Rumors about an increase of ritualistic cult activities in DeKalb County has prompted the DeKalb County Farm Bureau to offer a program on satanic cult behavior Thursday.

Farm Bureau Information Director, Mariam Wassman, said the program features Kishwaukee Community Hospital Nurse Kathy Haggard, and Illinois State Trooper Jim Vargas, giving informational lectures on cult behavior’s effects on children.

“More and more teenagers are getting involved in this type of behavior and we felt it was a topic that is increasingly important to rural families,” Wassman said.

Grave robbing, animal slaughters, ritual ceremonies and suicidal activity are the types of satanic behavior on the rise in the county, Haggard said.

Crime Committee Chairman Bob Hutchinson said there has been an increase in crimes, such as the slaughtering of animals, particularly in southeastern DeKalb county, that could be ritualistic in nature.

The crime committee and women’s committee are co-sponsoring the lecture, Hutchinson.

“These crimes might be meaningless, but they also might be the beginning of cult-like behaivor in DeKalb, and I don’t want to see teenagers getting into this,” he said.

Haggard said she is not concerned with Satanism as a religion, “I’m just concerned with the criminal aspect of it.”

She said she does not want children getting involved with the criminal acts associated with Satanism and wants to teach parents how to prevent it.

“We hope that she (Haggard) will show parents what to look for in children so that suicides can be averted,” he said.

Haggard said she is not an expert on the subject of Satanism, but she has spent many months studying the subject and keeping in touch with experts in the field, such as Chicago Police Officer Robert Simandl.

Simandl spoke at the NIU seminar on satanism earlier this month.

Hutchinson said Haggard was chosen because of her exposure to the suicide element of the Satanism issue.

The other speaker, Jim Vargas, was unavailable for comment.

Wassman said she does not want to scare anyone, or cause any sort of panic with this program,”but we feel that people in rural areas need to know how to prevent this sort of behaivor,”.

She said the program begins at 6:30 p.m. with dinner in the upper auditorium of the farm bureau building, 315 N. Sixth St., and all members should attend.