American animal rights and environmental activist
Rod Coronado
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Rod_Coronado%2C_2014.jpg/220px-Rod_Coronado%2C_2014.jpg) Coronado, 2014
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Born
| Rodney Adam Coronado
(
1966-07-03
)
July 3, 1966
(age 57)
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Known for
| Animal rights
, environmental activism, arson
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Rodney Adam Coronado
(born July 3, 1966) is an American
animal rights
and
environmental activist
known for his militant
direct actions
in the late 1980s and 1990s. As part of the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
, he
sank two whaling ships
and destroyed Iceland's sole whale-processing facility in 1986. He led the
Animal Liberation Front
's
Operation Bite Back
campaign against the fur industry and its supporting institutions in the early 1990s, which was involved in multiple firebombings. Following an attack on a
Michigan State University
mink research center in early 1992, Coronado was jailed for nearly five years. He later admitted to being the sole perpetrator. The 1992 federal
Animal Enterprise Protection Act
was created in response to his actions. The operation continued with a focus on liberating animals rather than property destruction. Coronado also worked with
Earth First
.
His activism continued in the 2000s. He was jailed another eight months in 2004 for sabotaging an Arizona mountain lion hunt and was targeted under an anti-terrorism law in 2006 for having recounted details of his Michigan State incendiary device in a public setting. During his active sentence, he renounced violent tactics, influenced by years of imprisonment and his new fatherhood. He served an additional year for the incendiary device charge and an additional four months for a probation violation. Since 2013, Coronado has been involved in
gray wolf
conservation in the contiguous United States. He founded Wolf Patrol, a nonprofit that monitors treatment of wolves and reports illegal wolf hunting.
Early life and activism
[
edit
]
Coronado explaining wolf traps in 2014
Rod Coronado was born in 1966
[1]
of
Pascua Yaqui
Indigenous ancestry and raised in California.
[2]
(He was not registered with the tribe as of 2006.
[3]
) As a child, he was teased for his love of nature. Among his formative experiences, the television video of a Canadian commercial
seal hunt
affected him deeply. He joined the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
, an anti-whaling activist
direct action
group, as a teenager. Coronado later joined
Earth First!
, its editorial board, and the
Animal Liberation Front
, an underground
animal rights
group that released animals from
fur farms
and
research
facilities.
[2]
In November 1986, Rod Coronado and David Howitt
sunk two whaling ships
in
Reykjavik
harbor and sabotaged Iceland's sole whale-processing facility in
Hvalfjord
. The two members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society had spent weeks in Iceland working at a fish processing factory and plotting their action. On November 8, the pair dismantled the Hvalfjord facility's computer files, refrigeration, and laboratory equipment with
cyanic acid
and
sledgehammers
over eight hours. They drove 50 miles south to Reykjavik, where they boarded two of the whaling company's four ships and opened their
sea valves
. Watchmen prevented them from accessing the other ships. Coronado and Howitt fled to Luxembourg via plane.
About $2 million in damage had been done (equivalent to $6 million in 2023).
[5]
Coronado designed and led the Animal Liberation Front's early 1990s campaign against the fur industry and its supporting research institutions, known as
Operation Bite Back
. The first attack, in June 1991, was arson on
Oregon State University
's experimental mink farm, burning research records and leading to the facility's closure. Within a week, another attack firebombed the
Edmonds, Washington
, Northwest Farm Food Cooperative, which supplied mink feed. In August, activists attacked a
Washington State University
mink farm. In February 1992, Coronado and two other Animal Liberation Front activists burned a
Michigan State University
mink research center, causing $200,000 in damages and incinerating 32 years of research. In 1995, Coronado was sentenced to 57 months of jail, three years probation, and a $2 million fine.
[6]
Coronado had said that he was not involved in the attack apart from serving as a spokesperson for the Animal Liberation Front, and took the lesser charge of aiding in the attack to avoid a trial and drop charges from other attacks. Only 25 years later did Coronado admit to being the attack's sole perpetrator.
[7]
The campaign continued during his imprisonment with a focus on freeing animals rather than economic sabotage.
[6]
The 1992 federal
Animal Enterprise Protection Act
, which was built to protect animal-based businesses, had been crafted largely in response to Coronado.
[8]
While in prison, Coronado created and wrote the magazine
Strong Hearts
.
[2]
Following threats of mountain lions looming in the foothills of
Tucson
, the
Arizona Game and Fish Department
announced a hunt within the
Sabino Canyon
area on March 10, 2004. With split scientific opinion on the merit of lion relocation and ten days of protests, the department attempted to move the lions but found few tracks. The climax of the protests was Coronado's arrest, on March 24, for spreading lion scent in the park to sabotage tracking dogs. The hunt was called off four days later.
[9]
Coronado, Earth First activist Matthew Crozier, and an
Esquire
journalist accompanying them were charged with trespassing during an emergency order of closure and interfering with an officer.
[10]
[11]
From 2006 to 2007, Coronado served eight months
[12]
of a ten-month federal sentence.
[13]
Amidst the backdrop of the
Green Scare
, a period of federal crackdown on radical environmental and animal rights activism,
[14]
the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) arrested Coronado in February 2006
[12]
as part of its
Operation Backfire
.
[15]
Years prior, in August 2003, Coronado gave a speech in San Diego on activist rights that the FBI recorded. In response to an audience question about the Michigan State arson, Coronado used a nearby juice container to explain how the incendiary device worked.
[13]
A
grand jury
led to charges that Coronado demonstrated an explosive device with intent to commit a crime.
[12]
Fatherhood and years of imprisonment changed Coronado's priorities.
[7]
Later in 2006, before the incendiary device case went to court and while serving time for the mountain lion case, Coronado wrote an
open letter
from prison renouncing violence as a means for social pressure
[7]
in consideration of how legal efforts and prison time had affected his life, family, and young children. This approach was a departure for Coronado, who by now was an underground celebrity among environmental and animal rights radicals. He had become known for his illegal direct actions and longstanding public advocacy for militant tactics, with prominent recent appearances on national television (
60 Minutes
in 2005) and speaking at an
American University
(2003).
[12]
But parenting, he wrote, makes parents "practice the very principles [they] seek to teach [their] children".
[7]
The incendiary device case ended as a
mistrial
with a
hung jury
.
[16]
He pled guilty and in March 2008 was sentenced to a year of prison in exchange for other dropped cases and to "move on with [his] life", having already committed to a changed outlook on violence.
[17]
Coronado was released in 2009. The next year, a judge sent him back to prison for four months after Coronado was found to have
friended
activist
Mike Roselle
on
Facebook
in violation of his probation.
[18]
Coronado has been involved with
grey wolf
conservation in the contiguous United States since 2013. He founded
Wolf Patrol
, a non-profit environmental group that monitors treatment of wolves and reports illegal wolf hunting.
[7]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Coronado was married in 2007 and has two children:
[17]
a son born in 2001 and his wife's daughter, born prior to their partnership.
[12]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Watkins, Mary; Bradshaw, G. A. (June 25, 2019).
Mutual Accompaniment and the Creation of the Commons
. Yale University Press. p. 258.
ISBN
978-0-300-23614-9
.
- ^
a
b
c
Norrell, Brenda (December 8, 1999). "Sierra Club honors Yaqui animal rights activists".
Indian Country Today
. p. B2.
ISSN
1066-5501
.
ProQuest
362610777
.
- ^
Beal, Tom (July 26, 2006).
"Feathers bring more charges for activist"
.
Arizona Daily Star
. pp. B1?B2.
- ^
"Saboteurs Wreck Whale-Oil Plant in Iceland"
.
The New York Times
.
Associated Press
. November 11, 1986.
ISSN
0362-4331
.
Archived
from the original on November 23, 2021
. Retrieved
November 23,
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Posluszna, Elzbieta (January 29, 2015).
Environmental and Animal Rights Extremism, Terrorism, and National Security
. Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 83.
ISBN
978-0-12-801704-3
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Hawkins, Derek (February 27, 2017).
"
'We wanted them to live in fear': Animal rights activist admits to university bombing 25 years later"
.
Washington Post
.
ISSN
0190-8286
.
ProQuest
1872561529
Gale
A483080985
.
Archived
from the original on October 11, 2019
. Retrieved
September 15,
2021
.
- ^
Zellhoefer, Aaron (2013).
"Animal Enterprise Acts and the Prosecution of the 'SHAC 7': An Insider's Perspective"
. In Socha, Kim; Blum, Sarahjane (eds.).
Confronting Animal Exploitation: Grassroots Essays on Liberation and Veganism
. McFarland. p. 249.
ISBN
978-0-7864-6575-0
.
In fact, this law was primarily developed to stop one individual?Rodney Coronado.
- ^
Davis, Tony (May 24, 2004). "Cougar hunt creates uproar; Following a sensational search, Arizona residents push for tougher protections for mountain lions".
High Country News
. p. 5.
ISSN
0191-5657
.
ProQuest
363058233
.
- ^
Swedlund, Eric (December 10, 2004). "New charge for Sabino lion-hunt intruders".
Arizona Daily Star
. p. B2.
ISSN
0888-546X
.
ProQuest
389594480
.
- ^
Powers, Ashley (May 4, 2004). "THE OUTDOORS DIGEST; Journalist snared; When reporters accompany activists, do they get the story or do they become the story?".
Los Angeles Times
. p. F.3.
ISSN
0458-3035
.
ProQuest
421925773
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Archibold, Randal C. (May 3, 2007).
"Facing Trial Under Terror Law, Radical Claims a New Outlook"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
.
Archived
from the original on November 14, 2021
. Retrieved
November 23,
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Carter, Edward C. (2016).
Criminal Law and Procedure for the Paralegal
. Wolters Kluwer. p. 122.
ISBN
978-1-4548-7352-5
.
- ^
"Rev. of Operation Bite Back: Rod Coronado's War to Save American Wilderness"
.
Kirkus Reviews
. May 1, 2009.
ISSN
1948-7428
.
ProQuest
917359296
.
- ^
Bezanson, Kate; Webber, Michelle (2016).
Rethinking Society in the 21st Century, Fourth Edition: Critical Readings in Sociology
. Canadian Scholars’ Press. p. 148.
ISBN
978-1-55130-936-1
.
Archived
from the original on November 14, 2021
. Retrieved
November 14,
2021
.
- ^
"California: Mistrial in Ecoterror Case"
.
The New York Times
.
The Associated Press
. September 21, 2007.
ISSN
0362-4331
.
Archived
from the original on June 5, 2015
. Retrieved
November 24,
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Moran, Greg (April 10, 2008).
"Animal rights activist tells of regret before sentencing"
.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
.
Archived
from the original on April 10, 2008
. Retrieved
September 3,
2021
.
- ^
Kouddous, Sharif Abdel; Goodman, Amy (September 8, 2010).
"Jailed for Facebook Friending: Animal Rights Activist Rod Coronado Ordered Back to Prison After Accepting Friend Request from Fellow Activist"
.
Democracy Now!
.
Archived
from the original on October 10, 2010
. Retrieved
November 24,
2021
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Coronado, Rod (2004).
"Direct Actions Speak Louder than Words"
(PDF)
. In
Best, Steven
; Nocella II, Anthony J. (eds.).
Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of Animals
.
Lantern Books
. pp. 178?184.
ISBN
978-1590560549
.
Archived
from the original on September 3, 2021
. Retrieved
September 3,
2021
.
- Coronado, Rod (2011).
Flaming Arrows: Collected Writings of Animal Liberation Front Warrior Rod Coronado
. Warcry Communications.
ISBN
978-0-9842844-5-0
- Brown, Alleen; Knefel, John (September 1, 2018).
"The FBI Tried to Use the #MeToo Moment to Pressure an Environmental Activist Into Becoming an Informant"
.
The Intercept
.
Archived
from the original on November 14, 2021
. Retrieved
November 14,
2021
.
- Kuipers, Dean (June 1995).
"The Tracks of the Coyote"
.
Rolling Stone
. Retrieved
November 24,
2021
.
- Rietmulder, Michael (November 2, 2015).
"How Wolf Patrol's Rod Coronado is pissing off Wisconsin hunters"
.
City Pages
.
Archived
from the original on August 30, 2017
. Retrieved
August 30,
2017
.
- Scarce
, Rik. Eco-Warriors (2006) (
ISBN
1-59874-028-8
)
- Taylor, Bron (2008).
"Rodney Coronado and the Animal Liberation Front"
.
Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature
. A&C Black. pp. 1331?.
ISBN
978-1-4411-2278-0
.
Archived
from the original on November 14, 2021
. Retrieved
November 14,
2021
.
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Rod Coronado
at Wikimedia Commons
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