IFAW Poll repeats Flaws from 2001

Berlin, 18 June 2003:  An IFAW opinion poll purporting to show American attitudes on international whaling repeats exactly the same flaws as an earlier poll it promoted two years ago and, like the previous poll, breaches survey industry ethical standards, according to IWMC World Conservation Trust.

The poll, carried out by the same survey organization, Market Strategies, Inc., is being promoted in an IFAW press release dated 17 June 2003 that fails to meet standards set down by CASRO (the Council of American Survey Research Organizations) in its Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research (see casro.org).

CASRO’s rules state that any general public release of survey findings should include, at a minimum, the sample description and size, the exact wording of the questions and any other information a layman would need to make a reasonable assessment of the reported findings. All of these items are missing from IFAW’s press release. It is the survey company’s responsibility to ensure that all press releases contain this information.

The 2001 poll alleged that nearly five times as many voters supported sanctions against Japan because of whaling than actually knew Japan is a whaling nation. At the time, only fifteen per cent of one thousand people interviewed knew that Japan was engaged in whaling, yet IFAW claimed that 69 per cent of Americans approved of trade sanctions against Japan to stop it from hunting whales. In the latest survey, the corresponding figure is 66 per cent.

According to IFAW, most of the people opposing whaling in 2001 did so under the false impression that whales are endangered and have declining populations. Only eight individuals specifically opposed scientific whaling, the focus of IFAW’s campaign against Japan.

IFAW’s tactic is to build a fictitious picture of huge public concern by posing a series of loaded questions that ask interviewees to react to IFAW’s own distorted characterizations of whaling. By alluding to "voters" instead of "respondents" or "interviewees" IFAW carelessly reveals the survey’s political aims.

Eugene Lapointe, President of IWMC World Conservation Trust, said: "This survey is designed simply to provide political cover for the US delegation in Berlin who are working behind the backs of their political masters in Washington and whose anti-Japanese zeal risks damaging the friendship established between President Bush and Prime Minister Koizumi."

"IFAW is desperately trying to hoodwink everyone into thinking that the US public supports what its IWC representatives are doing in collaboration with the animal rights lobby. The truth is that the US public is largely uninterested in the international whaling issue."

Mr. Lapointe added: "It should be of great concern to CASRO that one of its members is once again so flagrantly failing to live up to its ethical responsibilities."

For further information, contact Eugène Lapointe
Switzerland: +41.79.327-3034 or email: iwmc@iwmc.org