Today Walter Bond asked us to share these photos taken of him recently. He is very appreciative of the generosity of several supporters for their contributions in the form of commissary funds and books to sustain him while he serves his sentence.
WALTER EDMUND BOND (37096013)
11/15/2012 10:04:48 AM
I come from a long line of ‘Animal people’. My late grandmother Gwen was the quintessential Cat lady, dedicating in her senior years an entire house for her cats! Though she could no longer stay there because of age the cats enjoyed it, furniture and all. My father also is an Animal person and taught me from an early age that “people that hunt Animals for sport are evil”. My mother is a Wolf women, she even has a wolf tattoo on her ankle professing such. She currently has two Wolves in Alaska where she resides and when I was a teenager she kept Timber Wolves until the city forced her to get them out of city limits. I myself am an Animal person. Having made very real friendships with Cats, Dogs, Bunnies, Turkeys, Chickens, Lamas, Bulls, Goats, Snakes and so very very many others.
However, for all the closeness to Animals with which I was raised Veganism never entered the picture. My parents, like most people failed to see the link between cruelty to ‘food’ Animals and ‘pets’. Or better stated, they as most people did not see the hypocrisy of loving one while eating the other. Humans have an incredible capacity to compartmentalize the pain and suffering of those outside of our circle of compassion. Historically, our callousness to the harm of sentient life follows a thousand shades of otherness. Each being as meaningless and irrelevant as any other one we choose. Race, sex, gender, nationality, age, religion, politics and species all lend to the artifices we use to justify exploitation, deviance and rape. I was this way as well, loving Animals with one hand and eating their dead bodies with the other. So prevalent was this barrier in my mind that even as a young man I took a job building slaughterhouses. pork production was the euphemism. the truth was the systematic and mechanized murder of thousands and thousands of pigs. Animals frightened to the point of hysteria and defecation. A concentration camp of death that makes the Nazis look like child’s play. It was within those walls that I saw the worst sites I have ever seen. I smelled so much blood that it’s taste would literally stick in my throat and I met the most insensitive and prime evil people that our society has to offer. and then I went Vegan. Continue reading
WALTER EDMUND BOND (37096013)
11/19/2012 10:35:47 AM
We all suffer from the human condition. Therefore, speciesism is to a certain extent definitional of what it means to be human. Still as Animal Liberation activists, Vegans and Earth defenders any steps forward we can take to recognize and uproot are own personal biases towards all life outside of the human world is a positive step to take. Our belief in our species supremacy is far larger than any other prejudice we harbor. It’s worth noting that even in our day to day speech we use so many derogatory terms for Animals that we eat but when it comes to wild and predatory Animals we like to pretend we are kindred souls (so says the ALF ‘Lone Wolf’). A gluttonous person may be referred to as a Pig, while a strong man may be equated with a Bear. A person of ill repute may be considered a low down dirty dog, while a courageous person is said to be lionhearted. There are so many of these negative connotations related to ‘food’ and ‘pet’ Animals and so many of these grand ones ascribed to wild predatory Animals that our supremacist mentality even bleeds through in our speech. Deep down we human beings view ourselves as the most fearsome and cunning predator, the most majestic of creatures. Unfortunately the actual evidence points more towards a scavenger and parasite among all other sentient life. We are a most successful cancer.
One time I was arguing with a flesh eater at a table where I was doing Vegan outreach. I said “your not a ‘meat eater’. Animals that eat meat do so on the spot of their kill. humans eat Animals that are several days dead that someone else killed and packaged! that is the definition of a scavenger!” I immediately saw the wind go out of this persons sails. ‘Meat eater’ sounds powerful and predatory. Whereas, scavenger invokes personal feelings of opportunism and mental pictures of buzzards. But it’s the truth nevertheless. Just like the white slave holders that profited off of slavery and death, they then turn around and attempt to magnify the brutality of others in a feeble tryst to assuage their guilt over their own insipid wickedness!
In this article I’m going to delve into the words and concepts of human supremacy, anthropomorphism and speciesism and many of the attitudes, behaviors and ways of thinking they encompass. I will be doing so not from a dictionary definition or a classroom tutorial of these words and concepts but from an Animal and Earth centric perspective. I am writing from the perspective of one that believes with every fiber of his being that Animals are better than people and I make no attempt at objectivity. On the contrary, I mean to assert the premise that the entire civilization as we know it along with it’s flesh eating human cancer are a plague…. Alright then, lets get started, shall we. Continue reading
In response to emails asking how to send funds to Walter Bond, please visit his support website for numerous ways you can do this (check, cash, money order, paypal, and western union): https://supportwalter.org/SW/index.php/donate/
Walter Bond recently added books and magazines to his amazon.com wishlist. If you buy a book from the wishlist, it automatically disappears from the list. If you buy something on the list from another vendor, please let us know and we will take it off his wishlist, so he does not get duplicate gifts. View this list: http://amzn.com/w/W7P09VVVUSYT or just search for Walter Bond on the wishlist sectoin of amazon.com.
Here is his mailing address:
Walter Bond 37096-013 USP Marion CMU PO Box 1000 Marion IL 62959
WALTER EDMUND BOND (37096013)
10/28/2012 11:31:31 AM
According to the FBI, and my institutional record, my gang affiliation is ‘Straight Edge’. My gang identifiers are my tattoos. the record is as follows: Face- large tribal, Throat- ‘VEGAN’/w crossed wrenches on both sides, Right Forearm- ‘STRAIGHTEDGE XXX’ from elbow to wrist, Left Elbow- spider web with an X in the middle, Both Hands- X V symbol (tribal style), Knuckles- ‘LIBERATE’, Right Calf- “VFL” (large block letters), Left Calf- “XVX” (large block letters), Left Shin- Large Wolf head/w lettering ‘Hands off the Animals’.
Back when I was arrested in Denver for the arson of the Sheepskin Factory is when this record began (not when I went to prison in 97′ for burning down a drug dealers home and drug enterprise, go figure). I was in county jail in Golden Colorado when I was awakened by the loud speaker ‘Bond, come out here the gang coordinator wants to see you’. My cell door buzzed and opened as did the pod door after it. I was taken to a small office where I met the gang coordinator. He informed me that he had just got back from a training over the mountains in Utah and had learned all about Straight Edge from the gang units there. When he came back to work he was talking about it to a deputy that said “yeah, Bond has that tattooed all over him’. So he wanted to come down and see one (Straight Edge gangbanger) for himself. I replied ‘I’m not in a gang’. He responded, ‘I see, do you mind telling me what your charges are?’ I said ‘Arson, and domestic terrorism’. then he said ‘so you guys beat up people that smoke and eat meat, right?’. I replied ‘I haven’t beat anyone up for smoking since I was a kid’. he then asked me, how many of you guys are here in Denver? I said jokingly, look man I’m a domestic terrorist, not a gang member don’t get it twisted. And I’m done with your questions, can I go back to my cell now? And back to my cell I went. Continue reading
Three Years Ago on October 13, 2011 in Federal District Court, Salt Lake City, 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 US 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 became ‘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 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 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 paté 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 Rights 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 that 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 go, I have no remorse.
I realize that the laws of the land favor a business’ ability to make a profit over an Animal’s right to life.
It also used to favor a white business owner’s ability to profit from a black person’s slavery.
It also used to favor a husband’s 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 these 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 than products of death and cruelty. And if not, then to hell with it all anyway!
Whether my supporters or detractors think I’m 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 any way I could.
I regret none of it, and I never will!
You can take my freedom, but you can’t have my submission.
This is a copy of a newspaper clipping from about 1979, sent to Walter Bond by his father, James Bond. It’s a story about when he (as a toddler) moved into a one-room shack with his mother, father and sister.
He’s chucking it all for pioneer life
by Bruce Henderson, Staff Writer
Mason City – James Bond, a 37-year-old Mason City welder, says he is fed up with paying higher and higher utility bills.
So he’s chucking it all for the life of a pioneer.
“When you say pioneer, that’s just about as close as you can get,” said Bond, who works at Curries Manufacturing, Mason City, and is a member of a rock band known as Southern Comfort.
Bond, his daughter, Dena, 17, his girlfriend, Mickie Zuehlke, and her son Walter, 3, all are moving into a cabin that has only one open room, about 18-by-15-feet, on the southern shore of Clear Lake just north of Camp Gaywood.
Bond plans to install a 41-inch tall wood and coal furnace in the cabin for heat. There’s no running water; plans are to store water in a 50-gallon tank that Bond will replenish with water from Mason City.
Cooking – and making hot water – will be done on a double hot plate, Zuehlke said. And, adds Dena, baths either will be taken in a small tub, or occasionally at Bond’s mother’s house in Mason City.
Washing dishes, Zuehlke said, will be done by filling two small tubs with water, one for washing, one for rinsing. A sink later may be installed in the cabin, she said.
“I’m just sick of paying high bills,” Bond said recently of his move to the cabin and his freedom from fuel bills. “Last year I paid 45 cents a gallon for fuel oil, and this year it’s 80 cents.”
He said some of his friends “laugh about” his pioneer plans, “but I haven’t found one guy who thought I was crazy for doing it.”
As far as doing all the cooking on a hot plate goes, Zuehlke said “we’re very creative.” About a year ago, they were living in a trailer. Zuehlke said they learned then to cook a whole turkey on a hot plate. More recently, though, they were living in a house in the southeast part of Mason City, where utility bills made a budget-biting impression.
Zuehlke noted electricity costs last month were about $40, and that was $40 too much. And she doesn’t like the power company’s method of estimating certain bills or the prospects for utility bills for heating this winter. For the past two weeks, they’ve been living in the house of Bond’s mother, Gweneth, at 530 11th NE.
Bond currently is busy cutting, chopping and stacking wood at the cabin. He plans to have eight to 10 cords of wood stacked for the winter, and “I plan to get a ton of coal” for about $90 for the “cold months, when you need something to keep that furnace red-hot all the time.”
The cabin is owned by Bond’s mother, who also owns a similar cabin next door. Neither cabin is winterized, but Bond is busy insulating, carpeting and preparing the cabin he plans to move into for the winter.
Bond recently was mentioned as planning to live as a “pioneer” at a meeting of the Cerro Gordo County Board of Health.
Health board Chairman Larry Hauser noted the only sewage facility the cabin has is an outhouse – one of the last outhouses along the Clear Lake shoreline. Outhouses are banned on the lake.
The board decided to send a letter to Bond, notifying him that more adequate sewage facilities would be necessary before he can occupy the cabin.
Bond said that decision is going to cost him about $1,000. He said he plans to install a holding tank immediately. “Sooner or later we were going to do it, but now we have to do it right away.”
“It just killed me. It (the cabin) has been there about 35 years with an outhouse and they didn’t know it (the outhouse) was there,” Bond said.
In the meantime, Bond is busy chopping wood and making the cabin improvements. He said he hopes to be living at the cabin in three weeks to a month, depending on when the sewer tank is installed.
WALTER EDMUND BOND (37096013)
8/31/2012 2:20:02 PM
Words You Understand
I wrote a poem I hope you like it, please share it with the world.
Walter Bond
Constantine wire, grey walls, fences and bars. Locked in a cage, dehumanized. Like an Animal, as if they deserve this hell anymore than I do.
Talking to the Outside is like shouting down an empty well. You imagine there is someone at the other end, or something listening to you. But in your heart you know that if there is, it’s so foreign, so strange, that there is no communicating, just superficial sounds echoing. Echoing down an empty corridor. Not an Eco-Warrior.
You give your heart and soul, you bleed and fold, you fight in court and live in isolation. You stand and demand until your life is a demonstration.
They interview you and pretend to care about the movement….The state.
They interview you and steal your glory…. The fakes.
To one your a terrorist, equated with evil. A quick blurb to smear a movement with a brushstroke. To the other your a college thesis or political statement, or somehow related…. To a vicarious life. Meanwhile, the Earth dies. The Animals lost in a holocaust. While you type, you stare at screens. Where is communication between us?
You can’t relate to a human in a cage, out of sight but speaking words you understand. You will never relate to the Animals plight, a thousand times worse than that of any man.
You don’t want the truth. You want me to console you, don’t you? After fighting with fire and losing my everything , you want me to counsel you, oh stranger…. and for free. What else would you like, the fillings out of my fucking teeth! Now I’m in the zoo and on display so that you can see me the way you imagine, because everything really is that way…. No it’s not.
It’s ugly and you can’t stand it, cause you can’t fix it, so you don’t want to see it, but I’m gonna write it and I hope you don’t like it!
Age- 6 months, Mom is divorced Daddy sells drugs.
Age- 2 years, Mom is remarried new Dad is a drunk.
Confusion, pain, feeling deserted. Eating cans of condensed milk for desert. That was age 8, aint it great.
Molested by age 10, depression setting in.
Now, age 12. I’m angry, hostile and confused as hell! Living in a duplex with 8 Puerto Ricans I’ve never seen, that’s my family.
Age-13. What can I do? Fight, Fuck, Destroy! Get high, get drunk, Destroy! Vandalize, drop out, Destroy! Turn on everyone and everything. Make them pay for giving birth to me, DESTROY!
Fast forward to my twenties. A felon, no education…. A Straight Edge Vegan. Work day labor and temporary services. 8 hours of bubble sheet tests before you can shovel shit for minimum wage. Worked my fingers to the bone until my back was wrecked. Off to ace check cashing, to cash my check.
Age-30, I learned how to kiss the right ass, to land a pointless job in the middle class. Hurdle the homeless on your way to the bus and never forget you got one foot in the gutter. If you don’t smile at work. If you don’t pick up on your bosses every cue, as fast as the hipsters from college in skinny jeans do.
For over a decade I helped Animals because they helped me. they treated me better than any person ever will, better than my family. They loved me for being alive, they taught me what a relationship was without any lies. So I spoke and I wrote and I protested. I even ate fancy Vegan food with a bunch of stuck up white people. I watched people weep and wail about how much they cared (as long as others were watching) and then watched those same people succumb to their apathy.
Instead of white guilt, it’s anthropomorphic guilt. Pissing and moaning not because of feeling their pain, just sad because they wish they could motivate their own lazy asses to care about innocent life as much as their money, their cars, their dick, their face book page.
Oh, did I strike a nerve? are you offended yet? Good, so am I.
I’m offended by those that pretend to care but lie! I’m offended by the billions upon billions of innocent lives that senselessly die! I’m offended by an incarceration that keeps my words censored, my hands and feet tied, hog tied! Have you ever gone to bed to the sound of cell doors slamming? Have the police ever come to your house to search every body cavity? Have you ever had to spread your butt cheeks and vigorously cough, while some redneck stares at your asshole?
Do you even know what real oppression is besides some historical idea you read about in text books? Or are you just another privileged anarchist shitbag that doesn’t like mean old Walter Bond because his theoretical ideas weren’t expressed with the proper preferred pronouns (and his rhetoric sounds wrong)? Has a white man ever called your mom a nigger while you waive goodbye to her from the school bus? Have you ever been shoved so far into the Federal Prison System that your losing touch, with every imaginable context the outside world has to offer?
So where is there communication between us?
You can’t relate to a human in a cage, out of sight but speaking words you understand. Then you will never relate to the Animals plight , a thousand times worse than that of any man.
Walter Bond
ALF POW
WALTER EDMUND BOND (37096013)
8/15/2012 2:04:44 PM
Prisoner Support Defined
In this technological era of instant communication its easy for the internet activist (oxymoron intended) to lose line of sight with what is, and what is not, support for imprisoned activists. Here is a brief explanation of good prisoner support and why it’s important to the convict and the movement of Total Liberation.
-THE BIG FOUR-
As a prisoner there are four things that make all the difference in our lives. These are: money, letters, pictures and books/magazines and print media.
1. MONEY- While we are given the bare minimum in prison and jail to survive, funds make all the difference. Just as in the world outside of the walls and razor wire personal clothing like shorts, sweatshirts and even quality underwear cost money. decent hygiene costs money. Food (other than that given to you at meal time, which is not adequate, no matter what your diet, but especially on a Vegan one) costs money. As do stamps, sending and receiving emails, downloading music, phone calls etc. But unlike the outside world prisoners have no way to make money. Even with a prison job which if you have a good one might pay 50 dollars a month (maximum) the prison system gets to take up to 100% of that if we owe any restitution or fines. Therefore a few bucks is always appreciated by prisoners.
2. LETTERS- Prisoners have no way to stay in the loop, keep current on events, or know that anyone cares at all unless we get a letter. In this day and age thousands of people may visit a support sight or face book page. But in places like the CMU (communications Management Unit) for political prisoners we are not even allowed to receive printouts of those nice blurbs of support in our snail mail. Ask yourself, am I posting this to be part of an online community or because I support this person in reality? If so then send it in a letter. Remember while federal inmates have limited accesses to email we have NO accesses to the internet.
3. PICTURES- As a prisoner our world is visually depressing. Gray paint, concrete, doors, walls, bars, cages and razor wire. We see the same people everyday, no changes. Pictures of Animals, Nature, cities, yourself definitely are appreciated. I have a photo album and two cork boards in my cell. I pin pictures of nature to them to have some makeshift scenery on my walls and from time to time I flip through my photo album to remember what Vegans and Animals look like.
BOOKS/MAGAZINES AND PRINT MEDIA- prisoners have more time to focus on books than anyone else on the planet! But if they don’t get sent in there is nothing of interest to read. most jails and prison libraries stock used romance and fiction novels nothing of substance. A book or magazine will not only get read by the person you send it to but every prisoner that can get their hands on it! Books have a captive audience in prison. I remember when I was going to court in Salt Lake City books that I read and placed on the book cart quickly made the rounds and were read by hundreds of inmates. Most of these books are still circulating in that jail long after I have left.
This ‘Big 4′ is what you can do to support those of us that have lost our freedom, fighting for the freedom of the Earth and Animals. Prisoner support is vital for the P.O.W. that receives it but more importantly for the future of resistance. The reality is that jail and prison is simply the occupational hazard of Earth and Animal warriors. It’s important that would be and future liberators know that if, or when they face government oppression they will be supported and remembered as long as they spoke or fought for Mother earth and the Animal Nations and NEVER INFORMED ON OTHER ACTIVISTS. This is the circle that keeps Liberation a living struggle and not merely an idea or ideal. we’re in here for the Earth and Animals, you’re out there for us!
Animal Liberation, Whatever It May Take!
ALF POW
Walter Bond
WALTER EDMUND BOND (37096013)
6/20/2014 7:53:09 AM
Re: A mis amigos en el mundo hispanico esta dedicado a Pablo Perez Arroyo
EL INCENDIARIO DE LA REVOLUCIÓN ANIMAL
Por Paula Ricciulli (http://issuu.com/cartelurbano/docs/edicion41/45#share)
A Walter Bond lo sentenciaron a diez años de prisión por incendiar fábricas de lana y pieles, en protesta por el maltrato a los animales. desde una cárcel en Marion (Illinois), insiste en que no se arrepiente de lo que hizo. Entrevistamos a este activista del frente de liberación animal.
Mr. Whirly, el profesor de kínder de Walter Bond, le dijo una vez a la mamá de éste: “Su hijo es un niño muy brillante, pero tiene problemas con la autoridad y eso le causará inconvenientes algún día”. Y así fue. Hoy, Bond cumple una sentencia de diez años por los cargos de incendio en segundo grado y ofensa criminal.
El 30 de abril del 2010, este activista de 36 años incendió una fábrica de piel de oveja en Denver (Colorado). Las pérdidas ascendieron a unos 500 mil dólares. Días después, en Utah, hizo lo mismo con una fábrica de cuero y con el restaurante Tiburón, cuya especialidad es el hígado de pato. A Bond lo arrestaron el 22 de julio de ese año.
Después de pasar varios meses en prisiones de Colorado y Oklahoma, en febrero pasado ingresó a la Unidad de Dirección de Comunicaciones (CMU, por su sigla en inglés) de Marion (Illinois), un nuevo modelo penitenciario creado en la administración de Bush. Allí los prisioneros son considerados terroristas. Varios de los compañeros de causa de Bond aparecieron en las revistas y los periódicos más importantes de Estados Unidos por ser “amenazas a la seguridad nacional”.
Sin embargo, Walter está tranquilo porque en esta cárcel no hay pandillas, violencia ni drogas, y está haciendo amigos. Tiene prohibido hablar de alguien en tercera persona y recibir información de terceros. Le supervisan su correo minuciosamente.
Sigue una estricta dieta vegana, con vegetales, sopas instantáneas, mantequilla de maní y dulces como Chick-o-Stick (con jarabe y azúcar). “Los demás convictos me ayudan con porciones extras de vegetales o papas. Hay una comunidad entre los prisioneros, así que no paso hambre”, dice. Desde hace quince años, Bond se identifica con el straight edge, un estilo de vida que surgió dentro del movimiento hardcore punk. Quienes lo siguen se abstienen de beber alcohol, fumar, consumir drogas y comer carne.
Aunque ahora es una inspiración para los liberacionistas y defensores de los animales (incluso hay una canción sobre él titulada To ashes, de la banda Earth Crisis), a mediados de los años noventa sacrificó cerdos en un matadero en Iowa. “El olor y el ruido eran insoportables. A las seis u ocho semanas sentí que mi alma estaba muerta. Algunas veces trabajaba quince horas diarias con sangre hasta los tobillos. Luego vino el día que me cambió: en cierta ocasión, uno de los cerdos electrocutados escapó corriendo y mis compañeros lo mataron a golpes”.
Ese momento fue determinante para él: se intensificó su asco por la raza humana, dejó de comer carne y renunció a su empleo después de que una de las trabajadoras, al ver que en su dieta no había ningún producto de origen animal, lo llamó despectivamente “abrazaárboles”.
Sus incendios ocasionaron miles de dólares en pérdidas y perjudicaron a mucha gente. ¿No se arrepiente? No, no me arrepiento de mis incendios porque fueron justificados. Miles de millones de vidas animales son sacrificadas cada año por la ambición, gula y sed de sangre de la raza humana; todo lo que hice fue destruir una propiedad. De hecho, mis incendios fueron acciones pasivas, si se tienen en cuenta todos los animales inocentes que han muerto cruelmente a manos de opresores humanos. Es una lástima que la gente se concentre tanto en mi respuesta (los incendios) a esas atrocidades, pero no en las malas condiciones en las que viven los animales. Esto se debe a que la sociedad humana enfoca este problema desde la perspectiva de un dueño de negocio que obtiene provecho de la esclavitud y muerte de un animal, y no desde el sufrimiento del animal a causa de la injusticia humana.
Creo que el incendio fue una excelente manera de abordar tales problemas.
¿Será que algún día la raza humana dejará de depender tanto de los animales? Creo que habrá un momento en el que la humanidad dejará de usar los cuerpos muertos de animales para comida, investigación y vestido, o deberá asumir las consecuencias de la destrucción del medio ambiente, ocasionada en gran medida por la agricultura animal y una civilización industrializada. La verdadera pregunta es: ¿será que nuestra especie tomará conciencia y se volverá parte del ecosistema en lugar de perjudicarlo? Si no estamos ni siquiera cerca de tratarnos a nosotros mismos con respeto, mucho menos a los animales.
Cada vez parece más difícil detener la tortura a los animales… Depender de los animales ha sido parte integral de las sociedades humanas por largo tiempo, hasta el punto de que la sociedad moderna, en especial las naciones más ricas, se construyeron con la sangre y los huesos de los animales y con base en varias formas de esclavitud. Por eso, un mundo que no dependa de los animales mina no sólo el statu quo, sino toda la base de la civilización tecnológicamente avanzada. Por eso, numerosas personas rechazan el concepto de liberación animal y están en contra de la militancia o la liberación radicales, porque muchos entienden intuitivamente que no sólo estamos atacando sus hábitos alimenticios, sino la base de la esclavitud jerárquica y la supremacía humana. Incluso hay muchos veganos y activistas que no pueden comprender un mundo sin esclavitud entre especies.
¿Qué tan efectivo ha sido el Frente de Liberación Animal para crear conciencia en favor de los animales? El Frente de Liberación Animal (FLA) ha sido sumamente efectivo en concientizar a la gente de que los animales sufren. Gracias a muchas de sus acciones en los años ochenta se pudieron ver tras bambalinas la realidad y la futilidad de la experimentación animal. Desde su origen, el FLA ha tenido el propósito de tomar el camino más directo para salvar a los animales y detener a sus explotadores, mientras se pasa la voz a los medios para hacer hincapié en estos problemas y crear conciencia pública.
¿No piensa que con incendios y otras acciones destructivas, el FLA está creando un estereotipo negativo para los defensores de los derechos de los animales? Honestamente, no me importan los estereotipos o la imagen pública, y de hecho pienso que es muy importante que los abusadores de los animales y los usuarios sepan que hay un pequeño porcentaje de nosotros que no tolerará lo que están haciendo. Parte de la efectividad de las protestas consiste en lograr que los explotadores tengan cierto miedo de llamar la atención del FLA. Sin ese miedo, el activismo de los derechos de los animales se vuelve un tigre de papel, puesto que todas las leyes están del lado de las industrias que se benefician del detrimento de la tierra. Durante toda mi carrera como activista, he oído ese argumento de la imagen pública. Es realmente muy ingenuo pensar que los medios del sistema, interesesados en la continuación de las normas de la sociedad, nos van a bañar con buena imagen para que podamos convencer a la gente de boicotear industrias que mantienen a los ricos arriba y a las masas abajo. Además, los “estereotipos negativos” son cuestiones de opinión personal. Mi idea de imagen negativa en los derechos de los animales es la de un hippie frágil, un marihuanero sensible y suplicante ante los poderes fácticos.
¿Qué es el Frente de Liberación Animal?
El Frente de Liberación Animal (FLA) es una organización anárquica clandestina que busca la liberación total de los animales por medio de lo que llaman “acción directa”. Creada en 1976, opera en 40 países, donde sus miembros suelen incendiar laboratorios, liberar animales de granjas y criaderos o trabajar encubiertos usando cámaras escondidas para denunciar las condiciones en las que viven diferentes especies. En los años ochenta, se hicieron famosos por sus robos en laboratorios y por la producción del documental Unnecessary fuss, que registró a un grupo de científicos de la Universidad de Pensilvania que reían mientras le causaban daño cerebral a un mono con un aparato hidráulico. El grupo se consolidó con acciones como el incendio a la Estación de Guardabosques del Servicio Forestal de Oakridge, en 1996, que ocasionó más de cinco millones de dólares en pérdidas.
Los medicamentos probados en animales han sido muy exitosos para curar numerosas enfermedades. ¿Qué opina de esos avances de la ciencia? No estoy de acuerdo. Hay gran cantidad de información que prueba que los experimentos con animales han sido inútiles y han ido en detrimento de la salud pública. Al extrapolar los resultados entre especies, se advierte que la experimentación con animales rara vez funciona; no obstante, todo eso es secundario. Para mí, el verdadero problema radica en que está mal hacer experimentos con animales, independientemente de los resultados alcanzados. Los animales tienen el mismo derecho a ser autónomos y a vivir libres de sufrimiento que usted o yo. Los resultados médicos o científicos no vienen al caso. Por ejemplo, nunca aprobaríamos la idea de hacer pruebas con discapacitados o personas con problemas mentales.
¿Qué consejo les daría a los jóvenes interesados en luchar por los derechos de los animales? Que se vuelvan veganos y straight edge. Aconsejo no caer en las drogas y el alcohol, pues para ayudar a los animales en un mundo en el que muchos humanos se pondrán en contra de uno, hay que mantenerse concentrado, feroz, positivo y resistente. Siempre se debe tratar de encontrar el camino más directo posible a la liberación animal, como trabajar con animales o rescatarlos; por estos días muchos activistas se confunden en el movimiento humano para la liberación de los animales. Además, sobre todas las cosas, hay que creer en uno mismo y en sus habilidades. Usted y sus amigos pueden ayudar a los animales y protestar contra sus explotadores, sin el apoyo de grandes organizaciones. Lo ideal es educarse a sí mismo y a otros sobre problemas de los animales, e invitar a los abusadores a cambiar sus métodos. Y si eso no funciona, pues habrá que obligarlos a dejar de hacer daño a los animales por cualquier medio que sea necesario.
¿Cuáles son sus planes después de salir de la cárcel? Bueno, cuando salga de prisión tendré unos tres años de libertad condicional. Me gustaría viajar por todo el mundo y desplegar mis alas luego de una década en la jaula. En lo relacionado con empleo y liberación animal, planeo escribir libros y trabajar con animales y santuarios el resto de tiempo que me sea posible, que espero sea largo; quizás dicte conferencias. Después de varios años de permanecer en cuartos cerrados con tanta gente, dedicaré mi tiempo a los animales en espacios abiertos, para dejar la rutina de la ciudad. También me veo como un poco excéntrico. Siempre he vivido de manera sencilla y no soy un aficionado a la tecnología, y planeo continuar así.
Un héroe del activismo animal
Uno de los héroes de Walter Bond es el activista británico Barry Horne, arrestado en su país y sentenciado a más de diez años de prisión, desde donde continuó la lucha contra las pruebas en animales. Tras una serie de huelgas de hambre en la cárcel, Horne murió por complicaciones en el hígado. “Nunca se rindió, nunca evadió su lucha y nunca dejó de inspirar a otros a emprender acciones directas”, dice Bond.
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