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Along with a need for campaigns aimed at enacting change in the policies and practices of our governments, schools and businesses, NARN also realizes the importance of providing support for the individual looking to live a life of compassion. Visit ourAction Calendarfor more on these efforts.
UW Watch Project
Right here in Seattle, countless animals are tortured behind closed doors in the name of science. Researchers associated with the University of Washington conduct painful experiements over and over again, frequently not conforming to animal welfare standards. Even as we speak, there are primates who have had "medical" equipment implanted in their brains and eyes for an experiment that has been going on for decades with no conclusive results.
NARN's dedicated volunteers attend Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IUCAC) meetings at the UW, hold peaceful demonstrations at the lab, sift through valuable documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and engage in outreach activities. If you would like to find out more, contact us via link here.
Free Bamboo
Prompted by Woodland Park Zoo's decision to relocate a "troubled" elephant to a zoo in Tacoma, NARN is now actively watching WPZ's elephant management program. After a history of abuse (some at the hands of current employees) including beatings and chaining, and after decades of life in a tiny enclosure, two elephants now regularly display abnormal repetative behavior and others have been separated due to aggression toward one another.
Even more troubling is WPZ administrators' insistance that elephants do not require space to be happy and healthy and that pacing in tiny circles, swaying back and forth, or repetative head-shaking are nothing to be concerned about. WPZ has already shown that Bamboo is not required for their elephant "collection", so NARN is campaigning to have her moved to The Elephant Sanctuary, where she could live out her remaining years in comfort. For more information, please go to freewpzelephants.com
Prisoner Support
With the state our country is in today, activists can be sent to prison simply for making a speach or putting up a website. Others are compelled by conscience to use illegal, non-violent actions to prevent animal suffering. Whatever the circumstances leading to their incarceration, these prisoners spend years separated from friends, family, and society, living in fear and isolation. Many are not provided with vegan food and must buy food from the prison commisaries.
NARN seeks to bring relief to prisoners in the form of letters and financial donations to prisoner commisary funds. Letter writing parties are listed in NARN's free e-newsletter or you can contact NARN at info@narn.org to find out what you can do to help.
Ongoing Vegan Outreach
Outreach efforts go on year round, with considerable frequency during the summer when outdoor fairs are nearly constant. NARN volunteers distribute throusands of leaflets educating the public about the attrocities of factory farming and other abusive animal industries. NARN members also take the NARN-a-vision van, equipped with a large screen TV, to art walks and popular evening hang-outs, to show passers-by the horrors that they unknowingly contribute to with their dinner choices.
NARN can always use more help with spreading the word. Write to us if you can join us in our outreach efforts.
A vegetarian is someone who chooses not to include the flesh of animals in his or her diet. This definition of animals include both fish and chicken, and this choice is most often made in response to the desire for a healthier lifestyle. A vegan (VEE-gun) abstains not only from the consumption of animals themselves, but also products derived from animals - which include eggs, honey and dairy products. Learn more.
Although the consumption of meat and dairy products is far and away the leading cause of animal deaths in terms of sheer number, the use of animals in experiments may well be considered just as morally repugnant. Though we deliberately expose animals to the dangers and maladies that affect humans in a misguided attempt to ensure healthier lives for ourselves, at some point we need question the relevance studies which addict rats to cocaine. Animals experiments are misleading and prove more costly than modern methodologies such as in-vitro (test tube) experiments and computer modeling. Learn more.
The practice of wearing the skins of animals for fashion is rooted in the historical use of dead animals for warmth and protection against the climate. In modern times, however, technology has led to the development of synthetics that are less expensive and provide better protection from the elements. Today the practice of wearing the skins and coats of other animals continues because it is deemed fashionable, when in fact the torment these animals must endure makes the choice nothing less than criminal. Learn more.
From circuses to rodeos to dog and horse racing, the human species has found many ways to entertain itself thru the exploitation of non-human animals species (not to mention the depths to which we've stooped in exploiting our own species). Seen as little more than property and tools by which "owners" can reap profits, the lives of these animals are long and tortuous as they endure the "training" techniques employed to bend their wills. Learn more.
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