Operation Bite Back: Rod Coronado's War to Save American Wilderness (eBook)

Description

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Dean Kuipers takes us behind the scenes of the Animal Liberation Front and its punk-anarchist sibling the Earth Liberation Front, two of the most notorious and violent environmental groups and one of the FBI's biggest domestic terrorist priorities--even in the wake of 9/11. Kuipers tells us the story of ALF and ELF through Rod Coronado, an eco-terrorist and animal rights activist who has served jail time on several convictions in connection with his radical activities. From his teenage association with the Sea Shepherd and Earth First! through the federal manhunt that transformed him into a folk hero, Coronado's story parallels a movement that has led to over 1,200 acts of sabotage, $1 billion in damages, and a legal showdown that will define America's relationship to environmentalism. Neither a biography nor a polemic about animal rights, Operation Bite Back tells the outlaw tale of a man who acted on well-defined principles to carry out a campaign of political sabotage, putting his life on the line for an environmental movement that ultimately couldn't afford to be identified with his extreme actions.

About the Author

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Dean Kuipers is an editor at the Los Angeles Times. He has been an editor at Los Angeles CityBeat and Spin and is a longtime writer on the radical environmental movement. He is the author of Burning Rainbow Farm, a 2007 Michigan Notable Book. He lives in Los Angeles.

Praise for Operation Bite Back: Rod Coronado's War to Save American Wilderness…

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"[A] fast and furious trip into the underground of North America's environmental and animal-rights wars... Operation Bite Back is a bracing corrective to the official story, and a fascinating look at the crosscurrents of power, belief, extremism, liberty and opposing views of virtue."  —Oregonian

“Kuipers delivers a searing narrative on the fringe animal-activist movement. Despite his decades of experience covering the radical environmental movement, the author is careful to remain an objective narrator, presenting much contextual detail and allowing Coronado and his peers’ brimming passion to tell the story.  A provocative and careful testament to the ever-changing definition of activism.”   —Kirkus, starred review

"Coronado’s outlaw adventures for the cause are electrifying, from his covert videotaping of crimes against animals to his fiery destruction of fur farms and research labs, and his spiritual and moral struggles are equally compelling and genuinely instructive. As Kuipers meticulously tracks Coronado’s intense commitment to animals and eventual rejection of violence, he illuminates the tenets of deep ecology and animal rights and provides an invaluable history of radical environmentalism, a force that may gain momentum as mainstream society fails to respond to looming crises." —Booklist, starred review

"Regardless of how one views Coronado’s deeds or crimes, his legend remains intact and it is this rich terrain – as fascinating as it is disturbing – that journalist Dean Kuipers traverses in his new book... In many ways, this book is a breakthrough, for it offers a glimpse into the workings of the ALF and what Kuipers calls “its punk-anarchist sibling,” the ELF. The narrative is certainly provocative in this post-9/11 era when society and law enforcement officials have arrived at a different definition of what constitutes domestic terror."  —Christian Science Monitor "It has the drama of an adventure story, but Kuipers’s tale about the Animal Liberation Front is deadly serious and has serious implications for both animal and human rights. An important book that will appeal to readers interested in environmental and social issues." - Library Journal