Walter Bond requests letters to his judge asking for the lowest possible sentence
Walter is facing sentencing for two Animal Liberation Front arsons: Tandy Leather Factory and Tiburon (foie gras restaurant), both near Salt Lake City. Sentencing is set for October 13th,and Walter Bond is requesting you write a letter to the judge.
“Write a letter today to Judge Stewart, requesting the minimum sentence for Walter Bond. Your letter will help to give a more 3-dimensional and personal perspective on the positive character attributes Walter possesses and how highly he is valued by his friends and associates. The judge who handled Walter’s case in Denver made a point to say that she read over 50 letters people like you and me sent her way before handing down the minimum penalty.
Address a formal business letter to:
The Honorable Judge Ted Stewart (more…)
Animal Liberation Front cuts away fencing, release elk from farm
On the night of August 29th, the Animal Liberation Front raided the Damascus Elk Farm (23255 SE Highway 212) in Clackamas, Oregon. Fencing was stripped away, giving the animals a chance at escape. According to the communique received by the Animal Liberation Press Office, the ALF were forced to make a premature departure in the middle of the raid due to a “disturbance”.
This is the second deer farm raid in Oregon in the past year, and the third ever in the U.S. The previous raid took place in October 2010 at a deer farm in Molalla, Oregon. That action followed the same model: fencing was stripped away from pens, allowing the animals to escape into the surrounding countryside.
The full communique reads:
“On the night of August 29th, a small band of animal liberationists crept quietly onto the property of Damascus Elk Farm located at 23255 SE Highway 212 in Clackamas, OR. This farm raises dozens of Roosevelt Elk for commercial slaughter. Once we made it to the elk pens, wire cutters were used to successfully remove a large section of fencing from one of the pens. Unfortunately due to a disturbance, we had to cut our action short and we were unable to open the remaining pens. The total number of animals (if any) that got away is unknown, but the intent of our action should be made perfectly clear: to prevent directly the violence that is inherent to animal agriculture and to liberate sentient animal back into their native habitat.
Across the country there are thousands of elk and deer being held captive on farms, waiting to be liberated back into the wild. These acts of liberation are generally low risk and can directly save the lives of animals. Elk and deer farms have little to no security and the small size of the industry makes these farms particularly vulnerable to sabotage.
With this act we attempted to remove the last barrier between these wild creatures and their new, free lives. Link by link, these barriers will be dismantled in our society, to create a new ethic of freedom and accountability. Assist us in the struggle for liberation, or stand on the wrong side of history.
For all those imprisoned. -Animal Liberation Front”
DeMuth released after serving time for raid that shut down ferret farm
News of this came in late and without much fanfare, but last month Scott DeMuth was quietly released from federal prison. He served six months for the Animal Liberation Front-claimed ferret liberation at a former fur farm in Howard Lake, Minnesota. The prosecutor in the case stated in court the action shut down the farm for good.
Scott DeMuth was originally charged with a role in the 2004 Animal Liberation Front raid of the University of Iowa, in which 401 animals were liberated and $500,000 damages done to the labs. When the prosecution failed to produce evidence of DeMuth’s involvement (he was 17 at the time of the raid), the charges were dismissed in exchange for DeMuth’s guilty plea in the Lakeside Ferrets action.
Reportedly a raid of DeMuth’s home turned up a computer which a computer forensics labs determined was used to look up the address of the farm prior to the raid.
The last month has seen two other animal liberation prisoners released – Jonathan Paul and Kevin KJonaas. Presently, the only two A.L.F. prisoners who remain in jail are Walter Bond and Justin Solondz.
The action
The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the 2006 raid at Lakeside Ferrets. Reportedly, the communique mistakenly described the animals released as mink. The owner Eugene Latzig claimed he had left the mink farming business and began breeding ferrets at some time prior to the raid. The farm was formerly called the Latzig Mink Ranch, and was raided by the Animal Liberation Front in 1996. The business changed its name to Lakeside Ferrets at some point in the years since.
Unexplained fire at Colorado State University completely destroys laboratory
At 1am on July 26th, a fire was reported at the “Equine Reproduction Laboratory”, with 20-foot tall flames engulfing the building. The fire completely destroyed the facility, and damages are estimated at $9 million. The lab was described as a “total loss”.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The FBI has joined local investigators in trying to determine if the fire was deliberately set. As of this writing, neither the Animal Liberation Front nor other clandestine animal liberation group has claimed responsibility.
The lab is considered one of the country’s leading horse reproduction research labs, performing work to benefit the horse racing and horse breeding industries. The lab is described as “world-renown for its ground-breaking research.”
View a slideshow showing the destroyed laboratory here.
This lab would be a legitimate ALF target. I will post all updates on this as yet unexplained fire as I received them.
The FBI makes a visit in Oakland seeking information on Joseph Buddenberg of the AETA 4
This week, the FBI made a home visit seeking to question an unnamed person in Oakland about Joseph Buddenberg of the AETA 4. Buddenberg was indicted on Animal Enterprise Terrorism charges in 2009 as part of the case, charged with participating in a protest campaign against UC-Berkeley animal researchers. The case was thrown out just over a year ago. The government has not officially declared the case closed and has the option to re-indict, however there has been little if any visible movement in the case until this incident.
This is the report of the person who answered the door for the FBI:
“This morning (8/10) I was visited at my house in Berkeley, CA by a woman who quickly identified herself as an FBI agent. She was looking for a housemate who was not home, and mentioned that she had some questions about Joseph Buddenburg. Her demeanor was nice and she assured me a couple times that my housemate was in no trouble and that she “just wanted to talk” and “just had a couple questions.” When I told her that my housemate was not around she asked if I knew Joseph. After I told her I had no idea who Joseph is, the agent gave me her business card, asked my housemate to get in touch with her and left.”
Most lawyers agree the best way to handle a visit by law enforcement is to get their card and then shut the door. There are many reasons why speaking to the FBI is never a good idea. I recommend everyone read the primer on dealing with law enforcement called If An Agent Knocks.
Let’s hope this visit does not indicate a renewed interest in the AETA 4 case, perhaps the most farcical charges in the history of the animal liberation movement.
Mistakenly released by the Bureau of Prisons, an internal memo reveals prison mail screening by an “intelligence analyst”
It’s no secret all prison mail in and out is read by prison employees, regardless of the prisoner’s crime. But a memo mistakenly included in a rejected letter to an ELF prisoner reveals interesting new information: her mail is screened by an “intelligence analyst” in a BOP “counter-terrorism unit”.
The memo appears to have been inserted accidentally into an envelope for a rejected letter to Earth Liberation Front prisoner Joyanna Zacher when it was returned to the sender. The letter was rejected for being “unauthorized material”, according to the official form that was also included. The second document, viewed above, showed specifically who rejected the letter, and why: it contained a review of the film “If a Tree Falls“, a review which the “intelligence analyst” felt advocated violence.
The memo “analyzes” two other pieces of mail. One is cleared, and the second is rejected because a database search showed a former federal prisoner lives at the return address on on the envelope.
During my incarceration from 2005 to 2007, I cannot recall any instance of my mail being rejected based on content which “advocated violence”, and only one content-based rejection during my entire stay. The trend in federal prisons seems to be towards more restrictions on prisoner’s ability to communicate with the world outside, as this memo indicates.
The memo means absolutely nothing new to those who continue to support prisoners by writing them letters, and should in no way dissuade anyone from continuing to write. Incoming mail has always been read in federal prisons.
What is significant is:
1) The Bureau of Prisons has a central “counter-terrorism unit” selectively screening the mail of Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front prisoners, and –
2) They are rejecting mail for those prisoners based on content – content which is presumably allowable for prisoners not deemed “eco-terrorists”.
Kevin Kjonaas, the last of the “SHAC 7” prisoners, is released
After serving four years and nine months of a six-year sentence, Kevin Kjonaas, director of the “Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty” campaign, has been released to a half-way house.
You can welcome him back at:
Kevin Kjonaas
2825 E. Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406
A brief update on accused ALF / ELF prisoner Justin Solondz
The man accused of participating in two arsons – one of them claimed by the Animal Liberation Front – pleaded not guilty to helping set fire to the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture. It was his first court appearance in the US since being extradited from China, where he was apprehended after spending years as a fugitive.
It is not clear when Solondz will appear in court to answer for the Animal Liberation Front-claimed arson charges. He has been charged with releasing wild horses and helping set fire to a BLM wild horse corral in Susanville, CA, in 2001.
Solondz is the latest fugitive apprehended as part of the FBI sweep dubbed the “Green Scare” case.
View a flier made and distributed by Walter Bond before his arrest for Animal Liberation Front arsons
This week I was sent this flier made by Walter Bond, before his arrest for Animal Liberation Front-claimed arsons at Sheepskin Factory, Tiburon, and Tandy Leather Factory. It is very reminiscent of literature that circulated among the grassroots movement in the mid-1990s.
Finishing a four-year sentence for burning down a horse slaughterhouse, Jonathan Paul is released from prison
After 3.2 years in a federal prison and 6 months in a halfway house, Jonathan Paul walked free on July 1st, 2011.
In addition to pleading guilty to the 1997 Animal Liberation Front arson that closed the Cavel West horse slaughterhouse in Redmond, Oregon; Paul also admitted a role in a slew of high-profile ALF raids going back to the 1980s. Among them, the raid on Loma Linda University in 1988, and the University of Arizona in 1989. The latter was the largest laboratory raid in US history.
He released this short statement after his release:
“After almost 3.2 years behind the fence and 6 months at the halfway
house at 5:30 am this morning on July 1, 2011 I have been released
and other than having probation I am finally free from the bureau of
prisons. Thanks for all of your love and support! Yippee! See you
Interview with Walter Bond done one year before his arrest
Before Walter Bond gained attention for setting fire to three animal abuse businesses on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front, he was already known for another act of vigilante justice: burning down the meth lab of a dealer who was selling to his brother. Vegan straight edge band Earth Crisis heard his story, and turned it into the song “To Ashes” in 2009, making Walter well-known in the straight edge movement before his arrest for ALF actions in 2010.
I was sent this brief interview with Walter Bond done on July 28th, 2009, a full year before his arrest. To the best of my knowledge, it is the only existing pre-prison interview with Walter. It is being published here for the first time.
Earth Crisis song “To ashes” deal with a topic which is quite hard, and it concerns you. Can you tell us about it?
Sure, the song “to ashes” is about an arson charge that I received in November of 1997 for burning down the home of a meth dealer (more…)
With every Animal Liberation Front-line article, I make sure it fills one of three criterion: 1) News you won’t read anywhere else. 2) Already reported news with a new angle / increased depth, or 3) Already reported news with a spin that leaves the reader (hopefully) more empowered than scared.
One thing I don’t do is much editorializing. That’s not what this site is for, and as such there are a lot of topics related to the animal liberation movement that don’t get covered.
To fill in a few of those gaps, I’m posting three interviews I’ve done in recent weeks that do a good job of covering important subjects outside the scope of the site.
Citizen Radio (audio interview with Allison Kilkenny and Jamie Kilstein)
Fun interview with great interviewers. Dropping through skylights at 18, finding out the woman you’re dating is working for the FBI, and the best question of all: “What makes you happy?”
Phone interview on finding a place in the movement after prison, working with the filmmakers of Bold Native, the effect of arrests on the underground animal liberation movement, direct action trends over the last 30 years, and how to support the Animal Liberation Front.
Do you mind talking about the reality of being imprisoned and how you felt when you realized you’d reached a point where there is ‘no turning back’ and that ‘by any means necessary’ were the way things had to be done to achieve the aims you wanted?
I came into the movement knowing I was going to prison. Not courting it, but accepting if I acted in a way commensurate with the urgency I felt towards acting to stop what was happening to animals, I would go to prison. From the beginning, stopping animal abuse and the probability of prison were a package deal.(more…)
After three years in a Chinese jail, Justin Solondz is taken into US custody
Justin Solondz spent years on the run before being arrested in China three years ago. This week, after years in a Chinese jail, he was deported and taken into US custody at a Chicago airport.
He is being charged with a role in two actions: the 2001 University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture arson (claimed by the Earth Liberation Front), and the arson and attempted animal release at the 2001 Litchfield Wild Horse and Burro Corral in Susanville, California (claimed by the Animal Liberation Front).
Recently, Solondz’s former girlfriend, Briana Waters, entered into a plea deal in which she agreed to testify against Solondz at his upcoming trial.
A search for his name on the BOP Inmate Locator did not give any results, and his current jail address is not known.
With several cooperating witnesses, he faces a hard legal battle ahead. I will be posting his jail address as soon as it is available. For now, give your silent support to the three remaining fugitives from this FBI sweep dubbed the “Green Scare case”. They are somewhere out there tonight, continuing to be hunted as “terrorists” by the FBI.
Walter Bond pleaded guilty yesterday to two Utah Animal Liberation Front arsons
In a hearing today, Walter Bond changed his plea to “guilty” in charges he set fire to two businesses in the Salt Lake City area. Prosecutors say Bond set fires at the Tandy Leather Factory Store and the Tiburon restaurant. Total damages were more than $10,000. Both were claimed by the Animal Liberation Front.
Bond is already serving a 5-year sentence after pleading guilty in Colorado to burning down Sheepskin Factory, a retail store that sold sheepskins.
This is a view of the burned-out Tandy Leather Factory in Salt Lake City:
A judge set Bond’s sentencing for Sept. 19, where he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Media reports were conflicting, but it appears prosecutors will not be asking for the Utah sentence to run back-to-back with his current Colorado sentence.
An excerpt from the Sheepskin Factory communique, which Bond took credit for:
“Be warned that making a living from the use and abuse of animals will not be tolerated,” ALF Lone Wolf wrote in the aftermath of the Sheepskin Factory fire. “Also be warned that leather is every bit as evil as fur, as demonstrated in my recent arson against the Leather Factory in Salt Lake City. Go vegan!”
