International Fund for Animal Welfare
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The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is one of the largest animal welfare and
conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...
charities in the world. The organization works to rescue individual animals, safeguard populations, preserve habitat, and advocate for greater protections. Brian Davies founded IFAW. IFAW was instrumental in ending the commercial seal hunt in Canada. In 1983 Europe banned all whitecoat harp seals products. This ban helped save over 1 million seals. IFAW operates in over 40 countries.


History

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) was founded in 1969, in initial efforts to stop the commercia
hunt for seal
pups on the east coast of
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. With offices in 15 countries, and projects in more than 40, IFAW is one of the largest animal welfare organisations in the world. The fund is supported by individual and major corporate donors, the latter including the
Disneynature Disneynature is an independent film studio that specializes in the production of nature documentary films for The Walt Disney Studios. The production company was founded on April 21, 2008, and is headquartered in Paris, France. The company's n ...
and the Disney Conservation Fund, the
Petfinder Petfinder is an internet company that operates the largest online pet adoption website serving all of North America. The company reports that it currently lists “more than 315,000 adoptable pets from nearly 14,000 animal shelters and rescue grou ...
Foundation and Arctic Fox, among others.


Activities

*IFAW partners with elephant and rhino orphanages in Zambia, Zimbabwe and India, where the focus is on rescue, rehabilitation, release, and post-release monitoring and protection. *tenBoma is IFAW's counter-
poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...
initiative in
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
, as featured on NBC's
Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly ''Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly'' was an American television newsmagazine hosted by journalist and former attorney Megyn Kelly. The series premiered on NBC on June 4, 2017, as Kelly's first NBC News program since her departure to the division ...
and
PBS NewsHour ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virg ...
. *tenBoma architect, IFAW Senior Vice President Lt Col Faye Cuevas, was honored as one of Motherboard'
Humans of the Year
in 2017. *IFAW's Wildlife Crime program works to reduce demand for wildlife products, wildlife
cybercrime A cybercrime is a crime that involves a computer or a computer network.Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing. The computer may have been used in committing the ...
and live animal exploitation and trafficking around the world. *IFAW's Marine Mammal Rescue and Research group (MMRR) is a team of scientists, veterinarians and other individuals committed to promoting the conservation of marine mammal species (
dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
s,
whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...
s, porpoises, and seals) and their habitats.
Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
is a hot spot for mass stranding activity, and the team is called on for expertise in global events as well. *The ''Meet Us Don't Eat Us'' campaign aims to promote
whale watching Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins ( cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity (cf. birdwatching), but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes.Hoyt, E. 2 ...
, as an alternative to
whale hunting Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry a ...
in
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
. *IFAW aims to protect the last 400 critically endangered North Atlantic right whales and has developed acoustic detection systems, collaborated with lobstermen, commercial fishers and shipping industries to prevent collisions with ships and gear entanglements; and advocated for greater legislation to protect the species. *Through its DISRUPT wildlife crime prevention program, IFAW trains
customs officer A customs officer is a law enforcement agent who enforces customs laws, on behalf of a government. Canada Canadian customs officers are members of the Canada Border Services Agency. It was created in 2003 and preceded by the Canada Customs and ...
s,
game warden A conservation officer is a law enforcement officer who protects wildlife and the environment. A conservation officer may also be referred to as an environmental technician or technologist, game warden, forest ranger, forest watcher, forest g ...
s and law enforcers in many countries to prevent the killing of endangered species. *IFAW protects elephants by protecting critical elephant habitats, managing human-elephant conflict, preventing poaching, ending illegal ivory trade and rescuing orphan and injured elephants. *Carrying out
legislative A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...
and educational campaigns across the globe. This is an effort to try to prevent cruelty to animals, preserve endangered species, and protect wildlife habitats. IFAW is best known for its leading role in the campaigns to end the commercial seal hunt in Canada and end commercial whaling, as well as its work to help dogs and cats in impoverished communities, protect elephants, end illegal ivory trade, rescue and release of wild animals such orphan rhinos and rescue of animals in the wake of disasters such as hurricane Katrina in the US.


Controversy and criticism

A financial manager of the Brian Davies Foundation, IFAW invested IFAW's money in organizations that carried out animal experiments, such as
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, US Surgicals,
Glaxo GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK is the tent ...
,
Merck Merck refers primarily to the German Merck family and three companies founded by the family, including: * the Merck Group, a German chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company founded in 1668 ** Merck Serono (known as EMD Serono in the Unite ...
,
Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
,
Upjohn The Upjohn Company was a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm founded in 1886 in Hastings, Michigan, by Dr. William E. Upjohn who was an 1875 graduate of the University of Michigan medical school. The company was originally formed to make ''friabl ...
, Philip Morris and
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
. When the investment was drawn to the attention of IFAW's trustees, the shares were sold immediately and the financial manager dismissed.Davies 2013 When Davies retired from IFAW in 1997 to start Network for Animals, IFAW established a payment schedule to use his name and image for fundraising and campaigns. The contract was important for the continued level of success that IFAW achieved with Davies' leadership, according to research on successful animal welfare organizations".Clarke, C. IFAW Begins: Brian Davies, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the New Brunswick Humane Movement in the 1960s. University of New Brunswick (Canada), 2009 Retrieved 24 April 2013. Davies had the following to say about it: "I signed an agreement with IFAW which was conceived by the trustees. I was opposed to the idea of receiving remuneration from two animal welfare organisations; this solution allowed me to run Network For Animals without pay for seven years."


See also

*
Animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...
* Animal welfare * International Cat Day *
List of animal welfare organizations Animal welfare organizations are concerned with the health, safety and psychological wellness of individual animals. These organizations include animal rescue groups and wildlife rehabilitation centers, which care for animals in distress and sanctu ...
*
Petra Deimer Petra Deimer (born March 9, 1948, in Göttingen) is a German marine biologist, and nature conservationist who has been actively involved in the study and protection of marine mammals, particularly cetaceans, since the mid-1970s. Career Deimer ...
, German
marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others th ...
, nature conservationist, advisor to the fund


References


External links


Charity NavigatorBetter Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance
{{Authority control Charities based in Massachusetts Organizations established in 1969 Criticisms of bullfighting Animal charities based in the United States Abandoned animals Animal rescue groups Animal rights organizations