College buddies Matt Rossell and Kevin Tubbs drove from Nebraska to Iowa one December day in 1993, armed with a standard stunt of the times to rail against factory cattle farming.

Tubbs donned a black-and-white cow suit and joined Rossell in a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protest, crashing an Iowa Cattlemen’s Association meeting and yelling "meat is murder" to television cameras.

Police hauled the pair out of the Des Moines Convention Center on disorderly conduct and criminal trespass charges. The Des Moines Register printed that image the next day, along with an article peppered with plenty of cattle puns.

"That was a very typical PETA-type demonstration," recalls Rossell, now a field coordinator for In Defense of Animals in Portland. "It was just a little media stunt. We didn’t disrupt anything. Our intentions were to draw attention to the way that cows are factory farmed.

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"When activists get arrested, they usually choose to," he says. "That’s part of the plan."

But Tubbs’ plans soon graduated from fiery rhetoric to fire, federal prosecutors say.

Less than three years after the Iowa stunt, Tubbs allegedly started a five-year string in which he became the most prolific eco-arsonist among a "family" of Northwest activists accused of using fire to further their pro-animal and pro-forest politics.

The 37-year-old Springfield activist, who remains jailed without bail in Eugene, faces multiple federal arson and conspiracy charges for his alleged involvement in 13 arson attacks on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front, groups the U.S. government has labeled domestic terrorist organizations.

During the Northwest faction’s heyday of 1996 to 2001, Tubbs allegedly hopscotched across five Western states torching everything from lumber mills to Bureau of Land Management corrals used to house and sell wild horses.

Tubbs’ alleged activities also include the Dec. 22, 1998, botched firebombing of the U.S. Forest Industries corporate office in Medford and the Jan. 2, 2001, arson at Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale.

Following each attack, threatening communiqués to the media taunted the arsonists’ targets and warned of more attacks.

In all, the firebombings reportedly involving Tubbs caused $25.5 million of the $27.8 million in damage attributed to the ALF/ELF cell that thumbed its nose at authorities, who grew increasingly frustrated at not cracking the ELF circle.

"I’m sure it outraged the government an extreme amount, having this group, basically, putting their finger in the eye of the government and the government not doing anything about it," says Craig Rosebraugh, the public face of the ALF/ELF while issuing the communiqués from his Portland home during that period.

"There was inspiration there," recalls Rosebraugh, who claims to have no direct connection to the groups but remains subpoenaed in the case. "It was a movement with heart and soul that fought back against corporations doing harm to animals and the environment."

In the end, however, the BLM still sells wild horses and Superior Lumber Co. still mills trees while Tubbs and 12 other defendants await trials that could imprison some of them for life.

"The group didn’t stop any of these issues or perhaps even slow them down," says Rosebraugh, 33. "But do you fault those groups for their tactics when other groups with litigation and legislation had failed?

"I think, overall, their actions have been positive," Rosebraugh says.

Attempts to justify the arson attacks bristle Stephen Peifer, an assistant U.S. attorney in Portland who is part of a team of federal prosecutors on the case.

"It doesn’t matter what your point is," Peifer says. "You’re still violating the law, whether it’s for what you think is a lofty goal or not.

"It certainly wouldn’t make any difference to the people living next door," Peifer says. (An arson) is still a threat to them."

The ALF’s path to violence on animals’ behalf traces back to 18th century England when saboteurs began disrupting fox hunts.

Eventually, those anti-hunting activities morphed into the ALF in 1976 behind British animal-rights activist Ronnie Lee.

Animal-rights historians believe the group eventually spilled into the United States with a raid on the New York University Medical Center in 1979.

Most early ALF activities in the U.S. focused on releasing animals from research facilities.

Actions on behalf of the ELF also began in England, but not until 1992, when members splintered from Earth First! factions over Earth First!’s unwillingness to use violence.

At the time, Tubbs and Rossell were campus activists at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, with Rossell focusing more on anti-war advocacy than animals.

"That (1993 arrest) was very outside of what I was doing," Rossell says. "That was my one and only arrest."

Both went on to work for PETA, Tubbs back East while Rossell did undercover investigations at places such as the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in Beaverton.

Tubbs eventually made his way to the Eugene area, where he remained active in animal issues and animal rescues, acquaintances say. Tubbs, who later became an assistant manager of a Castle Superstore pornography outlet, regularly attended environmental law conferences at the University of Oregon also attended by Rosebraugh, Rossell and others.

Karen Davis, president of the Virginia-based group United Poultry Concerns, says Tubbs staffed her organization’s table at the law conference for several years to pass out literature about factory poultry farming.

"I know he cares about the environment and he cares about animals," Davis says. "I don’t know anything about the ELF."

Rosebraugh and Rossell both say they believe eco-violence likely stems from frustration over the inability to effect change through standard activism.

"I know, personally, how frustrating it can be as an activist with your eyes open, really seeing what’s happening," says Rossell, who adds he does not condone violence as part of activism.

"When you become acutely aware of what’s going on out there, it’s mind-blowing," Rossell says.

For some, firebombing buildings on behalf of animals is the product of an overwhelming sense that conventional protest methods don’t work, says Steve Best, a Texas philosophy professor and animal-rights advocate who tracks the violent wing of the movement.

"Some of them are just into destruction," says Best, who has been thrown out of the United Kingdom for his calls for eco-violence. "Some are really connected to the pain of the Earth."

Most, however, likely are not the same people grandstanding to the media.

"If you’re a leader, you can’t do any underground actions," Best says. "You have to be off the radar."

Tubbs’ Dec. 7 arrest by federal investigators was his first arrest in Oregon, court records show.

Marc Friedman, Tubbs’ attorney, said in federal court that Tubbs acknowledges a "minor role" in the arsons and that he has cooperated with federal investigators who continue their probe into the ELF.

Peifer says the investigation is continuing and more arrests are possible as more information about the cell unfolds.

Peifer says it is too early to tell whether the mass indictments and arrests will toss cold water on future or prospective ELF arsonists or their attacks.

However, Peifer says, Oregon has seen a "sharp decline" in ELF activities since Jeffrey Leurs was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison in 2001 for firebombing three sport-utility vehicles at a Eugene dealership firebombed again in 2001 allegedly by Tubbs and others.

"That kind of thing has taken the wind out of people," Peifer says. "There’s definitely the deterrent effect there.

"Also, it’s no secret that we have a number of people involved here who are cooperating," Peifer says.

Rosebraugh says if talk of cooperation by the defendants is true, then it is "frustrating" that the accused are not remaining silent.

"I don’t know all the details," says Rosebraugh, who is subpoenaed to testify March 16 before the federal grand jury that indicted Tubbs. "In general, it doesn’t surprise me because of human nature. People crack under pressure. But for me, personally, there’s no excuse for it."

Best doesn’t buy the idea that arrests and convictions will stem violence.

"I think people just will be more careful and work in smaller cells," Best says.

Just as the 1993 stunt by Tubbs and Rossell seems low-key compared to the ELF firebombings, the acts on behalf of animals in the future likely will be even more destructive, Best warns.

"I think everything we’ve seen so far is like firecrackers," Best says.

Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail mfreeman@mailtribune.com.