Found at the URL: http://envirolink.org/arrs/essays/molesters.html Another Anti Hunting Group. We need to Check on Possible HSUS Funding as well. My guess is they are funded by them. I'll bet you didn't know that if you hunt, they classify you as a child abuser and molester. This is one sick article!!! Gary wolf46@teleport.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hunters and Molesters by Merritt Clifton From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994. The relationship between violence to animals and violence to children is clear and compelling. ALBANY, New York -- As a team of 165 volunteers shoved snow from the frozen forest floor near Raquette Lake, where hunter Lewis Lent Jr. said he'd killed and buried 12-year-old Sara Anne Wood last summer, ANIMAL PEOPLE confirmed through a county-by-county comparative analysis of 1992 New York state hunting, trapping, and crime statistics that children in upstate New York counties with more than the average number of hunters per capita are three times more likely to be sexually assaulted than children in the notoriously crime-ridden Bronx district of New York City. Lent, 43, of North Adams, Massachusetts, was arrested January 7 after attempting to kidnap 12-year-old Rebecca Savarese as she walked to school in nearby Pittsfield. Within hours Lent became the primary suspect in a string of at least eight kidnap/rape/murders of children in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, and in an attempted kidnapping in Bennington, Vermont, only days before his capture. An Albany resident most of his life, Lent traveled extensively up and down the Atlantic coast. Investigators believe he could eventually be linked to many more kidnap/rape/murders, dating back as far as 1973. Arthur Shawcross, the most notorious serial killer of recent years in the Albany region, was also an inveterate hunter. After serving nine years in state prison for raping and murdering at least two children, Shawcross was released in 1981, killed a known total of 11 women during the next decade, and was finally sent to prison for 250 years in 1991. Psychological Link Known The pattern of violence toward animals as precursor of violence toward humans is increasingly well documented in psychological literature. At least 18 major studies identified the link between 1959 and 1984. Alan Felthous, M.D., of the University of Texas Medical Branch and Stephen Kellert, Ph.D., of Yale University finally captured the attention of law enforcement authorities in 1984-1985 with a series of papers based upon interviews with 152 federal prisoners. As they explained in a paper entitled Cruelty toward Animals among Criminals and Noncriminals, "Childhood cruelty toward animals occurred to a significantly greater degree among aggressive criminals than among nonaggressive criminals or noncriminals." The Felthous/Kellert findings have subsequently been confirmed and refined to produce an FBI profile that identifies cruelty toward animals, pyromania, and bedwetting as a "deadly triad" of predictors found in the history of nearly all serial killers. Dominionism Researchers have recognized that serial killers often use hunting as a cover for animal abuse, but have hesitated to directly link the attitudes and practices of hunters to those of sexually motivated murderers, in part because the 14 million hunters in the U.S. far outnumber the few hundred known serial killers. However, Kellert unwittingly demonstrated such a psychological link in American Attitudes Toward and Knowledge of Animals (1980), a study based on interviews with 3,107 randomly selected Americans. Commissioned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, this Kellert work was published by the International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems -- which may explain why it drew little if any attention from criminologists. Through his interviews, Kellert identified a "dominionistic" attitude toward animals held to a significantly greater degree by hunters, trappers, and rodeo and bullfight fans, the characteristics of which are that the individual's "primary satisfactions [are] derived from mastery and control over animals." Measuring the influence of dominionism on a scale with a maximum possible score of 18, Kellert found humane group members rated 0.9, anti-hunters 1.2, the general public 2.0, livestock farmers 2.7, fishers 3.0, meat hunters 3.3, and recreational hunters from 3.8 to 4.1. Among the recreational hunters, trophy hunters, whom studies by University of Wisconsin sociologist Thomas Heberlein have identified as being especially dedicated to hunting, were particularly inclined toward dominionism. Trappers, Kellert found, were twice as dominionistic as recreational hunters, at 8.5, and more than four times as dominionistic as the general public. The desire for mastery and control are also recognized leading characteristics of sadists and pedophiles, who typically reinforce a weak self-image through their dominance of their victims. Yet another Albany-area killer, Stephen Francis Kuber III, age 20, summarized dominionism as he applied it to Kimberly Jaye Decker, age 30, on July 10, 1990: "You know how you drag a deer by the horns or the neck? That's how I dragged her," he told New York State Police investigator James Horton. "You know how you kill a sunfish? You really have to pound. That's how I had to pound on her. She wouldn't die." Kellert found that the dominionistic attitude was held by only about 3% of the U.S. population as a whole, at a time when about 8% were hunters. Kellert further found that dominionism is quite rare among anti-hunters and members of humane groups, and in a follow-up study, Attitudes Toward Animals: Age-Related Development Among Children, he demonstrated that it is also rare in children of the second, fifth, eighth, and 11th grades. Since Kellert did his interviews, in the 1970s, interest in trophy hunting has markedly increased, as evidenced by the number of submissions to the Boone and Crockett Club for scoring, but the number of licensed hunters in the U.S. has plummeted from nearly 22 million to under 14 million. Correspondingly, the number of licensed trappers has dwindled from a peak of circa 800,000 in 1981 to as few as 97,500. One effect of the decline in hunting and trapping participation may have been to lower the number of hunters and trappers with other motivations, while increasing the percentage who are driven by dominionism among the remainder. Only 5.4% of Americans hunted or trapped in 1993. If Kellert's estimate that 3% of Americans are strong dominionists still holds, along with the tendency for strong dominionists to be hunters and/or trappers, it is possible that half of all currently active hunters and trappers could be dominionists. Because the number of serial killers is so small compared to the number of hunters, the high proportion of serial killers who also hunt animals has little statistical significance as an indicator of anything about the hunting population as a whole. Hunters also far outnumber pedophiles: in 1992 there were 528 licensed resident hunters in New York state for every person convicted of sexual assault on a child. However, though high, the ratio of hunters to pedophiles is low enough that comparisons can be meaningful if the relevant statistical associations are particularly strong. Further, if child abuse experts are correct in estimating that as many as 10 children are victimized for every case prosecuted, the discovery of a ratio of 528 hunters to one known pedophile may actually indicate a ratio of 52.8 hunters per practicing pedophile. At this ratio, if the populations of hunters and pedophiles not only parallel but overlap, hunting might no longer be just a common element in the backgrounds of most sexual predators: it might begin to be recognized as a symptom of sexual abnormality in and of itself. It must be noted that ratios independent of other context can be misleading. A relatively low ratio of hunters and/or trappers to pedophiles may suggest a relationship in the incidence of each, but not necessarily. The question is not whether there is just a low ratio of hunters and/or trappers to pedophiles, since this can result from low numbers of hunters and/or trappers in the general population, as in New York City; rather, the question is whether the ratio is indicatively low in counties which have both high numbers of pedophiles and high numbers of hunters and/or trappers. Conversely, a high ratio of hunters and/or trappers to pedophiles does not discount the possibility of a positive relationship in the incidence of each. Such a high ratio may reflect either a low rate of pedophilia, as in the most densely populated counties, or an unusually high level of hunting and/or trapping, as in the least populated counties, where coincidentally underreporting of pedophilia (along with rape and family violence) is most likely, due to the relative lack of access to social services. Ratios are most meaningful in comparing large numbers to large numbers. In this instance, the most meaningful ratios are found in those counties that are neither in the top nor the bottom 10% for population density. On the accompanying chart, the lowest 10 ratios of hunters and trappers to pedophiles are highlighted in bold italics; the next 10 in bold; and ratios that are among the 10 lowest but are in counties where the number of hunters or trappers per 100,000 is below the state average are in italics. The New York State Statistics ANIMAL PEOPLE initiated comparative study of the New York state hunting, trapping, and crime statistics in November 1993, days after two carloads of hunters, traveling together, shouted sexual threats at the editor and his three-year-old son, in an incident described more fully on the December editorial page. Familiar with the Felthous and Kellert studies, as well as with those that preceded them, and aware of a seemingly extraordinary number of sexual assaults upon children reported in the Glens Falls Post-Star, the leading newspaper in the region, ANIMAL PEOPLE wondered if an overlap in the dominionism of hunters and the dominionism of pedophiles might show up in hunting and crime records. The study was begun with the recognition that any significant correlation found between hunting and pedophilia would have to stand up independently from both the known correlation of hunter density with low population density and the relationship between low population density and high incidence of incest, a primary form of pedophilia, suspected by many other researchers. Throughout the U.S., rates of participation in hunting and trapping -- but not fishing -- tend to rise as population density decreases. (Fishing participation varies mainly relative to the proximity of water.) Pedophilia is poorly documented due to societal taboos that have inhibited reporting, but anecdotal evidence has long suggested that rates of incest are highest in rural areas, which tend to offer a limited choice of sexual partners. Folklorists have documented such sayings as, "A virgin in these hills is a girl whose daddy ran off" in most of the more remote regions of the U.S., including upstate New York. Merely to find parallel patterns relative to population density would not indicate an attitudinal link between the inclination to hunt and the impulse to molest a child. Nor would finding a parallel between incidence of hunting and pedophilia that doesn't exist relative to other crimes necessarily be indicative, since it is well understood that crime in general decreases with population density. Obviously most property-related crimes require ready access to unfamiliar victims, e.g. people to rob at gunpoint, cars to steal, and homes to burglarize. Murder rates also decrease with population density; although from half to a third of all murder victims are acquainted with their killers, high murder rates have always been closely linked to high general crime levels. On the other hand, finding a particularly strong statistical association between incidence of hunting and pedophilia could indicate that the leading reason why incest appears most common in rural areas is not the purportedly limited choice of sexual partners, as has been supposed, but rather the prevalence of the dominionistic attitude manifested to some degree in raising animals for slaughter and to an even greater degree in hunting and trapping. Peggy Sauer of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Marjorie Cohen of the State of New York Department of Criminal Justice Services graciously provided ANIMAL PEOPLE with printouts of the county-by-county hunting, fishing, and trapping license sales and crime figures from 1992. To find whatever patterns might exist, ANIMAL PEOPLE converted the raw numbers into numbers of licenses or crimes per 100,000 residents, carrying the numbers to tenths for crimes of relatively low frequency, and excluding the statistics for crimes so rare that they were not reported in at least 50 of the 62 counties of New York. Also excluded were nonresident hunting, fishing, and trapping permit sales, and juvenile permit sales -- the latter because juveniles by definition could not commit pedophilia, although they might commit other sex-related crimes. As expected, hunting and trapping license sales were strongest per capita in the least densely populated counties, declining steadily as population density increased. There were no significant variations in the pattern relative to type of permit, e.g. small game vs. big game. Fishing license sales followed a more complex pattern involving both population density and proximity to water. Crimes such as murder, robbery, larceny, and theft predictably increased or decreased relative to population density. Crimes less linked to urban conditions, such as forgery and criminal mischief, tended to follow a more random pattern, probably most related to regional economic status (which was not a part of the study). Hunting and Pedophilia The association between hunting and pedophilia fairly jumped off the chart: Of the 50 counties with rates of child sexual assault greater than the state average of 10.1 per 100,000, 47 also had above average hunting participation when the five boroughs of New York City were excluded from the average, and all 50 had more than average hunting participation with New York City averaged in. Only three of the 53 counties with above average hunting participation did not have greater rates of child sexual assault as well. Because of the statistical influence of New York City, whose rate of hunting participation is barely 10% of the overall state rate, and whose child sexual assault rate of 5.6 per 100,000 is just over half the state rate, median figures may be more indicative than averages. The median rate of child sexual assault is 20.3: 31 counties are above that rate and 31 below: Only four of the 32 counties with the highest rates of child sexual assault are below the median hunting density of 14,382 per 100,000 -- including only one of the 21 counties with the highest rates of child sexual assault. Conversely, just six of the 32 counties with more than the median hunting density are below the median for child sexual assault. Of the 41 counties with less than the state average population density, the median ratio of hunters to pedophiles fell at 687/1. Of the 21 counties at or below the median ratio, 16 had more than the median rate of child sexual assault. Six of the 16 counties were also below the state average ratio of 528 hunters to one pedophile; five of the six were among the 20 counties, statewide, with the most child sexual assault, and the sixth came in 22nd. Comparisons of hunting participation and rates of child sexual assault among counties of nearly identical population density may be more meaningful still. Seven such comparisons are possible, involving 22 counties (more than a third of the counties in New York): At the lowest end of the population density scale, Essex and Lewis counties each have 21 residents per square mile. Lewis County has 10% more hunters; 27% more child sexual assault; and a 19% lower ratio of hunters to pedophiles. Schuyler, Chenango, and Otsego counties have from 57 to 60 residents per square mile. They average 20,062 hunters per 100,000, 33.3 child sexual assaults, and 827 hunters per pedophile. Schuyler has 7% more hunters than the average, 73% more child sexual assault, and a 55% lower ratio of hunters to pedophiles. Otsego has 8% fewer hunters than the average, 60% less child sexual assault, and a 70% higher ratio of hunters to pedophiles. Chenango is close to the average in both hunter numbers and child sexual assaults, with 698 hunters per pedophile. Warren, Yates, Greene, Steuben, Sullivan, Washington and Wyoming counties have from 68 to 72 residents per square mile. Warren, Greene, and Wyoming, the three counties with the fewest hunters, average 15,746 hunters per 100,000 residents, and 25.6 child sexual assaults. Yates, Steuben, and Sullivan average 21,535 hunters per 100,000, with 25.9 child sexual assaults. Washington falls in the middle for hunting density, with 17,547 hunters per 100,000, and is third in the state in frequency of child sexual assault at 46.7 per 100,000. All seven counties in this comparison have more than the statewide median hunting density; only Wyoming is below the statewide median in child sexual assault. The ratios of hunters per pedophile in these seven counties neatly predicts their order of frequency of child sexual assault: Washington first, then Warren, Sullivan, Yates, Greene, Steuben, and Wyoming. Cortland, Columbia, and Livingston counties have from 98 to 99 residents per square mile. They average 18,064 hunters per 100,000, and 17.7 child sexual assaults. Cortland has 18% more than the average number of hunters and 38% more than the average number of child sexual assaults. Columbia has 19% fewer hunters than the average, and 37% fewer child sexual assaults. Livingston is close to the average in both categories. Once again the ratios of hunters per pedophile predict the order of frequency of child sexual assault. Seneca and Madison counties have 104 to 105 residents per square mile. Madison has 7% fewer hunters, 2% less child sexual assault, and an 8% lower ratio of hunters to pedophiles. Oswego and Montgomery counties have 128 residents per square mile. Oswego has 39% more hunters, 27% more child sexual assault, but has a higher ratio of hunters to pedophiles. When trapping and hunting figures are combined, however, the ratios are close to the same. Ulster, Ontario, and Wayne counties each have from 147 to 148 residents per square mile. They average 13,264 hunters per 100,000, and 19.9 child sexual assaults. Wayne has 15% more hunters and 24% more child sexual assault. Ulster has 16% fewer hunters and 18% fewer child sexual assaults. Ontario has approximately the average number of hunters, roughly 1,000 below the state median, with 16% fewer child sexual assaults. Yet again, the ratio of hunters to pedophiles predicts the order of frequency of child sexual assault. In six of the seven comparisons, the counties with the most hunters have significantly more child sexual assaults. In the odd comparison, that of Warren, Yates, Greene, Steuben, Sullivan, Washington, and Wyoming counties, six of the seven have have both very high rates of hunting density and very high rates of child sexual assault -- and the ratio of hunters to pedophiles stratifies precisely parallel to the order of frequency of child sexual assault. Trapping and Pedophilia Similar associations emerge involving trappers. The statewide median number of trappers per 100,000 is 122. Only two of the 33 counties which are at or above the median for trapping participation are below the median for frequency of child sexual assault. Again comparing same-size counties: Lewis has 34% more trappers than Essex, and 27% more child sexual assault. Schuyler, Chenango, and Otsego average 254 trappers per 100,000. Schuyler has 36% fewer trappers and 75% more child sexual assault, the first deviation from the trend that more hunters and/or trappers corresponds with more child sexual assault. But Schuyler also has the most hunters of any of these three counties, and the most hunters and trappers when both categories are combined. Thus the pattern holds despite the variance. Warren, Yates, Sullivan, Washington, and Wyoming counties all have from 200 to 230 trappers per 10,000, with an average of 219. Greene and Steuben counties have 122 and 121 trappers, respectively. Warren, Yates, Sullivan, Washington, and Wyoming average 31.6 sexual assaults per 100,000, 46% more than Greene and Steuben. Among the five counties highest in trapping density among this group, only Wyoming has less child sexual assault than the average of the other two. (Yates is right on the average.) Cortland, Columbia, and Livingston counties also average 219 trappers per 100,000. Cortland has 27% more trappers and 38% more child sexual assault. Columbia has 20% fewer trappers and 37% fewer child sexual assaults. Livingston has 16% fewer trappers, and is average among the three in child sexual assault. Madison, another deviation from the trend, has 38% more trappers than Seneca, with 2% less child sexual assault -- but the combined total of hunters and trappers in each county is nearly identical, negating the comparison. Oswego has 116% more trappers than Montgomery, and 27% more child sexual assault. Ulster, Ontario, and Wayne counties average 117 trappers apiece. Wayne, with 26% more trappers, has 24% more child sexual assault. Ulster has 16% less trappers and 18% less child sexual assault. Ontario has 8% less trappers and 16% less child sexual assault. Other Related Crimes If there is indeed a more than coincidental association among hunting, trapping, and pedophilia, growing out of dominionistic attitudes, one would expect to find parallels in the incidence of other crimes involving direct assertions of dominance: rape, sex crimes other than rape and prostitution, and the five categories of family violence (wife-abuse, husband-abuse, child-abuse, parent-abuse, and abuse by other family members). Aggravated assault might also fall into this category. Such parallels appear, despite the certainty of significant under-reporting in most of these crime classifications. For instance, New York state records indicate that husbands are beaten from two to three times as often as children, and that children beat parents more often than they themselves are beaten. Both statistics fly in the face of the observations and experience of police officers, medical personnel, and caseworkers: they stand as they do because adults who are beaten, especially adult males, are far more able and likely to call the police than children, and far more likely to press criminal charges. It is probable that sexual abuse and family violence is even less often reported in rural areas than in cities, because of the lesser likelihood that the crime will be witnessed by third parties, the decreased opportunities for intervention by neighbors or bystanders, and the greater distance between victims and sources of help. All of this notwithstanding: Only one county ranking in the top 20 for incidence of sex crimes other than rape and prostitution is not above the median hunting density; all 20 are above the state average hunting density. Of the 20 counties with the highest hunting density, 14 are also among the 20 with the highest incidence of "other" sex crime; 17 are above the median rate of 123 "other" sex crimes per 100,000 residents; 19 are above the statewide average of 87 "other" sex crimes per 100,000 with New York City excluded; and all 20 are above the New York City average of 73 "other" sex crimes per 100,000. Ten of the 20 counties with the highest hunting density are above the statewide average for incidence of rape. This in itself would not be significant, except that nine of the 10 counties that are below the statewide incidence of rape are also among the 11 least populous. The lower the population of a community, the less opportunity there is for a rapist to attack a stranger, while acquaintance rapes are the least likely to be reported. Finally, the total number of rapes reported in several of these sparsely populated counties would only have to increase by a handful to boost their rates up to or above the statewide median. Eleven of the 20 counties with the highest hunting density are above the median of 144.5 reported wife-beatings per 100,000 residents, while two more are right on the median. Three of the remaining counties have population densities of 57 or fewer residents per square mile. The low population coincides with a lack of protective facilities for battered women, and the low rate of reported wife-beating may therefore primarily reflect under-reporting. To achieve even more meaningful comparisons, one might again compare rural counties with each other, defining "rural" as those counties with less than the state average population density, exclusive of the five boroughs of New York City. (Suburban counties would be those with more than the population density of the rural counties but less than the state average with New York City included, and urban counties would include all the remainder.) Of the 10 rural counties ranking among the 20 with the highest incidence of rape, all 10 are above the state average hunting density, excluding New York City; eight are above the median hunting density (which is nearly three times the average). Nine of the 11 rural counties that rank among the 20 with the most family violence are also above the median in hunting density. Six of the 12 rural counties among the 20 with the most reported child-abuse are also among the 20 counties with the highest hunting density -- and 11 of the 12 are above the median hunting density. All 10 of the rural counties that rank among the 20 with the most reported wife-abuse are above the median in hunting density. All 11 of the rural counties that rank among the 20 with the most reported husband-abuse are above the median in hunting density. Conversely, 11 of the 20 counties with the highest hunting density are above the median in husband-abuse. Husband-abuse is generally believed to reflect a climate of family violence that begins with a dominionistic male family head (who may be a father or grandfather of the assailant, rather than the reported victim, who has taught by example the recourse to violence during an argument). It is also noteworthy that many and perhaps most husband-abuse cases are crossfiled counter to wife-abuse charges, usually after police are summoned to break up a domestic free-for-all in which both parties deliver blows with no clear sign as to who started it. Eight of the 11 rural counties that rank among the 20 with the most aggravated assault are also among the 20 with the highest hunting density. Of the 14 rural counties with more aggravated assaults than the statewide average excluding New York City, 12 have more than the median hunting density. Similar associations exist relative to trapping and "other" sex crime. Thirteen of the 20 counties with the most trappers per capita are also among the 20 with the most "other" sex crime; 19 of the 20 are above the median for "other" sex crimes. No associations between trapping, rape, and family violence are evident, but this may reflect the distinctive age pattern of trappers, as opposed to that of hunters. Seven different studies published in the past 15 years have indicated that 50-60% of all trappers are under age 20: younger than the typical convicted rapist and relatively unlikely to head a household. The next largest age group among trappers is 50+: older than the typical convicted rapist, and likely to have more grown children than children at home. Conclusions The ANIMAL PEOPLE analysis of New York state hunting, trapping, and crime statistics does not "prove" that all hunters and trappers, most hunters and trappers, or even a noteworthy number of hunters and trappers are sex perverts, active or latent. It does, however, suggest the possibility that hunting and trapping may attract many of the same individuals who are inclined toward pedophilia and other dominionistic crime. The numbers in eight categories of incidence of dominionistic crime overlap with hunting participation to a degree that cannot be explained away as chance, or as a product of confluence chiefly related to population density, like the confluence of tractor ownership with hunting participation. If there is confluence or coincidence involved, it is involved with every category of crime but one that might be associated with dominionism -- arson -- and while arson is associated with serial killing, it is also closely and far more frequently associated with deteriorating inner city neighborhoods. The ANIMAL PEOPLE findings are thus far unique, in the absence of similar analytical studies, but two previous examinations of hunting relative to crime are worth mentioning. The first, Hunting and Crimes of Violence: An Exploratory Analysis of Correlation was presented to the 1985 annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences by Chris Eskridge, Ph.D., of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Eskridge examined hunting license sales per 100,000 residents of all 50 states relative to reported rates of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and overall violent crime rates, using the standard FBI crime classifications, which are much broader than the classifications used in New York state, and unlike the New York classifications, do not distinguish between crimes committed against adults and crimes committed against children. Eskridge found that the rates of each crime decreased with population density, as hunting participation rose, and concluded that hunting might "have some type of a cathartic impact upon those who hunt," which might prevent crime. Looking at the FBI crime classifications, Eskridge was unable distinguish among types of violence that might have greater or lesser relationships to hunting; overlooked family violence completely; and relied upon rape statistics which are now known to have been hugely under-reported even relative to the statistics of today, which are also generally believed to be under-reported. In short, Eskridge looked at too few of the important variables. Two years later, in 1987, University of New Hampshire Family Research Center director Murray Straus compared teen homicide rates with numerous factors including hunting and participation in football in Why Are American Youth So Violent?, a paper presented to the Youth 2000: Imperatives for Action conference at the New York Academy of Medicine. "Essentially," Straus summarized, "we found that the more legitimate (legal) violence, the more criminal violence, including rape and murder." The Straus study, however, did not examine sex-related crimes other than rape, nor did it go beyond comparing broad regional populations. Further analysis of the apparent relationship between incidence of hunting and trapping and dominionistic crime may be undertaken in either of two ways. Firm confirmation of such a relationship could be done by identifying the percentages of convicted pedophiles who have held valid hunting and/or trapping licenses within one year, two years, three years, and four to 10 years of their arrest (making allowance for time spent in incarceration, if any, between offenses). This study could only be done through official cooperation between the New York State Justice Department and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, since the identities of hunting and trapping license holders are not released to outside researchers. The findings of the ANIMAL PEOPLE analysis could also be checked against the crime, hunting, and trapping statistics of each of the other 49 states, by anyone willing to send away for the records, which are in the public domain, and able do the necessary math. It is likely that there will be some regional variance in the relationship between hunting participation and the incidence of dominionistic crime. At the same time, New York may be as representative for the purposes of such analysis as any one state could be. While the U.S. Bureau of the Census considers that 91% of New York residents live in metropolitan areas, compared with 77.5% nationwide, only nine states have greater rural populations. The New York ethnic balance (74% Caucasian, 16% Afro-American, 8.5% Hispanic) is close to the overall U.S. balance (80% Caucasian, 12% Afro-American, 9% Hispanic). Per capita income is slightly higher than for the U.S. as a whole, but is identical to the figures for the New England and Middle Atlantic regions. Although more New Yorkers (26%) complete college than the U.S. norm (22%), the number who complete high school (77%) is the same as the U.S. average. In short, it is not likely that a trend seen in New York, which includes 7% of the total U.S. population, will not be seen in the U.S. as a whole. ANIMAL PEOPLE is a nonprofit newspaper, providing independent professional coverage of the whole range of animal protection issues & perspectives since 1992. Subscriptions -- either U.S. or foreign --