SALT LAKE CITY—A Utah animal rights activist pegged by prosecutors as a ‘serial arsonist’ pleaded guilty Wednesday to two federal charges stemming from a pair of 2010 arson fires in the Salt Lake City area.
Walter Edmund Bond, 35, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one felony count of arson and one count of force, violence and threats involving an animal enterprise.
Bond admitted to setting a June 3, 2010, fire at the Tandy Leather Factory in Salt Lake City and a July 2, 2010, fire at the Tiburon restaurant in Sandy, allegedly because the establishment served foie gras, which is liver from a duck or goose that has been fattened by force-feeding.
Damages at each of the businesses totaled more than $10,000.
The fires were Bond’s second and third arson fires set that year. In April he set fire to—and destroyed—a Glendale, Colo., business known as the Sheepskin Factory.
Bond, whose neck is tattooed with the word ‘vegan,’ was sentenced by a Colorado federal judge in February to a five-year prison terms for that fire. Bond also was ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution.
“Walter Bond is a no-apology, unrepentant, serial arsonist,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Huber said Wednesday. “We look forward to a just sentence in this case.”
Bond faces a prison term of up to 20 years for each of the Utah fires when he’s sentenced Sept. 19. Prosecutors have agreed not to seek consecutive terms in the Utah case, but Huber said he’ll ask U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart for Bond to serve the terms separately from his Colorado punishment.
Bond was arrested in Denver in July 2010 after someone tipped federal investigators to a Web post that claimed responsibility for all three fires.
The post said the Glendale fire was done “in defense and retaliation for all the innocent animals that have died cruelly at the hands of human oppressors,” and warned that “making a living from the use and abuse of animals will not be tolerated.”
The post was signed “ALF Lone Wolf.” ALF stands for the Animal Liberation Front.
On Wednesday, Huber said Bond had often used the “lone wolf” moniker, and that it was a key piece of evidence linking him to the Utah fires.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other federal law enforcement agents listened and recorded a conversation between Bond and the informant at a Denver hotel, during which Bond claimed responsibility for the three fires and said he was “Lone Wolf.”
By entering a plea, Bond is trying to take responsibility for his actions, defense attorney Nathan Crane said after Wednesday’s hearing.
Crane called Bond a smart and articulate man whose convictions run deep, but he couldn’t say whether Bond was sorry for setting the fires.
“He took responsibility for his actions, but repentance is a tougher phrase,” Crane said. “He has strong convictions that animals are being abused every day and he wants to get that message out.”
