(photo used by Columbian Magazine, Cartel Urbano, for story starting on page 45 of Edicion 41… website link at bottom of post)

In a Corrlink’s email, Walter Bond recently commented on his sentencing 5 years ago on October 13, 2011 in Federal District Court, Salt Lake City, Utah:

WALTER EDMUND BOND (37096013)
9/26/2016 3:53:00 PM
A Reminder

I remember October 13th, 2011 well. I had already been in county jail for a year and a half and had already been sentenced to 5 years in federal prison for burning down the Sheepskin factory in Colorado. my lawyer had spent the last 8 months trying to talk me out of making any statement because the reverberations of my last speech in Colorado were still fresh and the court in Utah was already pissed off that I had the audacity to question their morality and to not equivocate in the faces of the judge, so-called victims and the media.

And I paid a very real price for this Utah statement. had the judge decided to show me mercy he could have ran my sentence together with Colorado instead of consecutive. In essence this statement turned my sentence into 12 years 4 months instead of 7 years 4 months.

6 years and some months later I sit in prison with a few more years to go before I see freedom but I still do not regret anything I have done. In fact, sometimes when I feel the drift of time, or I feel as if I’m losing sight of who I am, or when the happenings of the outside world seem so distant from me that I struggle to see there relevance. I read these statements and I remember.

I remember that I am not adrift, I remember that I did what I could. I fought to make this Earth a better place for Animals and I remember that the only regrets I still truly harbor are the regrets of the human centric world in which I still live. And I don’t mean just within these prison walls. I mean a world in which Animals Lives are so cheap that they die by the billions upon billions and hardly a person cares. A world in which human supremacy has reached dizzying heights. A world in which the vanity of our species collective unconscious has turned our kind into a plague that ravages the Earth and breeds discord where once there was balance. A world of human filth and greed.

Perhaps it’s not a world I can escape. Perhaps it’s not even a world I can change in any lasting way, but it’s a world I can resist  and it’s one that needs to be resisted. Humans have pushed the pendulum so far in the direction of self-interest as a species that it will have to swing just as hard in the opposite direction before balance becomes established. The fang and claw, the paw and wing, the fur and fin must become far exalted above the thumb of the dumb destructive human scavenger that gnaws on the flesh and bones of our Animal brothers and sisters, like an aberrant lunatic in comparison to the Vegan way of harmony and concern.

I am reminded when I read this court statement that Animal Liberation rightfully takes its place amongst social justice movements of all kinds. And I am reminded of how time and time again Animal Liberation needs to be explained to people in just such human centered ways for them to see it’s legitimacy.

And finally I am reminded of where my allegiances belong. And it’s not with humans, for we have become a blight upon nature. nor is it with “god” because you will find more real and genuine love and compassion in a dog, squirel or rat than some fictitious meglomaniac in the nebulous world of imaginary bullshit where god and company resides. and it’s not with human centered morals and philosophical ethics which always are just as often self serving, human centered, mental masterbation. My allegiance is with our Mother Earth and her Animal nations and against the further expansion and domination of the human cancer that plagues the biosphere.

Of course these are thoughts that come to my mind on this day as I read my own words and look back. maybe it is a statement you have only read for the first time or maybe you read it before. in any event I hope that it makes you think a little about the struggle for Animals and that it may give you a little bit of the solace that it gives me reflecting from my prison cell. Or some of the courage and determination that I had when I stared down a federal judge and spoke an unpopular truth in his face. Until next time take care and I’ll do the same. !Liberacion Animal, cueste lo que cueste!

Regards,

Walter Bond
ALF POW

Walter Bond’s Statement at his Sentencing

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.

Walter Bond
A.L.F. – P.O.W.
XLoneVWolfX

Link to 2012 issue of Cartel Urbano… article about Walter Bond starts on page 45…