Misuse Of Funds By Animal Rights Organisations

EDM number 726 in 1996-97, proposed by David Steel on 20/03/1997.

That this House calls the attention of the public to fund-raising campaigns portrayed as being in pursuit of animal welfare, which in fact contribute to animal rights extremists and the private wealth of their officials; notes that Mr Bryan Davies operated such a scam in Canada until driven out by the Government, that he continued to publish horror advertisements with cut-out coupons appealing for money in the USA and that having been a penniless immigrant he now enjoys a lavish international lifestyle complete with private jet; further notes that the International Fund for Animal Welfare, UK, is not a charity but a private company with Mr Davies and three other directors who are US citizens and that its network of international companies had grown in strength to ú9 million by 1995; further notes that the Australian branch has complained that it raised three million dollars and has been unable to obtain any account of how it was spent, and that IFAW in the United Kingdom has not facilities whatever for animal welfare but is simply an animal rights lobbying organisation fleecing money from the public and enriching its operators; and therefore advises the public to restrict its generous giving to well-established and geniune animal welfare organisations.

This motion has been signed by a total of 1 MPs.