of about 2.5 million Canadian dollars, payable over 7 years, on leaving IFAW in 1997. This was to enable IFAW to continue to use his name and image in their fundraising after he had left.[4] Through the Brian Davies Foundation, IFAW invested money in organizations that carry out animal experiments, such as Bausch & Lomb, US Surgicals, Glaxo, Merck, Abbot, Upjohn, Philip Morris and McDonald's. This, and Davies' payout, sparked allegations that Davies, and IFAW, saw money as more important than helping animals.[5]
IFAW has often been criticized for its extremely high fundraising to program ratio and resulted in the 2009 drop to one star rating by CharityNavigator.org. While the organization claims that only a small fraction of funds go to fundraising costs the truth is far from that. This has led to many questions of the organization from countries such as Germany. See this article which appeared September 30, 2011.