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Rod Coronado

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Rod Coronado
Born
Rodney Adam Coronado

(1966-07-03) July 3, 1966 (age 58)
San Jose, California, US
Known forAnimal rights, environmental activism, arson

Rodney Adam Coronado (born 1966) is a Native American (Pascua Yaqui) eco-anarchist and animal rights activist. He is an advocate and former activist for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and a spokesperson for the Earth Liberation Front. He was a crew member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and a member of the editorial collective of the Earth First! Journal.[1] Coronado was jailed in 1995 in connection with an arson attack on research facilities at Michigan State University, which caused $125,000 worth of damage and destroyed 32 years of research data.

In 2006, while imprisoned for felony conspiracy and awaiting trial on further charges, Coronado expressed a change in his personal philosophy inspired by fatherhood. In an open letter, he wrote, "Don't ask me how to burn down a building. Ask me how to grow watermelons or how to explain nature to a child," explaining that he wants to be remembered, not as a "man of destruction but [as] a human believer in peace and love for all."[2] He was released on probation in December 2008, but was imprisoned again for four months in August 2010 for accepting a "friend request" on Facebook from an environmental activist, Mike Roselle, which was deemed a violation of his probation.[3]

Early life and activism

Rod Coronado was born in 1966[4] to Pascua Yaqui indigenous ancestry and raised in California. 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.[5]

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.[6] About $2 million in damage had been done (equivalent to $6 million in 2023).[7]

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, the 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.[8] 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.[9] The campaign continued during his imprisonment with a focus on freeing animals rather than economic sabotage.[8] The 1992 federal Animal Enterprise Protection Act, which was built to protect animal-based businesses, had been crafted largely in response to Coronado.[10]

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.[11] 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.[12][13] From 2006 to 2007, Coronado served eight months[14] of a ten-month federal sentence.[15]

Amidst the backdrop of the Green Scare, a period of federal crackdown on radical environmental and animal rights activism,[16] the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Coronado in February 2006[14] as part of its Operation Backfire.[17] 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.[15] A grand jury led to charges that Coronado demonstrated an explosive device with intent to commit a crime.[14]

Fatherhood and years of imprisonment changed Coronado's priorities.[9] 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[9] 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 a American University (2003).[14] But parenting, he wrote, makes parents "practice the very principles [they] seek to teach [their] children".[9]

In 2007, Coronado stood trial in San Diego on charges related to his speech in 2003 in Hillcrest. After two days of deliberations, the jury remained deadlocked, and on September 19, 2007, Judge Jeffrey Miller declared a mistrial.[18] Coronado subsequently entered a guilty plea, accepting a deal for a one-year prison term, as a result of which he was sentenced on March 27, 2008 to one year and one day. He was released from El Reno FCI on December 25, 2008.[19]

Parole violation

In August 2010, Coronado was sentenced to four months in federal prison in Michigan for violating the terms of his probation. Coronado, who had been on parole since his release from prison, joined the social networking site Facebook. He was sentenced for the use of an unauthorized computer, and for "friending" former Earth First! co-founder Mike Roselle.[20] Coronado entered the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, Michigan on September 16 with BOP#03895-000.[21] He was released January 14, 2011.[22]

Strong Hearts

Strong Hearts was a zine written and published by Coronado during his prison sentence for crimes committed on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front.[23]

Wolf Patrol

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.[9]

Personal life

Coronado's son was born around 2002. As of 2007, he was engaged and his partner had a young daughter.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Satya Interview: Freedom from the Cages". Archived from the original on August 7, 2019. Retrieved January 18, 2006.
  2. ^ "Convicted eco-terrorist pursues legal protection of Great Lakes wolves | Great Lakes Echo". greatlakesecho.org. July 9, 2015. Archived from the original on September 15, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  3. ^ "Facebook "Friending" Leads to Jail : Discovery News". web.archive.org. August 29, 2010. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Norrell, Brenda (December 8, 1999). "Sierra Club honors Yaqui animal rights activists". Indian Country Today. p. B2. ISSN 1066-5501. ProQuest 362610777.
  6. ^ Derr & McNamara 2003, p. 28.
  7. ^ "Saboteurs Wreck Whale-Oil Plant in Iceland". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 11, 1986. ISSN 0362-4331.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Swedlund, Eric (December 10, 2004). "New charge for Sabino lion-hunt intruders". Arizona Daily Star. p. B2. ISSN 0888-546X. ProQuest 389594480.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ a b Carter, Edward C. (2016). Criminal Law and Procedure for the Paralegal. Wolters Kluwer. p. 122. ISBN 978-1-4548-7352-5.
  16. ^ "Rev. of Operation Bite Back: Rod Coronado's War to Save American Wilderness". Kirkus Reviews. May 1, 2009. ISSN 1948-7428. ProQuest 917359296.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ Hoffmann, Allison (April 12, 2008). "Mistrial Declared for Radical Environmentalist". ABC News. Retrieved September 3, 2021. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= requires |archive-url= (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ^ Moran, Greg (April 10, 2008). "Animal rights activist tells of regret before sentencing". Wayback Machine. Retrieved September 3, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ^ Frank, Matthew (August 24, 2010). "Facebook "friending" lands activist Rod Coronado in prison". Missoula Independent. Archived from the original on August 29, 2010. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  21. ^ Wright, Shana. "Rod's Sentence Begins Today". Support Rod Coronado. Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
  22. ^ "Federal Bureau of Prisons". Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
  23. ^ "Animal Rights Activist Speaks at Tucson, Ariz., Gathering". Tribune Business News. Knight Ridder. November 30, 1999.

Bibliography

Further reading

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