ARNI Saves Lives, One Rescue Foundation Does A Whole Lot of Good
Article By: Amelia “Killer” Rose
Little did I know when we pulled into Willie’s Tropical Tattoo after our ride that I would have the opportunity to meet one of the most fantastic and big-hearted women in the industry. Her name is Nickki Lynn, and she is the owner and founder of an amazing organization known as the ARNI Foundation. She has dedicated the past 19 years of her life to rescuing over 23,000 animals from high-kill shelters and abusive or neglectful situations. You may be asking “Why would there be an Animal Rescue group at a motorcycle event?” so let me tell you why. Not only are they involved in the animal world, but the motorcycle world too. Nikki has been bringing her ARNI booth to Willie’s for roughly 10 years now and says that bikers are her biggest demographic for adopting animals. They are incredibly compassionate and always willing to help out.
ARNI is a 100% non-profit organization, meaning they get all of their money from donations and sales made from their thrift store, t-shirts, various merchandise, and adoption fees. They only have 5 paid employees, who are the veterinarians that they have on site. The rest of their employees, including Nickki Lynn, are complete volunteers and make no money what so ever.
During our talk about ARNI, I got to ask Nickki why it is that she started the foundation and what the name means. She told me that animals are so innocent. They just want to love you constantly. They are loyal and don’t care who you’ve been with, what your job is, or how much money you have. They just want that love. They also need people in their lives. They need that constant attention and reassurance. They can’t speak for themselves, but we can speak for them, and that’s something that I think everyone should stand behind. The name, ARNI, has just as much power and meaning as the impact they have on the community. It stands for Animal Rescue Need Intervention and is also the name of Nickki’s mother, whose passion and love for animals was one of the driving forces behind the start of ARNI.
Once a week, they travel to the local kill shelters, looking for animals who need and deserve that second chance. They also deal with rescuing animals from abuse and neglect cases. And while it is expensive, being able to give an animal a new leash on life is totally worth it. Aside from helping out animals in need, they also help the owners too. Say a prospective family can’t afford the adoption fee, but they are a fantastic home and willing to do what they can to take the animal home, ARNI will work with them to work out a payment plan. Same with getting vaccinations, put in a few hours of volunteer work and they’ll help out.
They really are a caring and compassionate group of people. It was wonderful meeting Nickki and seeing what it is she that does for the good of animanls. I fully recommend all of you go look them up and see what they are all about. To find out how you can adopt one of their animals or just simply help them out, head to their website http://arnifoundation.org/, their online store www.arnisays.com or Facebook page for more information.
