Rod Coronado | |
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 Coronado, 2014 | |
| Born | Rodney Adam Coronado (1966-07-03)July 3, 1966 (age 59) |
| Known for | Animal rights, environmental activism, arson |
Rodney Adam Coronado (born July 3, 1966) is an indigenous Americananimal rights andenvironmental activist known for his militantdirect actions in the late 1980s and 1990s. As part of theSea Shepherd Conservation Society, hesank two whaling ships and destroyed Iceland's sole whale-processing facility in 1986. He led theAnimal Liberation Front'sOperation 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 aMichigan 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 federalAnimal 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 withEarth 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 ingray wolf conservation in the contiguous United States. He foundedWolf Patrol, a nonprofit organisation that monitors treatment of wolves and reports illegal wolf hunting.
Rod Coronado was born in 1966[1] ofPascua Yaqui Indigenous ancestry and raised in California.[2] He was not registered with the tribe as of 2006 for political reasons.[3] As a child, he was teased for his love of nature. Among his formative experiences, the television video of a Canadian commercialseal hunt affected him deeply. He joined theSea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-whaling activistdirect action group, as a teenager.[2]
Coronado later joined the radical environmentalist groupEarth First!, and theAnimal Liberation Front, an undergroundanimal rights group that released animals fromfur farms andresearch facilities.[2]In November 1986, Coronado and David Howittsunk two whaling ships inReykjavík harbor and sabotaged Iceland's sole whale-processing facility inHvalfjord. The two 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 withcyanic acid andsledgehammers over eight hours. They drove 50 miles south to Reykjavík, where they boarded two of the whaling company's four ships and opened theirsea valves. Watchmen prevented them from accessing the other ships. Coronado and Howitt fled to Luxembourg via plane.[4] About $2 million in damage had been done (equivalent to $6 million in 2024).[5]
Coronado designed and led the Animal Liberation Front's early 1990s campaign against the fur industry and its supporting research institutions, known asOperation Bite Back. The first attack, on 10 June 1991, was arson onOregon State University's experimental mink farm, burning research records and leading to the facility's closure. Within a week, another attack firebombed theEdmonds, Washington, Northwest Farm Food Cooperative, which supplied mink feed. In August, activists attacked aWashington State University mink farm. In February 1992, Coronado and two other Animal Liberation Front activists burned aMichigan 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 federalAnimal 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 magazineStrong Hearts.[2]
Following threats of mountain lions looming in the foothills ofTucson, theArizona Game and Fish Department announced a hunt within theSabino 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 anEsquire 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 theGreen Scare, a period of federal crackdown on radical environmental and animal rights activism,[14] theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Coronado in February 2006[12] as part of itsOperation 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] Agrand 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 anopen 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 anAmerican 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 amistrial with ahung 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 havefriended activistMike Roselle onFacebook in violation of his probation.[18]
Coronado has been involved withgrey wolf conservation in the contiguous United States since 2013. He foundedWolf Patrol, a non-profit environmental group that monitors treatment of wolves and reports illegal wolf hunting.[7]
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]
In fact, this law was primarily developed to stop one individual—Rodney Coronado.
Media related toRod Coronado at Wikimedia Commons
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