Last week, agents of the USA (United Speciesists of America) captured the fire-happy animal liberator ALF Lone Wolf, aka Walter Bond. His neck tattoo — “Vegan” — already marked him as a deviant flesh-abstainer in our bloodthirsty world, but it was his alleged arson against a sheepskin factory, leather factory and restaurant that served fois gras that gave us an excuse to cuff him.

Do vegans support this renegade for giving a voice to the voiceless by any means necessary, or do they wish he’d stuck to buying vegan soy frappuccinos at Starbucks?

Dnadenzien: Fellow vegans - don’t do stupid shit like this in the name of veganism, the vast majority of us will not have your back.

Sneakay: This is fucking nuts, my god.

Saucercrab: Yeah, needlessly skinning thousands of sheep to sell archaic commodities is pretty nuts!

Alex Melonas: I for one FULLY support the use of “violence”, be that property destruction or physical aggression, in principle, to stop a moral wrong. … Our exploitation of nonhuman animals is an enormous moral wrong, causing as it does unimaginable quantities of unjustifiable harm and death. So, the moral question at issue (re: is “violence” to stop this horrible wrong justified) is Yes, as it was in the past.

Eugene: The people who are ultimately responsible are the consumers: People who consume meat and other animal products. … So, since the people responsible for the torture of animals consists of all our closest family and friends, what are we going to do? Set all of their homes on fire?

Michele McCowan: Should we feel bad for the loss of livelihood of murderers? The loss of a building? … They make money off of the cruelty and death of others. How can I feel for them?

veganbikepunk: the vast majority of vegans are more interested in feeling a sense of superiority and fitting into a clique than ending animal suffering. The ALF saves animal lives, absolutely. Can PETA say the same?

‘til it breaks: Suffice to say, we hope the informant gets what’s coming to them, and may the fires of revolt burn ever more fiercely.

Ian: May the informant rot in hell.

Clare Godwin: The ALF only acts in this way once they’ve done all they can in a non-violent way but when nothing seems to be being done and the extreme suffering still exists despite the millions of petitions and protests you kind of learn that they won’t change without direct action being taken…

Mario Righi: full solidarity with him…

Ali Stone: When the breaking news came through that Lone Wolf had been captured…there was overwhelming silence from the Animal Rights so-called Community. … The silence is shameful. Have we all been so cowered and brainwashed by the likes of Roger Yates and Gary Francione that we are a movement of “non violence” (do nothing for fear of doing the wrong thing) instead of FIGHTING FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS. … It’s time the Animal Rights “community” started to realise this WAR will not be won by abandoning those doing the fighting.

ShadowVegan: May this hero soon be free so that he may go on defending the innocent.

Alice: Our official stance here at [Tiny Green Bubble] is that we do not condone violence at all, in any way. Use your words, Bond — come on! That being said … well, foie gras pisses us off, too.

Cellulite Investigation: It’s hard to come across a reformed omnivore who doesn’t point to Campbell’s book as a motivating factor in his/her vegan adventure. 

Tynan: I used to be a huge fan of meat. … Then one day my friend Hayden loaned me the book The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health. … I started the book as a skeptic and finished it as a believer. I am now totally confident that eating a diet with little/no meat and lots of vegetables will significantly increase anyone’s overall health and life expectancy.

Marilu Henner: It’s a brilliant book! It’s a brilliant book! I give it to everybody, all the time. It’s so good! If anything should convince you to become vegan, it’s The China Study!

Boston.com: Eric Faulkner, a professional in high tech, is baking a batch of vegan cookies in his Lowell loft. He minces few words to explain why he became a vegan. “I’m scared to death of cancer,” says the lanky 42-year-old. After reading “The China Study,” which purports that animal protein can accelerate the growth of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, Faulkner ate his last cheeseburger.

Dust2Dust: A professional acquaintance of mine told me couple of months ago that his father went vegan - after reading “some book.” It was The China Study. This was the first time I heard about it. Now the second time I hear about this book is when this acquaintance of mine calls me up yesterday, tells me he read it, he’d just went vegetarian two weeks ago and wants me and my girlfriend to recommend some nice veggie places in town and “maybe we can discuss this over dinner tonight.” Hahah. I like this book already - without even reading it.

Kailla: The book The China Study changed my life. I’ve even got a friend converted after reading that.

Trev: Yeah, read The China Study! Suz and I have converted at least four carnivores with that book!

Wall Street Journal: Mr. Gonzalez had never heard of the vegan diet when he boarded a flight from New York to Los Angeles last spring, about a month before preseason training. His seatmate turned down most of the food offered in first class, and Mr. Gonzalez finally asked why. The man told Mr. Gonzalez about The China Study, a 2006 book by Cornell professor and nutrition researcher T. Colin Campbell that claims people who eat mostly plants have fewer deadly diseases than those who eat mostly animals. … [Gonzalez] bought the book, and after reading the first 40 pages, he says, was convinced animal foods led to chronic illness.

Anonymous: I went vegetarian after — while making a hamburger pattie — the thought suddenly went through my head, “What’s the difference between ground up cow and ground up human? Nothing. I’m done.” Simple as that. Went vegan after researching nutrition for a friend dying of cancer. Found The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and never looked back.

Vegan Athletes: Patrick J. Neshek is a Major League Baseball relief pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. … Patrick went vegan in 2007 after reading the book The China Study…

Let Them Eat Lentils: I finally had enough down time to read The China Study, a book cited by many vegetarian/vegans as their reason for giving up meat products. Refreshingly, the author makes virtually no mention of the humanitarian reasons to give up meat, and doesn’t speak at all to slaughterhouse practices, sanitary concerns, etc. … Instead, the premise is much more scientific (as you’ve probably grasped by the title). … In any event, it’s already changed my life.

BeforeWisdom: Many people don’t want to hear about animal suffering, they are only interested in what a vegan diet can do for them. Many people also don’t trust information from vegans. Just look at all of the BS misinformation spouted on this forum. I’m going to read The China Study because I will not find a study or an author with better creds. Once I read it I will be able to recommend it to omnis being assured that it will reek of credibility.

VegeTexan: We had T. Colin as a speaker at our veg society a few years ago. He made perfect sense with a really convincing PowerPoint presentation with graphs and everything. He said he was convinced that animal protein in and of itself was carcinogenic. We had a hundred people at that dinner and a lot of them went vegan that night.

Alcahofa: I like the ethics of began vegan, but for me it was entirely a nutritional decision. I read The China Study after my carnivore husband read it and, completely out of the blue, went vegan as a result. I read it and, much to my surprise, went vegan too. Its a very compelling health argument backed by enormous amounts of data. If you tell me I have a 70% less chance of getting cancer, it turns out that i will give up animal protein. Who’d have thunk.

Lauragh: I’ve been reading John Robbins’ books and The China Study, which give evidence for the idea that dairy, like other animal protein, can be a contributing cause for cancer, heart disease, osteo, etc. I have two kids and am finding it difficult to know how to feed them. Why is this information not mainstream?

Nikalana: Lauragh, that info is not mainstream because the big dairy conglomerates and other big business DON’T WANT it to be and they have serious lobbying power.

MartinV: It’s true that some vegans insult meat eaters and even veggies. But people who care about non-humans understandably feel rage at the way humans treat them. Just like most people would feel rage if they heard a rapist or pedophile describing how much they enjoy what they do. Denouncing wrongdoers and insulting them is very unlikely to get them to change their ways but it is very difficult sometimes not to do so.

Huw MacDonald: I think that we should hate arrogant, cruel and heartless meat-eaters that, for example, hunt, fish or eat at KFC despite knowing the cruelty involved. People who say we, as vegetarians/vegans, are pointless and wrong are idiots! However, it’s not right to hate every meat-eater. The majority of people are good, honest people who are mostly unaware of the cruelty practises of the meat industry.

Juli F: I don’t believe that we should hate/dislike the meat eaters, and they shouldn’t hate us. Just because we have a heart and care about animals as much as we do doesn’t give them a right to give us a hard time or rub it in our faces. … It’s not our fault they’re so heartless.

Tori L: We agree that meat *is* murder? And thus, if others are eating meat, don’t we have an ethical responsibility to speak out? i mean, you would speak out if you saw a person murdered, correct? in the words of reverend doctor martin luther king, “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” and in the words of the amazing film Swing Kids, “If those of us who have a voice do not raise it in outrage at the treatment of our fellow human beings, we will have collaborated in their doom.” i think that also applies to animals. am i saying we should hate meat-eaters? no. but i don’t universally hate murderers either- because that doesn’t accomplish anything.

Nate Morey: I personally have tried not to hate people for eating meat but have you ever talked to them about it? if you talk to them, i mean REALLY talk to them, there is NO WAY you could not hate them. ALL — not most — ALL people who eat meat and do not need it (and you only need it if you’re poor and it’s the only choice, no other reason is good enough) to live, are heartless morons. Now don’t think of me as bad, i’m not, but it’s hard for me to feel ANY compassion for people who do not return the favor. honestly as an example if someone needs my blood to live and ate meat… i would let them die. think about it, if they live they will cause many animals to die. and i think an animal is worth more than a stupid self indulging meat eater any day.

Seth Mair: Hate that they are fascist and support exploitation of animals. Love whatever part of them you can. It is hard for me to handle.