Sir, - Evidence is continuing to emerge which points to links between violence against animals and violence against humans. This, I feel, justifies a Government-backed investigation to establish exactly what connection exists between those who terrorise/kill defenceless animals for pleasure (fox-hunters, hare-coursers, stag-hunters, etc.) and those who prey on vulnerable people in society.
Psychological research sponsored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has identified a set of values and attitudes called dominionism which most people have to some degree but which hunters tend to have to twice the degree as non-hunters. Dominionism is essentially the idea that dominating another person or animal is fun and studies have shown that it also surfaces as a primary motive in convicted sex offenders. Rather disturbingly, when crime figures for 22 New York state counties of equal population density were compared, it was discovered that in counties with the most hunters there was also the highest incidence of child abuse. Similar comparisons appear to show that there is a connection between levels of hunting and reported wife-beating.
Meanwhile, Dr Liz Paul at the Department of Clinical Veterinary Science in Bristol University stated last month that "there is some suggestion that families in which abuse of children is going on also seem to have high levels of animal abuse". She points out that "the high levels of correlation between those two sorts of events suggest that some sort of investigation may be sensible". - Yours, etc.,
Mullingar, Co Westmeath.