NIO: In many indigenous cultures, face tattoos are a rite of passage when boys enter manhood. When did you get your tattoo and what is its significance for you?

I got my face tattoo about two years ago and it has a lot of personal significance and many layers of meaning. So, let’s see… where should I begin?

Well, much like most indigenous cultures, my face tattoo represents a very real rite of passage in my life — that passage was into warriorhood! It marked the exact moment when I put fear away like so many other childish pursuits. That’s not to say that I don’t feel fear. But I can honestly say that since the face tat, I have not made one fear-based decision, so that’s liberating.

At the time in my life that I began really becoming enamored with the idea of the face tat, I was frequenting the tattoo shop quite often — about once every two or three weeks. Like many thirty-somethings, I had a decent job and a modest flat in the Capitol Hill area of Denver. But, unlike many, I was suffering from a profound restlessness. Almost every single day, I would wake up and be disappointed that I had not joined the underground for the total liberation of our animal sisters and brothers. The only thing worse than not knowing your purpose in this life is to know that purpose but not be able to summon the courage to walk the walk. So I was unhappy.

Everyday at my regular-guy job at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, I was more involved in my ALF daydream than my work. The epiphany that finally hit me was that, as long as I had this status-quo life, I would not follow my path. So my face tattoo also marked an acute change in lifestyle. Within a few weeks of getting it, I quit my job. I got sick of paying rent so I stopped that too. If I was out at night and a window offended me, that window received a rock! I very quickly began to understand that life is meant to be lived. Life is meant to be free. It’s not something you plan to live in the future. -WB

But, on an aesthetic level, my face tat is simply abstract. I have plenty of other tats that have particular meaning. So I just wanted my face to be tattooed, not a billboard — that’s what my “vegan” throat tattoo is for.

NIO: Can you describe your transformation into a warrior? When did the “Lone Wolf” emerge? Was he always there?

My transformation into a “warrior” was, as I said, abrupt. But it’s important for me to explain, however, that it was a very personal experience — not some empty platitude like “I’m a peaceful warrior.” And it was a life-changing event. It was also a change that comes with very intense realizations. One of those is that I fully expect to one day die fighting, which I’m okay with. I don’t think it’s natural to die of natural causes. And, at this point, the worst thing I can imagine would be that soul-dead passionless “normal life”… not persecution by piece-of-shit cops or fear of death. I’ve become disgusted with certain aspects of western civilization to the point where going with the flow is more bothersome than resisting.

As far as the emergence of the moniker “Lone Wolf,” contrary to popular belief, I never went by that or any other nickname. I came up with that name when I first started claiming my actions… on the spot with that first communique. Nor did I do it out of any need for notoriety. Compared to most, my communiques were very short and to the point. I used the name “Lone Wolf” to convey the message “hey, look what one person can do!” I was trying to forward a principle of action and empower others.

Everyone seems to sit around and wait for some mythical caring person to step in and right all the perceived wrongs they see all around them or they don’t act until directed. I have found that when I rely on myself, I get way more accomplished than waiting to be validated by someone or some group. I can also say that the Lone Wolf title personally means that I am a free agent within animal rights. I ally myself with like-minded radicals, but I have been around and done enough tactically for animal liberation that I have no real mentors which, again, is very liberating.

That being said, just like my facial tattoo, there are other layers to that name. More so now than ever, I am convinced that the do-it-yourself attitude is the best. -WB

NIO: I believe that fear is one of the greatest weapons the oppressors use to manipulate and marginalize activists. Activists allow themselves to be controlled through fear and many become puppets. You once said that your fear lies in not following your conscience, not in consequences. Can you explain this?

About a year and a half ago, my fear of any authority was trumped by my outrage at the casual murder that billions of animals suffer at the hands of speciesist human oppressors. It became trumped by my disgust at how humanity has become a plaugue of locusts upon Mother Earth and it became trumped by the disgust I feel at Euro-centric western civilization.

At some point in time, if you truly care about animals or earth or anarchism, feminism, queer rights, indigenous peoples or anything, fear must take a place on the back burner because it’s the biggest prison of the mind that there is.

Ultimately, that’s why governments need to lock up people like Maxim Vetkin, Braulio Arturo Duran, Adrian Magdaleno Gonzalez or myself — because we are not afraid! We lash out at the systems of abuse and, if we are not imprisoned and vilified or ignored by the media, then there is a very possible threat that others will become empowered. If everyone is empowered and truly taught to handle problems directly, then not only is it probable that they will not need the government, but it’s certain that they will turn on it and destroy it. There really is no alternative.

Your apathy and fear either outweigh your caring and compassion or vice versa. In my case, it was not a decision to champion one over the other. I simply became fed up enough to start striking back and it’s my solemn opinion that everyone should go vegan and break something! -WB

 

NIO: There is a great deal of emphasis in our community on ideology, political correctness, and ethical veganism. There is little to no focus on effectiveness. Since we both agree that this is problematic, do you have any ideas about how activists can empower themselves and move forward?

The big road block to effectiveness is that everyone wants to be able to be viewed as a good person. This is understandable because many vegans do care, at least enough to change their consumer habits. But, ultimately, effectiveness is what wins the end goal.

Look at it this way: if a bully seeks to violate you and physically harm you, being a morally-consistent and progressive individual will not stop you from getting your teeth kicked in. But being able to wage a vicious full-frontal attak ensures your safety. The end goal in such an encounter is protecting your security and safety as an innocent person and your right to be left alone by violent assholes. It’s no different when you fight on behalf of another’s rights.

What’s truly moral is saving an animal in a cage from death. If you have to lie, cheat or steal to do that, so be it! If you have to break property or scare those directly responsible, so what?! I wish it could be otherwise, but it cannot. Go ahead, talk with someone that makes money off of killing animals. They don’t care! But you will find that when you start harming their pocket book, you have their strict attention.

In answer to your question, we AR activists need to start with ourselves and begin getting in the habit of judging others, groups, and individuals by their effectiveness and actions instead of their words and booksmarts. We need to form this habit amongst ourselves and then demand it of others until we arrive at a day where someone says “well, I think this, that and the other,” and everyone else’s first reaction is “yeah, great… so what are you doing?” instead of “well, I disagree. I’m offended!”

I disagree with 321 farm animals dying every second. I’m offended by hundreds of things. And that means nothing unless it motivates me to act! -WB

NIO: Many are offended by our use of words like “war,” “slavery,” and “holocaust” to describe the conditions in which the animals live and those that our movement must engage. Is this terminology appropriate? Is it fair to refer to you as a “prisoner of war”?

I prefer real talk to verbose vocabulary for more than one reason.

First off, animal and earth death are not a philosophy. They are actual and evil.

Next, I don’t want people to think that Animal Lib is an exclusive group of intellectuals. I want to attract warriors, not writers and thinkers. There is no war without the warrior. There is only a holocaust and understanding observers.

I prefer to be called a “prisoner of war” instead of “political prisoner” because I freely admit what I did. I’m not in prison because of politics — some are. I am not one of them. I’m incarcerated because I am an animal rights arsonist. I’m imprisoned for fighting against the everyday holocaust with fire and my true regret is that I got caught. But like a true soldier in a battle, I don’t bring down morale by recanting or reversing myself. This is what I signed up for when I became an ALF operative.

I wasn’t repentant when I was out there kicking ass for animals and, now that I’m in prison, my resolve has never been stronger.

Animal Liberation, Whatever It May Take! -WB