Walter Bond Sentenced to 7 years for Two ALF Arsons
Walter Bond unapologetic at Utah sentencing, receives 7 years for two Animal Liberation Front arsons 
Today, Walter Bond was sentenced in Salt Lake City to an additional 87 months for two more Animal Liberation Front arsons, to run consecutive to his current 5-year sentence. Altogether, Bond will serve 12 years for setting fire to three animal abuse targets:
Sheepskin Factory
Denver, Colorado
Set on fire April 30th
$500,000 damages.
The Tandy Leather Factory
Salt Lake City, Utah
Set on fire June 5, 2010
Less than $20,000 damages.
Tiburon
Sandy, Utah
Set on fire July 2, 2010
Approx. $80,000 in damages.
A few notes from those who were present:
*Approximately 10 supporters were in attendance at the hearing.
*Someone associated with Tiburon testified they sustained $80K in damages, a much greater amount than previously reported.
*Walter was said to be relaxed and smiling at his supporters.
Bond was indicted by a federal grand jury after admitting to his brother that he set the fires. The conversation was secretly recorded as part of an ATF sting, and Bond was subsequently arrested and charged with all three of the ALF “Lone Wolf”-claimed arsons.
Bond remained unapologetic at his sentencing. When asked if he had any final words to the court before being sentenced, he made the following statement:
Walter Bond’s Statement to the Court in Utah
“I’m here today because of the arsons I committed at the Tandy Leather Factory in Salt Lake City and the Tiburon restaurant in Sandy, Utah, which sells the incredibly cruel product foie gras. The U.S. attorney wants to give me the maximum sentence and beyond not because of my “crimes” but because I am unrepentant and outspoken. My intuition tells me that this court is not going to show me mercy because I become suddenly sorry. So instead of lying to the court in a feeble attempt to save myself, as I’m certain many do when they face their sentencing day, allow me instead to tell you what I am sorry for.
I am sorry that when I was 19 years old I built two slaughterhouses that are still killing animals even now as I speak. I am sorry that Tandy Leather sells skin that has been ripped from the dead, and often live bodies of such animals as cows, ostriches, rabbits, snakes and pigs. I am sorry that the leather tanneries that supply Tandy Leather Factory poison the Earth with dangerous chemicals. I am sorry that the restaurant Tiburon profits from the force feeding of geese and ducks until their livers explode so that rich people can then use that as a pate for crackers and bread. I am sorry that they make a living from the dead bodies of wild and exotic animals. I am sorry that we live in a day and age where you can rape a child or beat a woman unconscious and receive less prison time than an animal liberation activist that attacked property instead of people.
I am sorry that my brother was so desperate to get out of debt that he flew from Iowa to Colorado just to get me in a taped and monitored conversation for reward money. I am sorry I am biologically related to such a worthless little snitch. I am sorry that I waited so long to become an Animal Liberation Front operative. For all of these things I will always have some regret. But as far as the arsons at the Leather Factory and Tiburon, I have no remorse.
I realize that the laws of the land favor a businesses ability to make a profit over an animals right to life. It also used to favor white business owners ability to profit from a black persons slavery. It also used to favor a husbands ability to viciously attack his wife and act on her as if she were an object. Those who broke the law and damaged property to stand against those oppressions were also called “terrorists” and “fanatics” in their time but that did not change the fact that society progressed and is still progressing along those lines.
So today I’m the bad guy. That is just a matter of historical coincidence. Who knows, perhaps a less brutal and less violent society will one day exist that will understand that life and Earth are more important that products of death and cruelty. And if not then to hell with it all anyway! Weather my supporters or detractors think I am a freedom fighter or a lunatic with a gas can makes no difference to me. I have spent years verifiably promoting, supporting and fighting for Animal Liberation. I have seen the animal victims of human injustice, thousands of them with my own eyes and what I saw was blood, guts and gore! I made a promise to those animals and to myself to fight for them in anyway I could. I regret none of it, and I never will!
You can take my freedom, but you can’t have my submission.
Walter Bond
A.L.F. – P.O.W.
X Lone V Wolf X”
www.supportwalter.org
Until he is moved to a federal prison, Bond can receive letters of support at:
Davis County Jail
Walter Bond 2011-03339
PO Box 130
Farmington UT 84025-0130
– Peter Young
I think the reason that he is receiving a long sentence in relation to other criminals is not so much that the court has something specifically against animal rights advocates, but that he is an arsonist who seems to indicate that he plans to continue to start fires. It is fairly standard practice in the courts to not show leniency to individuals who actively claim that they intend to continue to engage in such dangerous activity. While there is certainly great disparity in sentencing, with some crimes fetching disproportionately high sentences, serial, unrepentant arson is far from a victimless property crime. His arson did in these instances only damage property, but arson by nature creates extremely dangerous situations and if he is not stopped from this activity, he will invariably kill someone….most likely a firefighter or a worker who he did not realize was still inside the building. And, his arson really doesn’t accomplish much other than make the public at large have an image of animal rights advocates as violent psychopaths. The dollar amount of damages to the fur trade done by his arson petty compared to what he could have done with twelve years of real work (talking to people from outside the ALF, advocating political change, etc). Hopefully while in prison he will receive counseling, meet some people outside of the upper class ALF world, and come to understand the lunacy of what he has done.
Walter doesn’t fit into the normal category of the lunatic impulsive violent rebel of a sick society , in name of animal rights. True, in a way he is wasting 12 years of his still young active life , into a prison while he could have spread the Vegan message in his own way, perhaps taking from the quitting slaughterhouses building job. However Walter s words and considerations reflect a lucid intelligent mind, suggesting me that he made the choice to live a kind of life as most of the animals do. In this way he offers his life to the animals cause with an extremely generous act of renounce of personal freedom, freedom which doesn’t bring happiness to him nor to all the sensitive compassionate people who cant forget the horror in the animal kingdom from the human selfish madness.
He received a severe punishment because he likely could do again?
To me it’s not the point: Walter achieved what he was aiming to, and I feel sorry for all the people that aren’t getting it and they preach and stand out for a ..safe way to fight for the voiceless, risking nothing, with all the “good reasons” out of the common sense of a mind set which smells of meat!
Keep your integrity, Walter!
WALTER BOND is the definitive HERO! Until the human race evolves beyond it’s moral & intellectual bankruptcy, direct action MUST be utilized to immediately END/STOP the wanton SLAUGHTER & KILLING of LIFE, to end the injustices that are the status quo.
…….and on a personal note…THANK YOU Walter, for being what humanity is SUPPOSED to, you are a shining example of the change one person CAN affect, and countless numbers of us will ALWAYS be grateful to you, your actions & your commitment….you INSPIRE, beautiful human, beautiful friend <3
California was right to pass a law banning the cruel force-feeding of ducks for foie gras. Even California’s sole foie gras factory farm supported passing the law! See http://www.humanesociety.org/CAFoieGras for more info.
I’m not sure if any of you know this but arson is illegal no matter who you are. For those in doubt, http://law.justia.com/codes/utah/2011/title76/chapter6/section102.html
Walter Bond did something amazing. He stood up against a system which profits from the enslavement, torture, and destruction of sentient life. He stood up against the enforcers of such a system. He stood for a better way and what it means to back up your values of the rights of sentient life over those of monetary gain. No one has the right to enslave. No one has the right to set themselves above another’s life. The system which imprisoned him is no different. Here the law reflects the prejudices of a cruel and unfair time. Their enforcers reflect nothing but their inability t think for themselves. It is the ones who profit from such trade that deserve jail.
“One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”[fn]Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963.