Mike has been vegan for over ten years, and became involved with the animal liberation movement while living in Portugal as an English teacher. Upon returning to his hometown of Mount Pearl, he quickly became involved with organizing the local chapters of the Animal Save Movement and Anonymous for the Voiceless, and engages in street outreach, vigils, and other social justice activism. He is also passionate about neurodiversity acceptance, philosophy, psychology, and law.

From living a difficult childhood followed by a four-year period of military service with undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder, eventually receiving a diagnosis in his early twenties, Mike learned to identify with other stigmatized or misunderstood groups. It was evident that the spectrum of consciousness naturally extended to nonhuman animals, and that the speciesism and objectification they endure from humans is the same discrimination and stigmatization that neurodiverse humans face in its most extreme form.

Professionally, Mike is an academic tutor and content developer, helping students both in person and online, and creating and reviewing educational materials in the fields of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. His varied life experiences have led to the realization that a cultural shift towards a more fair and just world for all individual beings is not only imperative, but inevitable. He believes that to survive, humanity must evolve and recognize that the great power it currently holds over the Earth and all of its inhabitants does not bestow the right to oppress, exploit, and abuse them with impunity, but rather a great responsibility to protect and care for them by extending the ‘sphere of compassion’.