Animal-Rights Activist Sentenced For Fire-Bombing Research Lab

A man thought to have vandalized a Washington State University lab four years ago was sentenced to federal prison in Michigan on Friday.

Rodney A. Coronado, 29, received a 57-month sentence and was ordered to pay more than $2.5 million in restitution for his part in a firebombing that destroyed two buildings at Michigan State University in 1992.

He also will be on probation for three years after his release.

Coronado this March pleaded guilty to the Michigan crimes and to destroying an artifact from the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana.

In exchange for his plea, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in five other states, including Washington, agreed not to pursue charges against him.

Federal authorities believe Coronado and other members of a group called the Animal Liberation Front were responsible for a series of raids on research labs and fur producers across the country, including the one at WSU.

The group opposed the use of animals in experiments and sought to end the practice through force or the threat of force, authorities said.

In August 1991, someone broke into the U.S. Department of Agriculture office at WSU and sprayed acid on computers, destroyed records and released research animals from their pens.

, DataTimes