Rodney Adam Coronado (born July 3, 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.
A former proponent of the use of direct action to end what he sees as cruelty to animals and destruction of the environment, Coronado was jailed in 1995 in connection with an arson attack on research facilities at Michigan State University. The incident, which caused $125,000 worth of damage and destroyed 32 years of research data, was part of the ALF's "Operation Bite Back," a series of attacks on animal-testing and fur facilities in the U.S. during the 1990s.
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." 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.
Coronado is of Yaqui heritage and lives in Tucson, Arizona. He has a long history of activism, particularly through incendiary tactics. In 1985, at the age of 19, he joined the crew of the conservation ship, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and on November 9, 1986, he and another activist, David Howitt, sank two ships, the Hvalur 6 and Hvalur 7, accounting for half of Iceland's whaling fleet. Before scuttling the ships, Coronado and Howitt caused $2 million worth of damage to the Icelandic whaling station. Coronado wrote about this action in the animal rights magazine No Compromise.
In 1995, Coronado was convicted and sentenced to 57 months in prison in connection with the February 28, 1992 arson attack on research facilities at Michigan State University (MSU), which caused $125,000 worth of damage. He was also involved in an Animal Liberation Front (ALF) action, releasing mink from a nearby MSU mink research farm, wrecking equipment and opening animals' cages. As a condition of his sentence, Coronado was ordered to pay MSU $2 million in restitution. In 1992 the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (revised in 2006 to Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act), enacted largely in response to the MSU attacks, was the first legislation adding sabotage as a defined activity of eco-terrorism.
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JáH (y) 20.11.2015
Source: Wikipedia