Boys will be....?

Does it seem a natural progression of depravity to go from blowing up snakes and frogs with firecrackers to mutilating puppies by nailing them to railroad tracks?  Especially since a perpetrator of the first atrocity is now  publicly  bragging about it in a newspaper column, with the assumption that it is a normal and even admirable part of growing up?  I recall a youth being arrested a few years ago for similar use of firecrackers, and he was considered a threat to society, since many youths who torture animal life move on to harming human beings.  It's too bad the statute of limitations has run out on a person who wants others to know about his sadism.  Same for shoplifting, which we are promised a recount of  in next week's column.  What an ass!