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98———Coronado, Rodney (1966– )

“Guardian Unlimited Special Reports: The London Nail and fur-animal research facilities at universities in
Bombs.” The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/ Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Michigan and brought
bombs/0,2759,190332,00.html. operations at the Malecky Mink Ranch in Yamhill,
Hopkins, Nick, and Sarah Hall. “David Copeland: A Quiet Oregon, and the Northwest Fur Farm Food Co-op in
Introvert, Obsessed With Hitler and Bombs.” The Edmonds, Washington, to what appears to be a per-
Guardian, June 30, 2000. http://www.guardian.co.uk/ manent end. Although no one was injured, these acts
bombs/Story/0,2763,338345,00.html.
Reynolds, Mark. “Bomber Wanted to Upset Tony Blair: caused several million dollars in damages. Federal
Killer Targeted Gay Pub ‘Because It Was Full of Men investigators later linked Coronado to the site of each
Hugging Each Other.’” Daily Mail, June 9, 2000, 43. of these actions.
Further investigations showed that Coronado was a
key organizer of each of these ALF initiatives, includ-
ing an aborted proposal to free the “Silver Spring
CORONADO, RODNEY (1966– )
Monkeys” from Tulane University in 1990. During a
aka Jim Perez, Martin Rubio search of Coronado’s storage locker in Talent,
Oregon, investigators discovered plans to target two
Montana fur farms, as well as proof that he had stolen
Rodney Coronado, a member of the Animal
Liberation Front (ALF), was the first radical animal a historical artifact—a notebook of one of Custer’s
rights activist to serve time in a federal prison for his soldiers—from the Little Bighorn National Park.
In July 1993, a federal grand jury in western
actions against animal exploitation in the United
Michigan indicted Coronado for his part in the ALF
States. In 1995, he was sentenced to 57 months in
raid on the Michigan State University’s Experimental
prison for his involvement in ALF’s five-state antifur
Fur Farm. Coronado, who had gone into hiding after
campaign during the early 1990s.
Operation Bite Back, was captured in November
Coronado became involved in animal rights early in
1994, on the Pasqua Pueblo Indian reservation in
life, claiming that a documentary film on the slaughter
Arizona, where he lived with his tribe, the Yaqui. On
of harp seals converted him into an activist at age 12.
March 3, 1995, Coronado pleaded guilty to aiding
By 18, he had joined the Sea Shepard Conservation
and abetting arson and to one count of theft of U.S.
Society, an antiwhaling direct-action organization
government property. He served almost four years in
founded by Paul Watson in 1977. Watson’s goal was to
prison and then moved to Eugene, Oregon. Although
inflict economic damage on whaling and other marine
he has been prohibited from further association with
industries, by using his boat, the Sea Shepard, to dis-
the ALF, Coronado has continued to publish his ideas
rupt whaling activities and even ram whaling boats at
in the Earth First! Journal and the pro-ALF maga-
sea. Coronado was an engineer on the Sea Shepard. In
zine, No Compromise.
November 1986, he helped sabotage a whaling station
in Reykjavik, Iceland, and sink two of Iceland’s four See also ANIMAL LIBERATION FRONT; ANIMAL RIGHTS
whaling ships, causing damage estimated at $2.7 MOVEMENT
million. This action, along with his role in vandalizing
nine fur salons in Vancouver, earned Coronado a repu- Further Reading
tation in the animal rights community. As early as
Scarce, Rik. Eco-warriors: Understanding the Radical
1987, the FBI and Department of Justice had identified
Environmental Movement. Chicago: Noble, 1990.
him as a threat.
Tobias, Michael. “Animal Liberation.” In Voices From the
By 1990, Coronado had become involved with Underground: For the Love of Animals. Pasadena, CA:
the Coalition Against Fur Farms (CAFF). For nine New Paradigm, 1999.
months, he worked undercover in a fur-ranching
community in Montana to gather information about
industry practices. Over the next two years, COUNTERTERRORISM
Coronado’s findings were used to carry out Operation
Bite Back—arson, destruction of property, burglary,
vandalism, and theft used to disrupt the fur-farming Counterterrorism is the use of personnel and
industry. In the early 1990s, ALF sabotaged fur farms resources to preempt, disrupt, or destroy capabilities of