The Northwest Animal Rights Network champions freedom, respect, and well-being for all sentient beings through advocacy, education, and community connection.

NARN holds these values as the core of operating as an organization:

Compassion and Respect

We contend that no individual can be denied their inherent rights, regardless of species, race, class, gender, or sexual orientation. All deserve compassion and respect, and we reject any actions that denies or exploits both human and non-human beings.

Non-Violence

As animal rights contends that *all* sentient beings, human and nonhuman, are deserving of respect and consideration, we operate with non-violence as a guiding principle and as a strategy for positive change.

Education

We hold that education is a key component for positive change. Through outreach, education, and open dialogue, we aim to have the greater community question and examine the relationship between human and nonhuman animals; to provide the tools and resources for the community to consider the benefits of a vegan lifestyle as a living practice of animal rights; to recommend the rejection of products, companies, and organizations that abuse and exploit non-human animals; and to emphasize the importance of recognizing the freedom and justice due to non-human animals.

Community

Through our education and service, we work within our local, regional, and global community to make a positive impact. We work with other like-minded groups, organizations, companies, and individuals to provide both strength of community and unified support. Support and service to community is of paramount importance to achieve change at a grassroots level and is one of the greatest contributions any of us can make to this world.

Action

Only through action can we achieve change and confront exploitation. Education, campaigns targeting abuse, volunteering, and support of others are all necessary and the practice of what NARN advocates.

Since our position is to call for the end of the abuse and exploitation of animals, our approach is one of animal rights pragmatism*; we must strive for what is best for sentient beings at all times. To leave the worst of abuses unchallenged while we work to secure the ultimate rights of animals would put the animals through needless suffering. While animal rights is a recognition we wish for the animals, it is a means to an end, not the end itself. The end is the recognition and respect of all sentient beings. In fighting for the rights of animals, the animals themselves should be the primary focus in deciding what we can achieve now.

* Animal Rights Law: Fundamentalism versus Pragmatism by David Sztybel, Journal for Critical Animal Studies 5 (1) (2007): 1-37.