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

Rod Coronado was already one of Americas most notorious radical environmentalists when he launched Operation Bite Back, a war on fur farming that left a trail of burned-out labs and farms across the country and made him the subject of an intense, years-long FBI manhunt. Now his legacy has made him part of a legal battle over whether or not radical environmentalists should be prosecuted as terrorists.

With unparalleled access, Dean Kuipers takes us deep into the heart of the campaign that helped give rise to the Animal Liberation Front and its spin-off the Earth Liberation Front, groups of anonymous eco-radicals responsible for over twelve hundred acts of sabotage and a billion dollars in damages and now among the FBIs top domestic terrorist priorities—even in the wake of 9/11. From his teenage association with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Earth First! to his brazen arson campaign to his reconnection with his Native American heritage among the Yaqui, Coronados story redefines what it means to be green. 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 and put his life on the line for an environmental movement that was ultimately forced to turn its back on him.

"[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."—The Oregonian

"Dean Kuipers takes you blindfolded on the back of a donkey deep into the jungles to the campfires of the eco-guerillas. No one knows the underground world of the environmental movement better than Kuipers, and he writes with a breathtaking immediacy that places the reader in the middle of the action as we explore every turn of events and all of the major personalities in the campaign that made Rod Coronado public enemy number one to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. You may not agree with this band of rebels, but you will never see them the same again. Right or wrong, they represent the passion and the commitment of a movement dedicated to the most important task we face as a species: saving the world from ourselves."—Mike Roselle, cofounder of Earth First! and author of Treespiker

"An engaged and engaging account of one of the most interesting chapters in American environmental history, this book will make you reexamine some perhaps superficial beliefs about protest and nonviolence and radicalism."—Bill McKibben, editor of American Earth: Environmental Writing since Thoreau

"Dean Kuipers has captured the essence of the Rodney Coronado I knew decades ago: a smart, self-sacrificing, funny, daring, driven, totally justice-oriented 'warrior' for Native American human beings, Native American animals, and the Native American ecosystem—none of which he could imagine a person should sit back and watch be belittled, harmed, and destroyed . . . Coronado took it upon himself to right immense wrongs, and while he may have burned an empty building or two or more, he never wished to, and never did, hurt man or mouse. All social movements have their Rodney Coronados and, like it or lump it, they are all the better for it."—Ingrid E. Newkirk, cofounder of PETA and editor of One Can Make a Difference

"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 Reviews (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)

"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

Rod Coronado was already one of Americas most notorious radical environmentalists when he launched Operation Bite Back, a war on fur farming that left a trail of burned-out labs and farms across the country and made him the subject of an intense, years-long FBI manhunt. Now his legacy has made him part of a legal battle over whether or not radical environmentalists should be prosecuted as terrorists.

With unparalleled access, Dean Kuipers takes us deep into the heart of the campaign that helped give rise to the Animal Liberation Front and its spin-off the Earth Liberation Front, groups of anonymous eco-radicals responsible for over twelve hundred acts of sabotage and a billion dollars in damages and now among the FBIs top domestic terrorist priorities—even in the wake of 9/11. From his teenage association with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Earth First! to his brazen arson campaign to his reconnection with his Native American heritage among the Yaqui, Coronados story redefines what it means to be green. 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 and put his life on the line for an environmental movement that was ultimately forced to turn its back on him.