NARN
Board of Directors

Rachel

Rachel Bjork

Where did you grow up?

Seattle! I am a rare Seattle native. I am lucky to have grown up on Capitol Hill in the heart of Seattle. I am grateful that my parents sent me to schools with a diverse student population, and that I learned to enjoy and learn from people that are different from me.

Why vegan?

I become vegan in 2000. I had previously been a slow convert to vegetarianism because I thought it was healthier. After coming back home from attending college out of state, I started going to EarthSave potlucks in Seattle and watched a few videos about what happens to dairy cows and layer hens. I learned that not only were eggs and dairy unhealthy, but what happened to animals raised or food was just horrible. I just knew I couldn’t be a part of something so awful. Simply not contributing to such injustice seemed like the least I could do.

Why animal rights activism & why NARN?

Since I was in High School, I knew that I wanted my life to matter and to me, that meant working on making the world a better place. I wanted to do what I could to change the world for the better.  I am not happy sitting back and allowing injustice to happen. I love being involved with NARN because we believe in community, inclusion, that animal activism is a social justice movement and that a variety of tactics are necessary in order to achieve Animal Liberation. I love being a part of a wonderful community that is always striving to do better.

What inspires you? 

Other activists! Not the superstars of the movement, but the everyday “average” folks that spend their free time fighting for the animals.

prof_hike

Mike Hines

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Frankfort, Kentucky, spending summers at my grandfather’s farm in south central Kentucky. I went to college in Murray, Kentucky and then moved throughout the US over the years, living in North Carolina, Colorado, Washington and California. I’ve been in Seattle since 2008, but lived in Malta for a short stint in 2012.

Why vegan?

There are so many reasons. I grew up an omnivore. I always loved animals, but had the same cognitive dissonance that abounds in our society. Around 2002 I decided I couldn’t support the torturous nature of industrial animal farms and switched to being a ‘free range’ vegetarian. Two years later I learned that a number of the companies claiming they were raising animals free range were doing horrible things. I also came to the conclusion around the same time that the consumption and use of animals was entirely about convenience and pleasure. I could no longer ethically justify any choice other than veganism.

Since then, I’ve come to understand many more reasons for being vegan, including general ecological impact, human costs in animal agriculture, antibiotic resistant bacteria and general impact of ignoring animal welfare on our society’s mentality.

Why animal rights activism & why NARN?

I’ve done a lot of volunteering and organizing in other areas over the years, primarily focused on race & social justice equity work. I’ve volunteered with NARN several times, but it hasn’t been my key focus. I appreciate NARN’s intersectional and inclusive approach to animal rights activism, and I believe as a society we desperately need both veganism and compassion that isn’t drawn across arbitrary lines.

What inspires you? 

I am inspired by the lengths to which so many passionate volunteers, activists and organizers have gone throughout history to make change where they saw injustice or need. I am inspired by the beauty, complexity and diversity of nature and believe that we have a responsibility to protect it and preserve it for all sentient beings.

Altamush Saeed Narn

Altamush Saeed

Where did you grow up?

Lahore, Pakistan. Since 2014, I have been involved in non-profit work, originally starting from human rights to animal and environmental rights, where I finally started to see the invisible members of my country. I have lived in Portland Oregon and Ann Arbor Michigan for the last 3 years where I met so many kind, amazing humans and animals. I owe everything to my family, the animals, and the environment for supporting me throughout.

 

Why vegan?

I became Vegan in 2021 when I started studying animal rights law in the US. As someone who comes from a meat-eating culture, but someone who carries a heart for the rights of all sentient beings, I directly shifted to veganism from being a hardcore carnivore in a span of less than 24 hours. It was the easiest and best decision I have ever taken as it directly aligns with my life’s goal of making the world a better place for all life, be it human, animal, or the environment from an interspecies justice perspective. In Pakistan, animals are invisible and I sincerely wish I could make them more visible in my home country and everywhere I go. I feel the animals chose me and that was their greatest gift to my entire existence.

 

Why animal rights activism & why NARN?

I have been involved in non-profit work since I was 17 years old. Back then I didn’t know what I was doing. Initially, I started with human rights work but later when I was rescued by a cat in 2018, my eyes opened to animals. Back then, I didn’t know what spay/neuter meant so my cat went outside and came back pregnant and gave birth to six fur babies. I later was given a rescue pug for my dog culling protests. All of them live with me. I officially became Vegan in 2022, when I chose to study animal rights law, just the 2nd person in the history of Pakistan the 1st Pakistani recipient of the Brooks Institute Animal Rights Law Intl Scholarship. I came across NARN’s work in 2023 and have been in love with them ever since. I truly believe that a dedicated set of people can change the world and I feel I can learn so much from their kindness and empathy, which I will translate in my work across the world.

 

What inspires you? 

Hope inspires me. The animals inspire me. The humans inspire me. The environment inspires me. Despite there being so much wrong in the world, we all have that inner hope to imagine a better world and to constantly be surrounded by such beings who are willing to share their hope and consistently keep standing is a beyond inspirational experience that cannot be penned, but only be lived.

 

unnamed (1)

Lindsey Soffes

Where did you grow up?

I grew up largely north of Seattle, though I was fortunate enough to enjoy several years of my childhood in my mother’s home country of Switzerland. After graduating from high school, I spent almost a decade on the east coast before returning to the Pacific Northwest.

 

Why vegan?

After many years as a vegetarian (credit to the movie Babe, which opened my eyes to important issues when I was a child!), I adopted ethical veganism about 15 years ago. I remember coming across an article that quoted Gary Francione as saying that there is more suffering in a glass of milk than in a pound of steak, and my vegetarian self was shaken – after some additional reading, including Animal Liberation by Peter Singer, I became a passionate vegan overnight. It remains the best decision I have made.

 

Why animal rights activism & why NARN?

I believe firmly that animal rights is a core social justice issue, though it is all too often not recognized as such. Shortly after adopting veganism, I spent two years working at a nonprofit that championed human civil rights, and I was struck by my peers’ disinterest in (and, really, stark resistance to) recognizing the fundamental and overwhelming parallels between the animal rights ideology and the ideologies underpinning human social justice efforts. The emphasis on this fundamental connection – on intersectional justice – is one of NARN’s unique and important contributions that drew me in.

 

What inspires you? 

Those for whom we are advocating! On the most difficult of days – when the atrocities inflicted by humans knock the wind out of me – I picture the other-than-human animals for whom we are fighting, and they help restore my breath.

 

SearchPostsLoginCart