Dogpatch Press

May 13, 2024: The second episode of Fur and Loathing is HERE (six episodes are coming out weekly.)

The 2014 chemical attack on Midwest Furfest was one of the largest in American history. 19 people were hospitalized. Nobody was charged and the case went cold. 10 years later, never-before-reported findings are here in this Furry True Crime podcast with journalist Nicky Woolf.

In the new Episode 2, Nicky visits Midwest Furfest and traces events in the 2014 police report, gaining unexpected insight. He gets immersed in furry culture with an insider guide, then introduces a complication that stalled the case. Until now.

Last week’s launch announcement had an exclusive interview for Dogpatch Press with Nicky and Patch O’Furr. A reader requested the transcript below. Come back for surprising developments in upcoming episodes.

TRANSCRIPT: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW – lightly edited for clarity from the video

Nicky Woolf

(Nicky): Patch O’Furr in full regalia, looking beautiful with the glasses and all!

(Patch): Nicky, why don’t you tell the readers who you who you are and what the project is?

I’m Nicky Woolf, and for the last 7 months intensively, and the last 10 years, I’ve been obsessed with investigating the chlorine gas incident at Midwest Furfest 2014.

Before we get into it, let me ask you what’s your favorite thing about furries?

You know honestly, you’re starting me off with a difficult one. Because this is going to sound super weird… it’s the earnestness. The level of no one is pretending, by definition it’s a space where you no longer have to pretend. Which is ironic, considering the level of artistry that goes in, that leads you to a place where you don’t have to pretend, and I think that’s beautiful.

I love your vision.

(Puts on sunglasses)

What have you uncovered in the story that has never been reported before? You don’t have to give us spoilers, but some hints.

The things that really surprised us, the more we dug into this story, is how much was going on behind the scenes in terms of police and FBI investigation. Now it’s known, and a lot of it’s known through through your fantastic reporting, that there were some colossal mistakes made. By the police department — by the FBI in the general investigation — and obviously there were no arrests made. They never got over the line.

What we discovered, and we’ll get into this later in the series and what this means, but there was a lot of investigation going on as recently as 2019. Chasing down suspects, getting warrants, getting on planes, and going to find people for at least five years following… the word that’s used is controversial, we’ve been saying attack. Because I think it’s very clear that this was an attack. But the police and FBI were doing a lot more than has previously been known in the public domain.

From the public point of view, take me through what kind of life have you seen for this story. When it came out, when it died down, what’s your sense?

In the immediate aftermath — and I think anyone who’s familiar with this story who’s followed it either from within the community or outside of it as an interested viewer will know — the immediate reaction was the media did not cover itself with glory. The famous example of that is MSNBC where Mika Brzezinski cracks up laughing and is trying to get out words like, “19 people hospitalized” through laughter, which is a single piece of media that sums up the way the mainstream media has approached this community.

I think that’s the perfect one, that’s where we’re at in terms of the way the media and… I’m not within the community, so maybe I throw it to you, do you blame Mika specifically for that, or do you think she didn’t know what the hell was was going on there? Because I think that’s an interesting question. What’s your read as someone in the community of what happened on that MSNBC set?

I would say it was a brief human mistake. I can look at that from outside as a nonhuman, but I’m glad you’re here and doing the work you do, the amazing work that’s going to bring this story forward. Why should we listen, what are the good points of the story that really stand out?

It’s funny, when we were scripting, one of the notes early on that I got was that there needs to be — and this is something you get in every narrative podcast, in every piece of journalism, you have to do the “why should you listen, why should you care” and I found myself thinking to myself, the story doesn’t need selling. This is a vibrant and fascinating community about which very little is known, who were attacked in a way that no one has.

Shout out to the couple of places that have done good work investigating this before, specifically Vice and Robert Evans, and obviously you. I’m talking about mainstream media outlets here, but Vice and and Worst Year Ever deserve props having got the story to at least fighting the fight of having mainstream media pay attention to it. Not I think successfully, but the thing that really got me about this story is that it’s a sign of what was happening in the wider internet at the time, that’s only got more powerful since then.

Of the two big previous shows I’ve done, one of them was on Qanon. So I’m familiar with the way in which the dynamics of an internet community, or a primarily digital community, can have huge repercussions and teach us an enormous amount about what’s going on in the world as a whole. I think what this attack represents is a microcosm, of lessons that we can learn about how we deal with — trying to find a way of saying this which which doesn’t end up with spoilers — but I think I can safely say with rising extremism. And the way that extremism isn’t something that’s… like there aren’t the Nazis and other people.  There is a rising alt-right tide, and even furry, even the community is not safe from these forces of global change that are taking place. It’s something that we all deal with, no matter what community we have.

Let’s back up. Where do you think this fits into your previous work?

I’ve been covering the internet for a very long time. I was just a general news reporter at The Guardian a long while, and when you’re a general news reporter you need to carve out a little niche for yourself. I was an internet kid, I grew up in the Livejournal era, early in an era where everything was earnest, and it was a level of earnestness that I otherwise came to miss when the next step of internet development became the anonymous boards, like 4Chan. Which then became the power centers, and furry to me ended up representing a kind of alternate counterweight to a power center like especially /Pol…

Internet communities to me take on lives of their own, as life forms in their own, and I think that’s the same with any community historically, but the internet turbocharges the evolution of those kind of groups. I think the furry community has been a fascinating example of this, the way a culture develops and I think far right and trolling culture and something like Qanon is another example of that.

I’ve come to consider myself over my career as almost like a anthropologist of this new kind of life form that is the digital community, and the power that a digital community can wield and represent, to be a good thing for the world and its participants, or a bad thing for the world and its participants. For covering Qanon, that was the first time I got to do a story in yearlong investigative detail. I was covering — and I think it’s not a controversial way of describing it — a fundamentally evil new life form.

Whereas with this show it’s been joyous to be on the opposite side of that, and cover what I think is a fundamentally beautiful community, beautiful life form, even if I’m covering it from the perspective of… it came under attack and this is what happened after that. It’s a true crime show, so we’re looking a lot at the attack itself, but it’s been great to be able to do a little bit of that anthropology.

What’s it like to enter furry spaces as a guest, as someone who hasn’t been intimately invited in before, and earn some trust and have the insider view?

It’s been I think rightfully difficult, the mainstream media has not been great in terms of covering this community before, so we’ve really had to work very hard. As the show will keep going, I hope to work hard in terms of getting people in the community to trust us. We have to prove from the very first episode that we’re not looking to make a joke of the community the way a lot of people have. We’re not looking to paint the community as in some way deviant in the way that a lot of coverage has.

More literally we’re not looking to — we address this in in the first episode — we’re not looking to out anyone who doesn’t want to be outed. We’re not using anybody’s name until we get to the actual suspects in the attack. The line I use in the show is, unless there’s a journalistic reason not to, we address and refer to everyone in the community we speak to, the way they choose.

That gave us a kind of starting point, we made some contacts in the community we were able to say I’m coming into this with some experience. I’ve known furries, I’ve been aware and adjacent to the community while remaining a guest in these spaces, and I’m honored to have been invited into these spaces and these communications. It’s really a privilege to have been able to be at Midwest Furfest last year, to speak with members of the community, and it’s been a joy.

I think you had some interesting experience visiting Midwest Furfest. I don’t think we need to get into parts that are already in the show, but was there anything you saw that wasn’t able to make it into the show?

I’m so glad you asked that, because there is something that just didn’t make it into the show which I’ve been really pulling for, but couldn’t… I want to give a shout out to Atmos Deer, photographer Tommy Bruce, who has been a real helpful guiding light for me as I’m navigating this. We went to see on the Saturday afternoon, a review, an hour and a half long of lots and lots of little VR made films.

It was truly one of the most beautiful — there were lots of them that were… apologies to any of the makers who I say this about — slightly janky, but in this kind of beautiful raw emotional way. Some of them were in-jokes, some of them were truly hilarious, some of them were unintentionally hilarious and neither me nor Atmos had any idea what was going on. Then some of them just blindsided you by being heart-rending goodbyes and tributes to somebody that had been lost, or tributes to someone who lives a long way away and you don’t get to see very often, and they’d be these beautiful little vignettes. I loved it, I’m almost emotional just describing it, I thought it was one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever had.

This was obviously a story that was stalled, it was a cold case. What factors helped you to move this forward when nobody else was getting progress?

It’s worth saying that we don’t actually know! We did a lot of the standard things you do when you start this kind of investigation. One of those things is a big Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request for output… which, it’s worth saying, that the Vice team had done. Previous journalists have sent out FOIA requests regarding this story. What we got back — and I hope when people listen to the show they’ll see this — was very different in terms of the sheer scale of the documents that we got back. We don’t know for sure exactly why that is.

One of the things that — and we’ve spoken to legal experts — all we can do is an informed speculation that what had happened in 2019 was the five year standard statute of limitations had run out now. It was mind-blowing to me that something that was a terroristic offense, in reality, could have a statute of limitations. You can just not get found.

I think if that is the case, at this point we don’t know for sure because a lot of this was kept secret within the FBI and within the local police department, so we’re not 100% sure that’s why we had a different document response to FOIA requests, but whatever the reason, we did.

That gave us a starting foundational point of more information than has ever been made public before. There were just enough clues, like they heavily redacted lots of these documents, but there were just enough clues that could start us off on a investigation that could find something genuinely new.

When I’ve been working on stories like this one, or maybe negative topics, I tend to encounter friction inside the community. For example in this story a lot of people would tend to dismiss the attack, or memory hole it, or excuse it as “oh that must have been an accident” when you know there was always evidence that it was deliberate from the start. The police said it was deliberate, but people still ran with the idea that it was just a “mistake.”

Still to this day we had spoken to people who were fairly sure that that a latex chlorination accident was ultimately what had happened, and a lot more on top of that who were saying “oh it’s just a prank.”

It’s very striking to me — I don’t want to project a kind of a psychology onto what’s going on — to me it seemed like there was an element of trauma response going on, so that it’s easier to say “it’s not a big deal”.

I think there’s an element of an event like Midwest Furfest, a convention is such a sacred space, where you go to be free… that admitting that there’s a vulnerability there itself breaks some kind of spell. I’m hesitating to even say — because even thinking about that paradox some people are going to not love — in and of itself that’s looking this kind of spell directly on and undermining the magic.

I think that’s got to be balanced against, this is the real world, and not just the real world / the internet world, which to me is this kind of hyper reality and there are dangers looking.

I think it’s worth admitting, and investigating, and I’m just going to go ahead and say fighting, those forces that have emerged on the internet and represent real dangers for communities like furries and for the world in in general.

Where the weapon was deployed at MFF 2014.

I’m glad you used the term breaking the magic, that’s a meaningful term. We’re dealing with a subculture, to some people a very important one in their life, it’s the way that they express their identity. But a subculture can be marginal, isolated, it can be contained, and there’s a lot of alternative communities, sometimes I think they encounter problems that are wider scale than their reach. Do you have any ideas, thoughts or advice about how to solve problems that are wider than the scale of a small community like this?

That’s a ginormous question. A lot smarter people than me have have tried and failed to to answer that. All I can say is that in my experience, a start is solving it within the community before saving the world. Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.

Let’s take journalism for example… that’s a terrible example because journalism’s work is to talk about other people’s problems.

Journalists are the worst.

Barely more than a loose confederation of warring tribes.

Let’s take the local WhatsApp group around here to organize what day to take the trash out. If someone’s in there that’s been being an asshole, it is outside of the scope of this trash-collection WhatsApp group to solve whatever’s going on in this dude’s life that’s taken him there.

What is within the scope of a community is to look at itself, and say what help are we offering to people who may be experiencing something in their lives that’s taking them down this route.

How can we think of ourselves as a community while remaining open, while not breaking the magic, while also stop the Nazis… how do you deal with an asshole? Do you ostracize them, do you reach out to them? Those are the kind of questions that every community asks, and asking those questions is a good first step.

I think it’s good to be aware that you don’t necessarily want to be a doormat, by handling things the nice way, or just letting them go. This story opens a lot of questions about how we handle crime and policing — it’s one of those stories that we’ll continue to feed questions about, and it’s a great dialogue to have. We’re working in the True Crime genre here, and we’ve actually worked together and made Furry True Crime. I don’t know if there are any other examples like this, and I’m pretty happy about that.

This is a good point to really say thank you to everything you’ve done to make this happen with your reporting in the past.  You’ve been fighting a very lonely battle — I don’t know if it’s felt lonely to you — but as the voice doing the real solid journalistic work on this, none of this show would have happened without the hard work that you’ve put in, and without your incredible generosity in opening up to us and talking to us, and helping us on this journey. So thank you so much for that, we owe you basically everything of this show.

Let’s remember the reason for this community, it’s a fandom, we love what we do, and a lot of us are fans of other movies, music, writing, whatever… do you have any other media that inspires you? Anything you might want to share?

Are you getting at what fandoms, what inspires me… does Ska count? I’ve seen Reel Big Fish live 16 times, I’ve seen The Cat Empire live 18 times. I’m a ska kid by instinct. I was a Warhammer kid growing up, that was my first experience… the closest experience I’ve had to going to a con like MFF, and I’ve been to Comic-Con, I’ve been to the dumb commercial video game E3 which doesn’t even really count as a corporate thing. There was a Warhammer tournament that I entered and did all right in when I must have been 13-14, the time where a steam tank… It was fantastic, like that’s my finest work was the steam tank had a dragon head. Actually I think Warhammer is an interesting comparison to furries because it’s also a self-contained fandom.

I knew you’re a nerd, that’s amazing, I didn’t know all that. One more thing before we close: do you have any good animal jokes?

I have a terrible memory so anytime I ask to remember a joke my memory goes completely blank, I’ve never been able to successfully memorize a joke.

Hold that thought and come back to me later with it but thank you Nicky.

I’ll start messaging you animal jokes from now on.

It’s your job, deal. I’m actually on the way out, I’m going to World Goth Day. I’m going to see some goth bands in my fursuit. It’s so exciting, it’s happening on a battleship.

Where is this battleship?

Alameda, California, a World War II battleship hosting a goth day.

Send me some pictures, I’ll send you some animal jokes, you got to send me some pictures from this party.

You got it, thank you we’ll talk later.

With Charun, being a rat on ship at the @USSHornetMuseum in Alameda CA for #worldgothday 2024, seeing @Covenant_Sweden and https://t.co/nfnPCv5oSC. What a weekend! There was just 5 hours to sleep after the show, then I biked 100 miles with the #grizzlypeakcyclists century ride. pic.twitter.com/s03GzHhiSS

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 7, 2024

I had so much fun at The Anual Goth Day Festival this past weekend

Thank you so much @DogpatchPress for bringing me with pic.twitter.com/wCYrq6j9tD

— Harper BLFC’24 (@2ManyStripes) May 9, 2024

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Zero (white) and partner Siro_Kami (blue)

A misunderstood person moves to a new place, and faces more misunderstanding, but uses creativity to stand proud and reach people who do understand.

It’s a tale told a million times, known by a million furries worldwide (and subcultures of every stripe.) It’s the tale of Frankenstein’s rejected creature, who finds kindness from a blind person, but has to run from the prejudice and torches of angry villagers.

It’s a tale that wasn’t told by a local CBS channel who only reported the villager’s side, “Furries” with satanic symbols spotted near Sacramento County elementary school, parents say. They didn’t talk to any furries they reported about, or mention resources about them for the media like Furscience, or the history of Satanic Panic spreading prejudice and harming schools and communities like theirs.

Antelope, CA is 15 miles from Sacramento. Attitudes about order there may be influenced by history: In 1973 the town was blown away when trains full of bombs for Viet Nam exploded. It was rebuilt as a planned community where “most homes are new and the area is well planned out”. It’s rated safer than average for crime among 45,000 residents, and is unincorporated with policing by the County Sheriff, and nearby town departments under contract for schools and parks.

Natural Elements

Zero The HellHound is an 18-year old trans furry facing the villagers’ wrath. He recently moved to Antelope, where he doesn’t have a job or car, but you have to drive to get anywhere. On maps, the neighborhood doesn’t have a restaurant for hanging out within a 2-3 mile walk, and he also might have to fear going alone. So for about 2 weeks, Zero has been visiting Firestone Park (a name almost made for this story.) It’s a public park in sight of the family home that recently took him in. At the park he’s been chilling in nature, and practicing fursuit dancing for a Tiktok audience of over 14K followers. Instead of hiding inside with depression, it helps him to be confident to dance where anyone can see.

Zero won the dance competition at Golden State Fur Con, but at Firestone Park, he got eggs thrown at him by middle school kids who came to hassle him. Angry adults think he’s there to be Satanic, or target little kids next door at the Olive Grove Elementary school, but he says those kids only show positive notice. He also made two new friends who came up and complimented his fursuit. His reaction was “Wow, you know what a fursuit is?”

Many people confront him about the fursuit. Zero is a fursuit maker who plays a Skulldog, like a spooky creature from Ghostbusters or shows like Hazbin Hotel. It represents the story of a character who was originally a human with one abusive parent, which led to suicide, earning God’s judgement of going to hell. There he transforms and gets symbols burned on him, but has his own place to live. Many teens find catharsis in stories about overcoming trauma and asserting “it’s ok to be weird”. Some symbols on his character are trans scars and LGBT Pride colors (which have been targets of pedophilia accusation at the park). There’s also pentagrams, but Zero claims he’s not religious and they aren’t Satanic (pointing down), they are the kind that points up to represent natural elements.

Finger Guns

The story doesn’t communicate to the lady who confronts him one day to say, “do you think it’s OK to be in costume at this park?” She claims it’s scaring kids. As far as Zero knows, no kids have been scared. Only parents… although groups of many kids harass this 18-year old even when he’s not in fursuit. One adult was threatening almost to the point of punching him. But Zero isn’t leaving Firestone Park just because they’re mad. It’s public property and he has a right to be there. He also denies that he times visits for when kids get out of school, and says the park generally isn’t busy. Should he only go when nobody can see him or there’s no light for videos?

In one of Zero’s Tiktok videos, he and his friend sit on a park bench while people crowd up to take video and complain that kids can’t play there. “We’re minding our own business”, they tell an adult who isn’t holding back kids from bouncing a basketball at them and lining up aggressively like stereotypical jock bullies in a movie. Another adult demands to get Zero’s face in their video, and threatens to call police on him for legally wearing a mask.

Lacking real crime to complain about, they reach to accuse his Tiktok videos of being a school shooting threat. Zero exasperatedly explains that they went digging for a “very very old” (2022) video made in his house with a finger-guns meme that went around, or a “pope dance” meme with pointing. This came out in the CBS article, with a parent complaining about the school ignoring his complaints about someone legally using a park off school property.

Under this pressure, Zero tried going to the principal of Olive Grove Elementary to talk, and she said she just wants to keep kids safe. After the CBS story, Dogpatch Press called the school and emailed the principal to request contact with security or adults involved for comment, but there was no reply.

Collateral Damage

Then there was the incident with Mudpuppy. Zero wants support from friends, and gets a few to come sometimes for making videos. Mudpuppy is a 23-year old furry from Woodland, CA with autism and ADHD, and he was the only one who came on May 2. He was unfamiliar with the area: “I was actually attending an audio/visual workshop in Sacramento before going to the park. It was my first time meeting Zero.” He was wearing a tail but no mask.

With instructions to find a basketball court, Mudpuppy accidentally wandered towards the wrong one on school grounds next to the park. He didn’t realize it until seeing kids playing. Before being able to leave, angry parents got in the way, including one from the CBS article, Kris Williams.

“Kris and one other guy confronted and interrogated me about why I was there. They told me I wasn’t going anywhere and proceeded to call the police. One of them aggressively pulled my camera bag off me. When they asked me who I was meeting, I pulled out my phone so I could tell them. But one of them ripped it out of my hand. They treated me like I was an actual school shooter.”

Mudpuppy found the treatment and reporting hard to understand. “The whole situation was so terrifying that my mind blocked out what they said… I was told CBS was at the school about 20 minutes before I came.” The story was decided before Mudpuppy even became part of it.

Local news features Kris Williams complaining that the school is ignoring complaints that aren’t about school property.

Dancing Around the Issue

It’s easy to prejudge and terrify a lost and needful person who wanders in with a tail making them a target, even when schools are supposed to specially care about autism and bullying. Mudpuppy had to go through all this just to find Zero to give the support that furries do for each other.

That wasn’t all. After he found Zero and started taking pictures, Mudpuppy echoes that they became targets of egg throwing, neighbors yelling that they weren’t welcome and labeling them “pedophile”, and threats of more assault.

Ironically, angry parents were the ones calling police and guns to these scenes with hostility, making a threat of innocent people getting shot. Autism and communication complication has led to wrongful police use of force incidents.

As one set of adults who didn’t fail in this story, police protected the targets. At one point an officer went as far as staying with Zero for an hour at Firestone Park. One officer advised Zero to bring a lot of Sacramento furries there for a big event with security provided by police. It would be a way to assert right to use public space, and show that furries aren’t afraid and aren’t a threat.

Together or alone, Zero keeps doing what he loves. Despite accusations of preying on kids by making videos (of himself), his Tiktok followers are rising a lot. He says he isn’t trying to influence people with pentagrams, but with dancing. For example, one day a group of kids wanted to mock him, but he reacted with dance moves, and one of them actually started defending him. Why don’t mad parents learn from kids like that?

Followup notes

A post about this on r/Sacramento has surprisingly understanding comments with some local insight.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

May 6, 2024: The first episode of Fur and Loathing is HERE. 

Think you’ve heard everything about the 2014 chemical attack on Midwest Furfest? Wait until you hear this.

The intentional release of chlorine gas sent 19 people to the hospital. It was one of the largest chemical weapons terrorist attacks in American history.

Who did it? And… why?

The targets deserve to know, because they were lucky to survive. The weapon’s deadly potential was only avoided by fast response. The level of crime fell just behind the 2001 anthrax attacks, but strangely, nobody was ever charged for it. The story faded into underreporting, disrespect towards the community, murky rumors, and hopes that it won’t happen again. There’s pride in resilience — but 10 years later, justice wasn’t served. It’s the biggest cold case in furry fandom.

The case revived when investigation by Dogpatch Press drew journalist Nicky Woolf and Project Brazen to seek FBI records, identify suspects, and fly across America to interview sources. Nicky is a journalist who reports on internet culture, with stories in The Guardian, and his original podcast series Finding Q and The Sound: Mystery of the Havana Syndrome. Nicky and Brazen’s series Fur And Loathing delivers never-before reported findings to empower the community.

EXCLUSIVE: Nicky Woolf’s introduction for Dogpatch Press

We discuss what was uncovered, Nicky’s work, earning trust among furries, and more. (This is off the cuff and unedited.)

Fur and Loathing is a Furry True Crime podcast of six episodes, releasing weekly.

Thank you to Nicky for his dulcet tones, and Brazen’s super pro team with Max, Lucy, and all who supported investigation that other media didn’t do (besides Vice and the Worst Year Ever podcast.) It was incredible to get first look at their progress, such as matching FOIA document releases with open-source findings.

FYI… we know the title was taken for a TV show episode a long time ago. Nothing else fit so well, so we’re taking it back.

Announcement at Variety and Trailer:

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Are you one of the masses with a crush on Disney’s Robin Hood?

That fox may have created more furries than any other beloved character, and they create huge amounts of fan art. Sexy, sexy fan art.

Artists: Sandblastcoyote and Paintfox34

The weirdos who search the net for Sexy Robin Hood, like this author, mostly get still illustrations or very small bits of animation that can barely quench their burning desire. Until now.

A secret work group of furries have been pushing the limits of AI technology to deliver the worst nightmare for Disney’s Family Moral Standards department. It’s the long anticipated full movie fan edit where Robin Hood is as bare as he leaves the King’s treasury, and he’s showing off all his jewels.

To explain how this technological breakthrough was achieved, let’s start with a conceptual creation by Changa Husky. He lives at the Prancing Skiltaire house in California, a long-time haven for pioneers of fandom. Changa used to make effects for 1990’s science fiction TV shows and now works with Furality, the VR convention. Around 2018, Changa was inspired to make a bootleg VHS release of Disney’s Zootopia featuring period-authentic pan-and-scan formatting, trailers for other fan works, and vintage marketing materials in a clamshell box. It was Mandela Effect prank art from an alternate universe. Yes, it’s real.

Changa’s unique Zootopia VHS release only went to a few special furries. Some of them were inspired to take the concept farther, and now Robin Nood is here.

How hard was it to generate a fan edit to feature Robin Hood’s full-frontal anatomical correctness, like his fluffy but well-toned abs that invite nuzzling, not to mention the rogueish fox’s muscular buttocks that you could only imagine under his forest bandit tunic before?

It’s hard to ask the secret work group behind Robin Nood, who refused to comment while they avoid Disney lawyers behind a cloak of anonymity. Some questions were sent to the artist Wizardhead (Brendan Baldwin) because he was in a previous Dogpatch Press article about AI. How did they do it?

Baldwin replied:

The length of the render is mostly relevant in that the proliferation of angles and different kinds of shots involved might need tweaking for whatever algorithm is applied. I’m not familiar with any approach to targeted rendering of character bodies in a consistent way and to date I’ve seen no examples of this which lead me to believe it is either cheap or easy. Most of what I do is fairly transformative but intrinsically chaotic and somewhat visually incoherent, which is very different than what the deepfake videos do by creating very exacting targeted replacement of video subjects. If quality and coherence were not relevant, then after maybe a day of experimenting one could arrive at an appropriate model to apply to the spectrum of scenes in the target film and the only real work there would be chopping up the work into manageable bites, dishing them out to the rendering machines and compiling them all together at the end. Long form video tends to require the chopping-up treatment when running it frame by frame through these systems because per-frame storage even at 1280×768 for example runs about 1.8MB and that adds up crazy quick. For reference, if I took Zootopia and ran the whole thing through the model I used for my Slimefeld video, it would probably cost me about $400 in computer rentals and about 8 hours of time chopping and midwifing through the systems and recompiling. Just to cost it out conceptually, if I was to use my approach as a model for your friend, my break even costs for doing something like that would run $1200 (@100/hr labor/opportunity) and if I was going to do a job like that for someone I’d probably charge about $2500 so I could double my out-of-pocket costs to make a profit. Now as for making the characters naked (I assume just with matching animal fur etc) I don’t honestly know how one would coherently achieve that via the AI tools out right now in a low-labor or cost-effective way, but I’m sure someone smarter than me with a lot of time could figure it out.

Furries pushed the technology farther than even a seasoned expert knew how to do it. Wow!

Like the VHS bootleg of Zootopia that really exists, this recreation of a Disney movie only exists as limited edition physical media. You have to know someone to get a copy. Good luck everybody!

Note: Dogpatch Press doesn’t endorse using AI images because the systems that make them are unethical. Memes and conceptual projects with no commercial purpose may be less harmful but the systems also burn up energy that hurts the planet. Their misuse is toxic and their overuse dilutes real art. The feeling of seeing a bunch of AI images can be like enjoying pretty gift wrap, which lasts a minute until you rip it up and throw it away and never think about it again. If you care about art and want it to last, hire a real artist who puts thought and care into what they make, not just math to put other art in a blender and barf it back out. This applies most to replacing human artists for certain jobs, but one like Wizardhead still displays inventive use of absurd juxtaposition and editing prowess no matter what the tools are. And of course, the artists who animated Robin Hood weren’t allowed to give his fans the extra-sexy version we all long for, so it was meant to be willed into existence somehow. 

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Ursa art by Foxenawolf.

Go HERE to vote, and don’t wait, the deadline is TODAY March 24! 

The Ursa Major Awards celebrate and recognize great works that resonate with the furry fandom, whether they are made within, by a member, or are simply favorite creations from the mainstream. Anything goes as long as people like it, and there’s a lot of opportunity to lift things up that people haven’t seen. Vote to spread your personal fandom and help others feature theirs!

Nominees are in 14 categories, and the Ursa Majors site has more details about each one. The newer Music category is removed, but Best Fursuit has re-activated after not enough notice previously.

Volunteers run the Ursa Major Awards. Please support them. Since 2001, these awards have been run with unpaid work. They appreciate support to defray costs for a website, making and mailing awards, and more. Click the button to donate >

The 2023 Nominees (in alphabetical order):

Best Motion Picture
Live-action or animated feature-length movies.

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Directed by James Gunn – May 5)
• Leo (Directed by Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel and David Wachtenheim – November 21)
• Migration (Directed by Benjamin Renner and Guylo Homsy – December 22)
• Nimona (Directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane – June 30)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Directed by Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears – August 2)

Best Dramatic Short Work
One-shots, advertisements or short videos.

• A Fox in Space – Episode Two – Fixing a Hole (Directed by Matthew Gafford – March 25)
• Lackadaisy (Pilot) (Directed by Fable Siegel – March 29)
• Once Upon a Studio (Directed by Dan Abraham and Trent Correy – October 15)
• Tamberlane (Directed by Ashley Nichols and Caytlin Vilbrandt – May 15)
• The Meeps – Love Louder (Official music video. Created in partnership with XIX Entertainment and T&B Media Global.)

Best Dramatic Series
TV or YouTube series videos.

• Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake (Developed by Adam Muto – August 31 to September 28)
• Bluey (Created by Joe Brumm – Season 3)
• Helluva Boss (Created by Vivienne “VivziePop” Medrano – Season 2 Episode 3 to Midseason Special)
• Sonic Prime (Created by Man of Action – Season 2)
• The Owl House – “For the Future” & “Watching and Dreaming” (created by Dana Terrace)

Best Novel
Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.

• Family Matters, by Mitch Marmel, Walter D. Reimer, and E.O. Costello. (FurAffinity – December 8)
• Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut, by Mary E. Lowd. (Deep Sky Anchor Press – December 1)
• Rafts (ebook), by Utunu. (Makapu Village – March 15)
• Wolf of Withervale by Joaquín Baldwin (Paperbear – October 8th)
• You’re Cordially Invited to Crossroads Station, by Mary E. Lowd. (Deep Sky Anchor Press – July)

Best Short Fiction
Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.

• Aged Plant Fibers and Ink, by James L. Steele. (Zooscape – April)
• How Pepper Learned Magic, by Renee Carter Hall. (Zooscape – August)
• Of Heart and Stone, by Solomon Harries. (the Voice of Dog – Dec 4)
• On the Difference Between AI Cats and Actual Cats: A Love Story, by Daniel Lowd and Mary E. Lowd. (Deep Sky Anchor – February)
• Rhapsody of Stolen Feathers, by Frank Alvarez. (Androids and Dragons, October)

Best General Literary Work
Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.

• Commander Annie and Others Adventures, by Mary E. Lowd. (Deep Sky Anchor Press – short story collection – November,)
• Gnoll Tales, by NightEyes DaySpring. (Dancing Jackal Books – short story collection – June)
• Lauren Ipsum, by Charles Brubaker. (Smallbug Press – comic strip collection – February 2)
• Some Words Burn Brightly: An Illuminated Collection of Poetry, by Mary E. Lowd. (Deep Sky Anchor Press – poetry collection – November)
• Zooscape, Volume 1, edited by Mary E. Lowd. (Deep Sky Anchor Press – anthology – September)

Best Non-Fiction Work

• A Guide to Drawing Manga Fantasy Furries: and Other Anthropomorphic Creatures, by Ryo Sumiyoshi. (Tuttle Publishing – Art guidebook – April 25)
• Furry Planet, by Joe Strike. (Apollo Publishers – history – August 29)
• Furscience, by Dr. Courtney N. Plante. (International Anthropomorphic Research Project – research on furry fandom – December)
• On Furries and the Media, by Soatok. (Dhole Moments – blog – June 6)
• TFTuesday Podcast – A Measured Response: Saberspark’s TF Video Essay, by Zilepo and K-Libra. (Youtube – video – August 30)

Best Graphic Story
Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.

• Silverwing: The Graphic Novel, written by Kenneth Opel, Illustrated by Christopher Steininge. (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers – September 19)
• Slightly Damned, by Chu. (Internet – page #1081 to #1111)
• Tamberlane, by Caytlin Vilbrandt and Ari Noble. (Internet – January 11 to December 27)
• Two Kinds, by Thomas Fischbach. (Keenspot – January 3 to December 25)
• Would Have Bit You, by Inanimorphs. (Tumblr – January to July, (also hard copy Issue 1))

Best Comic Strip
Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.

• Carry On, by Kathy Garrison. (Hirezfox – January 2 to December 29)
• Foxes in Love, by Toivo Kaartinen. (Twitter – Jan 1 to December 21)
• Freefall, by Mark Stanley. (Purrsia – January 2 to December 29)
• Lauren Ipsum, by Charles Brubaker. (Internet – January 2 to December 30)
• The Whiteboard, by Doc Nickel. (Internet – January 2 to December 25)

Best Magazine
Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.

• Dhole Moments, edited by Soatok. (Internet – January 6 to December)
• Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch O’Furr. (Internet – February to December)
• Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper. (Internet – January 1 to December 31)
• InFurNation, edited by Rod O’Riley. (Internet – January 1 to December 31)
• Zooscape, edited by Mary E. Lowd (Internet; Issue 17 to 19)

Best Visual Art
Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.

• Market Haul by Squiddy (Twitter – February 22)
• Our Furry City – Anthrocon 2023 by ARVEN92 (Deviant Art – June 1)
• Pines by Glopossum (Fur Affinity – January 6)
• The Record Store by Squiddy (Twitter – February 10)
• Winterrock Oasis by Bubblewolf (Fur Affinity – February 20)

Best Game
Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.

• Friends vs Friends (Developer:Brainwash Gang – Publisher: Raw Fury – May 30)
• Laika: Aged Through Blood (Developer:Brainwash Gang – Publisher:Thunderful Publishing – October 19)
• Pseudoregalia (Developer/Publisher: rittzler – July 28)
• Super Mario Bros Wonder (Developer: Nintendo EPD – Publisher: Nintendo – October 20)

Best Website
Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.

• e621 – art archive.
• Fur Affinity, Furry art and stories.
• Kemono Café, Furry webcomic hosting.
• Wikifur, Furry wiki.
• Wolfery – roleplay/MUCK.

Best Anthropomorphic Fursuit

• Draco – Maker: The Beastcub. Owner: Draco Deflagro. (Twitter – July 15)
• Forlorn Raven – Maker: Lemonbrat. Owner: Forlorn Raven. (Twitter – February 3)
• Pig in Dress – Maker/Owner/Wearer: Suolaxierr. (Twitter – July 15)
• Sandey – Maker/Owner/Wearer: Misplaced_Spigot. (Vancoufur 2023)
• Vauk – Maker: Kkes and Vauk. Owner: Vauk. (Twitter – August 7)

Go HERE to vote, and don’t wait, the deadline is TODAY March 24! 

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Mark (left) and Rod holding their Lifetime Achievement Award — from the 2022 Good Furry Awards

They had a shared vision

Mark Merlino was a founder of both the furry fandom and the North American anime fandom. In 1971, meeting fellow hobbyists at science fiction conventions led to the 1977 formation of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization (C/FO), using the clubhouse of the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society (LASFS). They would screen rare videos of imported Japanese animation for lucky members to see before anyone else, and movies like Animalympics that were first called funny-animal and later furry. In 1989 Mark and his partner Rod O’Riley co-founded the first furry convention, Confurence.

Their vision stood apart from major influences like Star Trek or Star Wars. They would gather fans without elitism or ambitions of an exclusive club, with no central property, brand or owner. It was a vision of collaboration, expressed with sketchbook sharing, convention room parties, and direct fan-to-fan creativity. That’s how love for animal characters turned into being original role-play fursonas. It was shaded by counterculture of 1960’s underground comix, and lit by the sparks of pre-internet fandom circulated by VHS tapes and mail ‘zines.

The flame was tended from Mark’s Southern California house, The Prancing Skiltaire, established in 1980. It was named after a mink-like alien species he created and also a reference to the Prancing Pony Inn in Lord of the Rings. Mark shared the house with Rod and a rotating cast of fellow creative oddballs and luminaries. In the mid-1980’s he created his fursona Sylys Sable and Rod created Vinson Mink with a similar back-story. They supported regular monthly furmeets, con staff meets, furry BBS and MUCK activity and an ISP, animation screenings and mingling with California industry talent, and development of independent zine/APA publishing, animation, games, and costuming. They were at the forefront of an explosion of nearly 200 conventions and worldwide subculture that serves millions today.

Tributes around the world

After 5 decades at the heart of it all, Mark’s elder health problems led to hospitalization at the new year in 2024. He was lovingly supported by friends and partners and a crowdfund until he passed away on February 20. Anime, furry, and brony networks lit up with condolences from around the world while the name Mark Merlino trended on social media next to mainstream celebrities.

He is survived by partners including Rod, and Changa who joined them for 28 years. They were united by love and creativity, but as queer people, their relationship was fundamental to the acceptance and expression that aligns many furries with queer culture. Fandom may be a hobby, but it’s also a way to show identity, and theirs was the soul of what furries are.

• Dozens of convention memorial messages are collected on the Telegram news channel of Grovel Husky.
• History book Furry Nation by Joe Strike (Cleis Press) profiles Mark in Chapter Four (“A Fandom is Born”).
• Mark also features in fellow fandom founder Fred Patten‘s An Illustrated Chronology of Furry Fandom, 1966–1996.
• Documentary movie The Fandom (2020) features Mark and the Skiltaire house and residents.

Mark contributed stories to Dogpatch Press. With eyes on the future, his 2022 look at Furality featured its hugely successful 15,000 attendance. He also wrote 2020’s A brief history of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization, America’s first anime fan club. Then there were meetings in person.

Patch O’Furr’s memory: generosity and delight

At first contact in 2013, I was a cold caller to Mark. I reached him to write about his furry gallery art show that he called a dream he had for over 30 years. He was super excited to be asked. He was always that generous for convention meetings at his room, where he would tell funny grandpa stories in a Zootopia hat with fuzzy ears. His eyes would light up while he played a fan cut of Animalympics and explained how it was unjustly unseen until being rescued for people like us. It was charming when Rod chimed in with him.

In 2019 my girlfriend planned a trip with time to visit the Skiltaire house. It was packed with memorabilia like Aladdin’s cave, a museum, or a holy shrine for a pilgrimage. We got a tour, watched documentary about them, and had dinner. My girlfriend, not a furry, was very quiet while taking it all in, which turned into delighted writing about the visit later. That means a lot because she has passed away. It’s one of life’s best memories because of their generosity.

The most personal way I got to know Mark was private email where he explained philosphy that I boiled down above, and “lifestyler vs. traditionalist” conflict (a way that rivalry or even homophobia came to furry spaces). From long experience, Mark asked me not to publish unless he could collect it into “things clearly marked as ‘opinion’, ‘recollection’ and verified fact. I am particularly nervous about ‘naming names’. This has bitten me badly in the past.” That included a story about once receiving a dead squirrel in a UPS package!

He added: “I am very proud of what Rod, myself, and our friends have done to help create Furry Fandom.”

How it started: How it’s grown:

RIP Mark Merlino (Sy Sable) pic.twitter.com/kWXpvfSXDP

— David Bookworm Popovich (@Bookworm_Review) February 21, 2024

Our Furry Heritage — by Jack Newhorse
jack@jacknewhorse.com, Telegram: @JackNewhorse 

“My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.” — Hazel, upon the death of Bigwig; Watership Down, by Richard Adams.

Mark Merlino, half of the couple generally acknowledged as “Fathers of the Furry Fandom”, died today. I’ll leave personal tributes to those who knew him, as I didn’t. But still I said the phrase above to myself, as I do whenever I hear of a furry’s death.

You who are reading this might already know about Mark (and his partner Rod). As creators of seminal furry organizations who have remained active in the fandom, they form an important part of our heritage. Visitors to monthly gatherings at their home in Southern California have had the opportunity to touch its dust: The newsletters, drawings, and other furry ephemera stretching back more than forty years.

Furry heritage of this sort has been getting more attention in the last few years. Fred Patten led the charge in 2016 with his book, Furry Fandom Conventions, 1989-2015, followed by Joe Strike’s Furry Nation and Ash Coyote and Eric Risher’s award-winning documentary, The Fandom. More recently, Gamepopper started the Furry Fandom History Project and has been giving talks at conventions about it; he’s among the contributors to the 250GB Furry History Collection on archive.org. And in academia, the topic is covered by dozens (if not hundreds) of papers. (All of these projects owe a debt of gratitude to Wikifur, a primary source of furry information since 2005.)

I joined the fandom in 1998 and so had a ringside seat to some of this heritage. I promise you: life seemed as banal then as now. You never know what ideas will catch on, and Things require Space. Do I keep this con book? This flyer from a picnic? A supersponsor plushie? As the past recedes, we eliminate minor (and inconvenient) details, we create myths. But if you keep the artifacts, you have a base truth more true than memory.

This becomes more important as our fandom passes through the membrane into mass culture. Hundreds (perhaps thousands) of people now make their living exclusively by catering to us; furry businesses are popping up like spring flowers. Partygoers have discovered our club nights, and celebrities show up at our cons. We offer something compelling: It’s only a matter of time until every family has (or personally knows) furries. And you’ll be able to say to those newcomers, “I was there.”

(My organization, Otterdam Foundation, recognizes this and works to ease integration by “helping non-furry institutions explore anthropomorphic arts”. On this note, we’re planning the public-facing Otterdam Furry Arts Festival in cooperation with local arts organizations for this October.)

Mark will never again tell his stories on a couch in a con lobby, at the Prancing Skiltaire, or to his partner. But he did tell them. He and Rod invited people into their home; they presented at cons. (I was fortunate to be at their talk at what I think was Mark’s last, Midwest Furfest 2023.) They saved their artifacts, allowing those who followed to contextualize it all. To do that they had to first decide that what they were doing was important, even if seemingly banal at the time.

He mattered. This matters. And you, too, matter.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

I’m crying at this breaking news from The Onion.

There’s something funny about how they wrote it.

Check this out:

Compare to the 2016 Dogpatch Press story A Newcomer’s Guide To Furry Terms and Customs.

They got “Steves” from there. Bet your fursuit. That’s the only place it appears like that.

What’s a Steve?

In-group slang is fun, especially when outsiders don’t get it.

A common furry word for outsiders is Normies, or less commonly heard these days, there’s the old-school nerd-word Mundanes.

A Newcomer’s Guide To Furry Terms and Customs invented “Steves” as another one. (It also lists Musclefurs, which is real — but very specific — so call it more evidence of referencing.)

This “guide” was written to set up a reader to believe a list of very real terms… salted with made-up bullshit that gets more and more silly until either they got the joke, or insiders can laugh at them for getting fooled. It was written out of annoyance at repetitive “what is a furry” bland Furries 101 media that uses terms nobody really uses any more. (This is a fan site, we can do satire or April Fools stories.)

After 7.5 years, it’s still one of the most currently searched stories on the site. It does admit being a prank at the end… but you have to read the whole thing. It still gets believing comments!

Arrkay The Bird of Culturally F’d says:

I think this is a moment of “grunge speak”. In the 90’s, a record company publicist pranked a NYT writer about Seattle’s grunge scene, making up a bunch of jargon which was uncritically published as true slang words.

Some of these made up slang words became actual slang, like Cob Nobbler.

Were The Onion’s writers in on the joke, or were they being Steves with a quick net search and a looming deadline? I can’t decide which one amuses me more.

Steve Gallaci and Steve Brule were unavailable to comment for this story.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Welcome to Jess E. Owen, author of noblebright fantasy, and optimistic contemporary Young Adult writing (as Jessica Kara), whose book A Furry Faux Paw caught the notice of Dogpatch Press with a 2022 Ursa Major Award for Best Novel. It’s the story of a teen girl artist with a hoarder mom, facing isolation and family complication with the promise of a forbidden trip to a furry con. It stood out for reaching outside a typical insider science fiction/fantasy audience, with gateway appeal by using fandom as a setting for character building. It stood out even more as a furry teen story in the face of conservative backlash at books. A Furry Faux Paw was seen on a mainstream channel, before it was obvious that she was a furry insider — that’s well-rounded exposure! In fact, she laughed about her pen name maybe being too successful at separation from her best known fantasy series starring gryfon characters, The Summer King Chronicles. Here’s a creator worth interviewing about how her work gets around, one you might see soon at Anthrocon 2024.

(Dogpatch Press:) Let’s start with your background in writing and genre. Would you say you started as a furry writer, or just a writer?

I think I’ve always had a furry vibe before it was intentional; back in my mIRC days I was ‘Lyoness’ in my teen chat group and I think half of us had fursonas without realizing there was a whole subculture already happening. So I’m definitely in the furry community even if I don’t have an official gryfon-sona character or a ref sheet or anything. I think most people who know me consider me part of the birb/avian sector of the fandom.

As far as writing, when I came up with the concept of my fantasy series, The Summer King Chronicles, it was before I was really aware of furry as a whole community so I was really writing in more of the mainstream ‘animal fiction’ tradition of Watership Down, The Lion King, and Meredith Ann Pierce’s Firebringer trilogy (even though we can just call those furry, too! Tomato, to-mah-to, and all that). However, a friend made me aware of the Ursa Majors back in 2014 so I threw my hat in the ring with my eligible novel, Skyfire, the second book in The Summer King Chronicles. I won the Ursa for best novel that year, which caught the attention of other writers in the fandom, and I have been immersed in the community ever since. I’ve published short stories in a couple of fandom anthologies as well.

So to answer your question–yes! I call myself just a writer and a furry writer, and my books have crossover appeal for mainstream YA audiences and furry readers alike.

While you’re earning awards and appeal, how are things going as a career?

If the question is, can I quit my day job yet, the answer is no– but I consider it my actual career, and this true for a lot of writers. I’m happy with the books I’m putting out, I’m thrilled to have gotten a traditional book deal for my contemporary novels, and I’m in it for the long haul. I have a million stories to tell and I’m just hoping to get most of them out before I shuffle off this mortal coil. If money follows eventually, that would be nice. Some stories will continue to appeal to furry readers, some will be mainstream, who knows what else; I cannot be contained, someone stop me! (Just kidding).

I’m juggling day jobs, family, and multiple writing projects as well as marketing and pushing other creative ideas–I run a Patreon, I’m creating a graphic novel of Song of the Summer King with an artist, as well as audiobooks of the series, so I just try to keep all the pots stirred. Someday I hope for a tipping point when I’m making more than I’m spending, or at least enough to fund all my ideas.

Can you talk about your recent work, and the process of crossing outside of fandom with YA writing?

The most recent book I’ve published is Don’t Ask If I’m Okay, a contemporary YA with no furry ties except it was the second of my contractual obligations with Page Street YA, who published A Furry Faux Paw (AFFP)– so let’s talk about AFFP, a book about furries, for furries, picked up by a mainstream traditional publisher

How did I go from writing fantasy to writing contemporary? Once I was immersed in the fandom I fell in love with the creative community and I started getting this idea to write a novel about . . . a furry. A person who is a furry, not “furry fiction.” I write primarily for kids and teens, and so the story happened in my mind that way–a teen in the furry fandom. Usually I’m a die-hard fantasy writer but all the people I was meeting and all the different stories I saw inspired a more realistic story, of a realistic teen, overcoming realistic teen obstacles.

I knew Maeve/Mauve would be a teen artist in the fandom, but it couldn’t just be about that, so the friction and plot came when I decided her mother was a hoarder, and the fandom and Maeve’s artwork were one way she distanced herself from her mother’s struggles and found her identity, and solace. So the idea developed that she’s going to attempt to break away from her mother, runs away to her first furcon, and her coming-of-age and my love letter to the fandom ensues! An agent loved it, so did an editor at Page Street YA, so that book was my first foray into traditional publishing.

My agent coined the term ‘tragi-cozy’ for my contemporary work. I definitely go for a Studio Ghibli vibe where even when difficult things are happening, there are beautiful things, friendship, and a life worth living. So while Maeve has a hard row to hoe, the book itself is cozy and mostly heartwarming and a nice little escape from the daily grind.

What reactions has A Furry Faux Paw gotten, both in general and inside fandom?

Positive reactions in general! The curious normies who have picked it up seem to come away with a better understanding of the fandom, and Maeve’s struggle with her mother garners a pretty universal emotional, empathetic response. Most furries seem to see it as a fun frolic through an accurately painted furcon, even if Maeve’s adventure doesn’t involve some issues specific to fandom and conventions (again, the fandom is not the actual focus of the story, but a loving backdrop). I’ve gotten reviews and letters from furries expressing their joy at my depiction of the fandom, and seeing themselves reflected in the pages, which was my whole goal.

I’ve had only one negative email which implies I glossed over the darker parts of the fandom and actually suggested that the book was dangerous for portraying too sunny of a picture and should be pulled from publication. (I found that pretty shocking and have not answered them). I get the sense this isn’t someone from “outside,” but someone who had a terrible experience within the fandom, which unfortunately does happen–but it happens with all groups of humans whether it’s a fandom, church, or school–not just furries. To expect a single novel to cover every base is a tall order. The novel is also from the point of view of a girl whose experience has been mostly positive, so it would be hard to address ‘everything’ without it becoming a very different book.

The book is not an exposé on the fandom, nor is it intended to explain everything about it or point a light into dark corners. It’s one (fictional) character’s (fictional) experience. It is, perhaps, a Hallmark version of the fandom, but I have personally had a positive experience overall, and I think it’s okay to reflect that. Anyone interested in researching the community further has plenty of resources at their disposal. I think we can agree the furry community has had its (un)fair share of negative press already, so I flipped the narrative.

My hope would be that if a young person is interested in the community, this book could be a lighthearted way to introduce friends and family to the positive aspects, and could open the way for conversations about how to conduct yourself and be safe in a larger community.

What’s it like to work with an agent, and how has the book sold?

Like having a writing buddy, cheerleader, and professional advocate all in one! My awesome agent, unfortunately, has decided to leave the publishing business for personal reasons, but she got me my first traditional book deal and helped me navigate some of the questions around book contracts, authors’ rights, marketing, and so on. It’s like having a go-to publishing reference because they only succeed when you succeed, so your best interests are also theirs. My agent was “editorial” in that she liked to read and make comments and suggestions on my manuscripts before sending them on submission; not every agent does that. It depends on their work style, and the writer. It was good for me because she knew the market very well and it was my first dive into writing contemporary fiction, so I valued her insight and market knowledge.

About sales numbers for AFFP; I will say sales are about ‘as expected’ for a YA contemporary without becoming a bestseller or allowing me to quit my day job. Page Street is a smaller press, so while they’re distributed by Macmillan and have vastly more reach than I would on my own, AFFP is still a niche book so it hasn’t surprised anyone with sales numbers either good or bad. My hope is that it’s still relatively unheard of and will continue to gain traction both inside the fandom and out. A few of my subrights have reverted back to me so I will be working on an audio version as well, which I’m very excited about, and I continue to push the book on my own!

You have some fun news about Anthrocon… and how else can people find you and your work?

YES! This is the year I will finally make it to Anthrocon! I’ve been to Midwest Furfest and Texas Furry Fiesta multiple times, and a couple of smaller (now defunct, sadly) cons, but this will be my first time hitting the east coast! I’ll be bringing plenty of copies of AFFP as well as my gryfon books and HOPEFULLY the much-anticipated second book in The Dragon Star Saga, Shadow Sun. I hope to see lots of folks there.

If people want to get a jump on reading, they can find my books pretty much wherever books are sold, or request them at your local library. More about my fantasy series here: www.jessowen.com, and my contemporary novels here: www.authorjessicakara.com.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Ursa art by Foxenawolf.

For over two decades, the Ursa Major Awards have recognized the furry fandom’s favorite creations every year. For the 2023 awards, anything with anthropomorphic animals is eligible to win by popular vote. Want your favorite works represented?

Go HERE to nominate, and don’t wait, the deadline is today (February 17)! 

There are fifteen categories (your input is only needed for ones you want to include): Best Motion Picture, Dramatic Short Work and Series, Novel, Short Fiction, Comic, Magazine, Illustration, Game, Website, Fursuit, Music, and more.

You can reference the Ursa website’s 2023 Recommended Anthropomorphics List, but that’s not all. The list only has what some fans submitted. There’s much more furry stuff in the world, and anything you can possibly think of inside or outside the fandom can be nominated if it was made in 2023. After nominations close, voting will be open from March 1 to March 31.

The awards are run by volunteers of the ALAA. Please consider donating to support their service via paypal@ursamajorawards.org.

__________________________________________

6th Annual Good Furry Awards open for nominations.

Starting in 2019, the Good Furry Award has been recognizing fan-nominated furries for outstanding community spirit. Nominations are now open for whoever you feel deserves recognition.

Nominate HERE via the updated page.

This year there’s a difference, and instead of just one award, there will now be 3:

• The Image Award is for furries who give the fandom a positive image through videos, podcasts, vlogs, documentaries, websites, and other social media.
• The Good Egg Award is for furries who do good deeds for individuals, animals, organizations, or the community.
• The Furtastic Award is for furries who are excellent at other things not easily categorized as the above two and so is a catch-all for general pawsomeness.

Nominations will be open through September 1, 2024. (The timeframe is a little different this year, too.) There will be another Lifetime Achievement Award (3rd year running). Because there are now several awards, payment is phased out and winners will get a very handsome trophy and lots of furry love, as promised by founder Papabear Grubbs Grizzly of Uncle Bear Publishing.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Garden State Fur The Weekend is an upcoming furry convention set for May 3-5, 2024 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. With their launch only months away, something unusual happened. GSFTW posted an official statement about opposing hate and Nazi-fur groups.

Its come to the attention of the GSFTW Board of Directors that there has been activity within our channels by those who do not represent us or our intentions as a convention or as a fandom.

We strive to keep our sights focused on a open, safe, and fun space for our weekend. With…

— Garden State Fur The Weekend (@gardenstatefur) January 12, 2024

It was followed by an announcement of the con chair stepping down and a new one stepping up. It blames medical issues of the ex-chair, Dashing Fox. Dogpatch Press wishes good health to him. The story could end there, but unofficially, the change was forced by staff resignations. You’re seeing the aftermath of revolt behind the scenes, then getting back on track for launch. Yes, they stood up with the power of collective will to change the leadership for the better.

Attention all

It has come to the Board's attention that Dashing Foxie will be stepping down as our organization's Convention Chairperson. While this is a heavy moment for the con, we will be moving forward as the Board to review and appoint a new Con Chair as soon as possible… https://t.co/jbrAk3QH77

— Garden State Fur The Weekend (@gardenstatefur) January 13, 2024

This reporting is not to pile on, but for public interest. GSFTW’s interest is to make a nice event with good PR for its community. There’s also reading between the lines to learn about solving cross-community issues. We’ll cover the negative before looking forward to the positive.

Digging in

Let’s not beat around the bush about why staff resigned to uproot the ex-chair: He actively associated with the Furry Raiders. They are a nazifur group who wither everything they touch. Their ties to alt-right hate groups and criminal schemes could fill a book.

The public has been aware that the Furry Raiders are toxic since it became national news years ago. What was the ex-chair thinking? Some may accuse corruption. The most charitable reading would be a critical security lapse by someone who didn’t screen associates or read the room.

Not only was there internal disruption; it made a PR problem about transparency of it all. History shows it’s possible to play musical chairs without changing the music. Nobody wants to get led down the garden path or see history repeat. So let’s ask questions, even if GSFTW is truly on the path to success.

Dogpatch Press did due diligence to seek comment from numerous people involved, including the official con channel, PR, the ex-chair, and new chair. Gracious responses came from the new chair and a staffer.

The chair switch came not long after a switch to a new hotel; questions to the con found a positive reason. How about finance decisions? More questions soon…

It’s fine to weed out nazifurs, (something to just do, not do for show) but the ex-chair’s Furry Raiders activity was open for almost 4 years. Wouldn’t there be much less concern if it was nipped in the bud at the start?

Back to the start: Sowing seeds of a new con

GSFTW’s 2020 organizing plans were delayed by Covid, until late 2022, when a Wikifur page was made by the con’s then-Head of PR. The page named official GSFTW channels and groups, 23 staffers, and two Guests of Honor (Leaf Dubois and Cooper Tom). Good things were growing for fans who are under-served with full events nearby.

I'm so excited to be the artist & GoH for Garden State Fur the Weekend, a New Jersey furry con coming in May 2024! I'm proud of this first piece of diner art and I'm working on more. Follow @GardenStateFur to stay tuned, and I hope to see you there! pic.twitter.com/Nk9wCNbue1

— Leaf (@LeafDubois) November 25, 2022

Nearby events had a vacancy after the departure of Fur Affinity: United from New Jersey. There’s the single-day New Years Furry Ball, and Fur The ‘More is across state lines, but New Jersey had no full convention. A plan for one in Atlantic City never launched after suffering from hate activity in 2018… Which could have been a clue to avoid perennial troublemakers, but here we go again… 

Snakes in the Grass

GSFTW’s 2024 statement against hate is vague about who was doing it in their channels. There wasn’t just one source, and it wasn’t just association without knowing who they were. Names can be named, and a chain of activity illustrates this.

There was prior knowledge by the ex-chair Dashing Fox. In a 2018 case of handling complaints, members of a local furmeet were unhappy with the presence of a nazifur zoophile named Crusader Cat. His history of being a chronic nuisance and banned from things was met with defensive denial by Dashing Fox.

In the denial, “the person who runs it is gay and in the minority” is propaganda from the Furry Raiders themselves. The term for what they do is Collaborator. Collaboration is the way systematic oppression uses cooperation from some members of targeted groups. The history of gay fascists shows it. Before WWII, there were western Jews who wanted to get rid of eastern Jews and supported Hitler. Such manipulation is behind Nazifur claims of “free expression” (for them…) Conning people to play along is how fascism works. It has no consistent position except grabbing power, and maneuvering like a chameleon for leverage. Targeted people will help them for selfish short-term benefit, and say you’ll benefit later if you help too (while they plot your destruction.)

The Furry Raiders were collaborators with alt-right figure Milo Yiannopolous in a scheme to “destroy” furry cons. Wait until you see their point person, and the tangle of ties around the Crusader Cat complaints.

"Billy the sex offender has never harassed or abused ME so I don't see what the problem is"

— Daz The Big Blue Dog (@daztoons) October 8, 2018

Eventually Dashing Fox did come around and remove Crusader Cat. So far, so good. But then 2 years later… I did nazi that coming!

Fool me once, fool me twice

In 2020, a fuse was lit when Dashing Fox went on the Furry Raiders podcast to promote the plan for GSFTW. Giving air time to a nazifur group boosted their signal while making negative PR. Their channels have no audience or purpose except to promote their propaganda, so nothing could be gained there for anyone except them. Actively associating with nazifurs is known to cost the reputation of anyone who does, so Dashing Fox made a conscious choice, especially when…

Dashing Fox is named as friend of Furry Raiders admin Richie “Aeveirra” Felitti, a self-avowed fascist who was partner with the prior-banned Crusader Cat.

The core of the story.

This isn’t just bad opinions. Aeveirra was a point person for a scheme of alt-right violence aimed at a convention.

“You have to destroy the shit they love” – the Midwest Furfest 2019 scheme

Before the 2020 podcast, Aeveirra represented Furry Raiders in a video with Milo Yiannopolous, while his nazifur group invited Milo to preach about destroying furry cons. Meanwhile, Milo ran another secret group to plan a hostile MFF visit. That’s where Milo’s nazifur collaborators and alt-right followers would welcome the Proud Boys fascist gang. On their part, Proud Boys mutually threatened to bring violence to MFF. This was collaboration with terrorists, ultimately proven by their seditious conspiracy convictions for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in 2021.

The MFF scheme unraveled when the con banned Milo. His secret group was leaked to prove the threat that furries faced down.

After the scheme fizzled, Dashing Fox actively associated with nazifurs known to be toxic to conventions. Ignoring this lets a pattern fester and spread. It makes even more reason to scrutinize the friendship and agenda of Aeveirra.

Aeveirra’s agenda

As an active Furry Raiders admin, Richie “Aeveirra” Felitti is the opposite of someone a well-run convention would ever want near executive power, finances, operations, or security. What would he do with influence?

Take time to browse Aeveirra’s history of befriending and defending fascists and criminally charged sex offenders, and retaliating on their behalf at people who observe their crimes. Imagine the following people gaining favor at the top… Besides Crusader Cat, people shielded by Aeveirra include:

• The Furry Raiders founder, Lee “Foxler” Miller (3 charges for child sex crimes.)
• Joshua “Kero the Wolf” Hoffman (necro-zoosadist ring member.)
• Carl “RC Fox” Kirkwood (sex offenses for trading CSAM). He admitted crime but suicided to escape impending conviction.
• Aeveirra’s shielding included retaliation at Dogpatch Press for linking mainstream news about RC Fox’s crime. It was a scapegoating attack to defend him, with a baseless truther-conspiracy theory that RC was framed.
• There was also a witness intimidation scheme on behalf of Foxler. When Dogpatch Press uncovered the scheme, it earned 8 years in jail for another admin of the Furry Raiders, Jacob Kovar, a convicted sex offender. Using a fresh fursona, Kovar convinced an upcoming convention to make him Head of Security before he was removed due to his arrest. Kovar is “Sneps” in the screenshot of Milo preaching to destroy conventions.

This police lineup of creeps is exactly what Aeveirra set out to favor with their own new convention.

The plot thickens: Aeveirra helped to fund the Free Fur All “Fashcon” with Nazifur money.

In Oklahoma, Free Fur All was founded by far-right founder Peacewolf out of spite at another convention, where Peacewolf was ousted as its Chair in 2020. (See a pattern?) Free Fur All was dedicated to welcoming nuisances banned elsewhere, earning the name “Fashcon”, but their own competing factions proved that Nazifurs wither everything they touch. Only a few dozen went in 2023 after fighting over Peacewolf’s sex scandal and the influence of Furry Raiders within.

A Free Fur All board meeting was leaked by an aggrieved insider, and it names Aeveirra as a heavy donor. Some sources claim that Aeveirra was spending an inheritance. Meanwhile in the Furry Raiders, founder Foxler claimed sponsorship, implying his money was laundered on behalf of people who don’t launder their fursuits. Whatever the source, nazifur money spreads nazifur influence.

• Foxler claim of sponsoring. — An unkempt Aeveirra in Nazifur armband. — Leak of Free Fur All board meeting with Aeveirra named funder at 47:50.

Evidence of the Furry Raiders splitting up competing nazifur factions came from sources involved in organizing for Free Fur All. The same sources went on to make similar complaints about losing favor with GSFTW.

• Free Fur All organizer discussion in 2022. — Same sources mad that “Furry Raiders speak for us” and lost them access to GSFTW.

Aeveirra’s agenda with Free Fur All was carried out in between the 2020 podcast with Dashing Fox about founding GSFTW, and GSFTW’s intended launch. It certainly was interesting timing.

Asking about influence on GSFTW

Dogpatch Press sent questions to insiders, GSFTW’s official info email, staffers, the ex-chair and the new chair. An entry level staffer “speaking solely from a personal perspective” responded to the below point.

This was a good-faith attempt to get a “No”. Good-faith effort to respond makes a difference — even if concern is barking up the wrong tree or topics can’t be discussed beyond a simple statement. For other questions, the staffer provided good PR. They asked to stay anonymous and wanted answers kept in context. For brevity, Dogpatch Press has a long chat on file and only suggests that conventions should take questions of influence seriously.

The new Chair wasn’t very familiar with the issue either, but stated “As far as I’m aware, there is no association with Aeveirra and the convention.”

Messages were traded with Dashing Fox, with days of attempts to have a fur-to-fur conversation about events here. A passed publication deadline with two extensions leave it for a future date. The other staffer who responded affirmed:

The entire convention leadership was in favor of the statement put up publicly, including Dashing Fox, and the decision to review who was present on staff and within our chats was decided by them as well.

Those present on staff have all outwardly expressed disdain for Raiders, and have zero interest in having them or anyone else in a similar vein (that being hate or discrimination) present at our events.

Behind the public statements

Credit is due to GSFTW for acting strongly to repel Nazifurs. More inside info is staying private due to feelings that the dispute was over. The concern here is that forcing change took several years, while the problem festered as a symptom of a larger one. Allowing a single Nazifur leads them to bring other ones.

A witness complaint

Nazifur groups are a tiny fringe, so they are barely separated and all mingle, but the risk is grabbing larger influence, from con operations to group leadership.

Take for example another recently-removed member of the GSFTW Telegram group, Chris “Astral” Curtis. Astral went to Free Fur All with his partner Norby, and ran his own nazifur group full of Furry Raiders, insurrectionism, and violent racist hate speech. (Evidence channel).

Meanwhile, Astral’s partner Norby was admin of a furry group in New York, close to their friend Aeveirra in Long island. In mid 2023 a member attempted to report Aeveirra’s nazifur activity, only to have Norby lash back with an unhinged onslaught of vicious verbal abuse. The group admin retaliated on behalf of his fascist friend, subjecting people to rule by terror. It makes the point of this story.

Evidence of a festering problem. 

• 2023 admin response by Norby towards report about Aeveirra. — Norby, Astral, and Aeveirra from Furry Raiders blog about Anthrocon 2019.

These were known nuisances as long ago as Anthrocon 2015. Dogpatch Press watched in person a few feet away while Norby and Astral brought a Confederate flag to the fursuit parade, embarassing Anthrocon and forcing them to make a conduct rule about it.

Astral and Norby at Anthrocon 2015

This pattern will repeat until nazifurs are shown the door. No place is safe with them in it. Staying passive just raises the cost of acting. This culminated in GSFTW staff resignations, then getting back on track and removing Astral and more nuisances who had favor with the ex-chair. The reasonable amount of nazifurs to tolerate is zero, and the sooner that’s established, the less damage they do.

People who took action are now wishing the best for GSFTW. Only fascists would win with a con pushing up daisies and a hotel full of tumbleweeds, so let’s not lose the forest for the trees. People with good intentions want a good con.

Looking at a rosy future

Shy Matsi is the new chair who represents optimism.

Attention all!

Garden State Fur The Weekend would officially like to welcome @shy_matsi as our Convention Chairperson!

Shy has an incredible history within the fandom and will be showing us the sights and sounds of a city he knows and loves!

Stay tuned for more information! https://t.co/iindMEg8KH

— Garden State Fur The Weekend (@gardenstatefur) January 14, 2024

From the other staffer who responded:

For confidence, I can say for certain the con is shaping up to be a highly successful first year overall, and having someone like Shy at the helm who not only has experience with the local area, but also shows a great deal of consideration for the community as a whole, that makes me personally feel a lot of confidence in GSFTW.

Shy Matsi was previously the Hotel Lead, and responded to questions about the hotel switch announced in November, explaining that the space would have been too small for the convention. The change won praise, and the new hotel is part of the same chain as the old one:

We lucked out really, the hotel event manager is the same one for the New Brunswick one and they’re considered sister hotels. It’s a better location. The only tricky part was moving the reservations. They never did that before, and I didn’t want a hardship on the people who reserved rooms, but they just completed it last week, so that went well.

A need for support

Furry fandom is a grassroots community, so remember that garden is both a noun and a verb. It’s not enough to dig out problems. You also have to fill in the hole. The staffer who responded said:

With staffing and volunteers, I think it’s clear to everyone that a lot of cons, not just Garden State Fur The Weekend, are always in need of helping paws and claws. And to quote another con chair: “Many paws make light work”.

We absolutely welcome folks looking to assist, so long as folks have the drive to help and are willing to work with the con and it’s attendees to ensure everyone’s safety and well being are first and foremost.

And though it should go without saying: anyone with a hateful, ableist, bigoted, and/or discriminatory mindset or behavior is not welcome at our event nor as our volunteers.

Volunteers help make any con help function. Without volunteers, we would be struggling so much. So want to be part of the first volunteer team for GSFTW? Step right up and shoot a email to volunteer@gsftw.org with your helping hand!

— Garden State Fur The Weekend (@gardenstatefur) January 10, 2024

Thanks again to all who engaged sensitive questions with professional care.

UPDATE

Feedback on the story from sources close to GSFTW questions how much the team really is rebuilt. They sent evidence that Aeveirra was considered for staff, an astonishing risk for trust and security, thankfully opposed by other staff exercising caution lacking from the top.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

This news is illegal in Russia.

In late November 2023, Russia’s supreme court declared the movement for gay rights to be “extremist.” Mentioning LGBTQ activity without condemning it can get you fined, imprisoned, deprived of bank accounts, and worse. The New York Times says “any news organization, blogger or even an individual” is at risk.

Russian homophobes have pushed for this authoritarian rule for a long time. In 2021, it was proposed against LGBT and associated categories, including furries. This led to Dogpatch Press reports about harassment of Russian furry events that foreshadowed the official ruling now.

The excuse is to “protect children” from gay adults who love each other, as if they were created by an international political group that doesn’t exist, rather than by human nature. Any sign of their existence can be defined as harmful propaganda. The definition is so broad and vague that Russia’s government can punish anyone for anything, even wearing a rainbow. (Fandom is for creative expression, which has a lot of overlap with identity expression, so claims to be apolitical can’t be counted on to protect anyone.) The effects have ranged from putting adult rating on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, to murdering people in one furry’s story below.

While Russia’s government labels this extremist, they’re protecting people from cartoons while raising murder. People in this upside-down land need to flee for safety.

Take a good look at how stupid this is. It's a Russian government excuse for punishing anyone for any reason they want. That's what the right wing wants in America, too.

'My Little Pony' Gets Adult Rating After Russia Declares 'LGBT Movement' Extremisthttps://t.co/tpi9nVcLtZ

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) December 11, 2023

The mission of FUR/HELP

Many refugees have dramatic stories of escaping danger, but few have guides like FUR/HELP, a Furry LGBTQIA+ Refugee initiative to save clients in post-Soviet regions and American Trans lives from persecution.

• https://linktr.ee/furhelp
• Support by donation
• Statement regarding the state of LGBTQIA rights in russia

YukiDeer, the founder and ambassador, explains their work:

We are working to help refugees since November 2022, and since then have helped more than 5 furry refugees escape to safe third countries to wait for their transfer to a destination asylum country.

We helped a person that withstood torture in a psychiatric hospital. They were loaded with drugs to a vegetable-like state just because they were transgender. Their family put them into the facility as far as we know, and basically had to flee with help of other nonprofits. FUR/HELP helped the person when they arrived to one of the post-Soviet countries. We provided funds for food, a hostel until they could find stable housing, and advice on legal conditions and how to find support and work.

We helped two transgender people in dangerous situations with advice on how to access LGBTQIA services in the USA to get help with housing, and helped other people find housing as well.

And finally, we helped 1 Ukrainian homosexual flee occupied regions of Ukraine with help of other non profits. It was scary.

We plan to base ourselves in Canada, but for now we are 100% remote, with people volunteering for us mostly in Eastern Europe.

YukiDeer’s bio includes IT worker, Twitch streamer, and maker of design and music with a lot of personal stake in this: “I actively act as a LGBTQIA+ rights activist in EU and NA regions. I was raised in Ukraine, but born in Russia. I’m also in the process of establishing Furry Philanthropy Community or FPC for short — platform for Furry run NGOs and singular philanthropes to coordinate humanitarian action.”

More soon about how and why YukiDeer established FUR/HELP, but let’s look at what refugees are reaching for.

The need for asylum and the benefit of humanitarian aid.

The legal process for gaining citizenship is easiest for people with means and opportunity, savings, a job, family, or partner to support them without burdening the system. Those conditions are lacking for many refugees who are forced to flee from disaster, poverty and violence in places that lack human rights.

Their alternative is to claim humanitarian aid with asylum. That’s not just a burden, it raises international security that benefits everyone already in a country by keeping neighbors stable. To get it, an immigrant may have little choice except to risk punishing conditions to cross a border without permission so they can apply. Law about border crossing doesn’t remove the human right to apply as a refugee – and because it is a long process, they have the status until it is decided.

There are common attacks at “illegals” and supposed crime they bring (immigrants may have lower rates than citizens) that don’t even try to count the benefit, or wasted cost to make the process harder. Reports of a recent surge in immigration to the USA will make this a big issue in coming elections. (Don’t forget that controversy about burdening the system has coincided with record high corporate profits.)

LGBT refugees can try to get help from a nonprofit like Rainbow Railroad, but such services seem to be stretched thin and hard to get. This common frustration led YukiDeer to found FUR/HELP for others while seeking asylum personally.

A “nightmare” with a lifeline from other furries – YukiDeer’s story.

YukiDeer hopes to have asylum one day soon:

I fled murder and help others do the same. I might not be fully safe myself, but after seeing how others treat refugees, I can’t just stand and do nothing.

So basically, at first I had my father threaten me with murder, then I had forced treatment in a mental facility just because of suspicion that I’m gay. Then came the worsening of LGBTQIA+ rights overall and it crossed the line of multiple murders near my home that had a person castrated just for being gay. I can’t disclose the details since I’m not in safety yet, but on my way to it.

Now with the risk of extremist title, it feels even more dangerous, I don’t feel safe even out of Russia.

I raised money to escape, tried to flee multiple times, and only the 3rd worked, thanks to Soatok who helped me with the financial side of the story. Without him, I’d be best case hiding, worst case dead or imprisoned.

That’s how a story of a simple streamer furry guy can turn into a nightmare.

Dogpatch Press asked for more thoughts about family relations, the experience of being confined, how it felt, and what kind of justice can happen there?

At the time of the threat I was under 18, I have a sister and she is a cisgender straight woman, she was treated harshly by my father, but of course not as harsh. He was pretty mentally unstable, he drank a lot and was tend to get physical, he did hit his mother and I witnessed it, plus he has connections to certain government related people, so that would make it pretty easy to threaten people. Mother heard the threat and didn’t do anything. The threats were sparse, but the verbal abuse and heated behavior happened daily. In my family I was the only one that got treated this way, and I’m also the only LGBTQIA+ person. No one in my family knows I am, they assumed I was gay.

Yes, I was in a mental facility with drug addicts, people with anger issues and two LGBTQIA people, I remember they were lesbian. My class teacher wrote a bad review about me suddenly after I happened to tell my classmate I was gay. I don’t know if she knew about it, but it felt too sudden. They used mental force and threats like “I wouldn’t be able to continue studying without attending”. Maybe they thought I would break and say that I’m gay. Thankfully staff weren’t bad, but they did feed me medicine without any description as to what it does and why I should take it, and if I didn’t take it, they would transfer me to a harsher facility.

I felt scared, not knowing who to talk to, since I didn’t have anyone in my life I could trust except people on the internet, so my streams became that place. I hated my family more and more, since I felt that they won’t bring me anything but hurt. I felt envy at people having a good family, cried when I saw people hugging, kissing or displaying “good family vibes” publicly, same goes to those that didn’t have to hide. I just felt really envious and hurt.

I saw the murders via news articles, they happened with same motive and in same proximate region. I didn’t witness murder, but I was in a dangerous area, we had people shooting, and drunk people hitting someone pretty often. I don’t know who did it personally, but I know why, because they happened to be gay. If they got what they deserve, I don’t know, police didn’t seem to react at all, all was said that “It’s under investigation”.

Final word from YukiDeer:

It doesn’t take much to help others. Just empathy and a strong will.

Help has no borders. LGBTQIA+ refugees are not defined by their oppression, but by their resilience.

To join us in our mission as a volunteer, donate to us as a contributor or ask help as a refugee, simply go to our social media at Linktree: linktr.ee/furhelp

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Welcome to guest writer Grubbs Grizzly.

Furry Planet is an Interesting Complement to Furry Nation – by Grubbs Grizzly

Six years ago, author Joe Strike released Furry Nation: The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood Subculture (Cleis Press), a nicely comprehensive history of the furry fandom. Being very interested in the fandom, I naturally bought and read it. So, when Strike released Furry Planet: A World Gone Wild (includes History, Costumes, and Conventions) (Apollo), I of course purchased it as well.

The book is not what I expected.

Reading the title, I thought it was going to be more history, expanding upon the U.S.-focused first title with a history of conventions and furry culture in Europe, Asia, and other continents. In the book’s introduction, Strike even writes: “Furry Planet: A World Gone Wild remedies Nation’s oversight of the global furry community and in the following pages you’ll meet furs based worldwide who have been inspired by our misunderstood subculture….”

The first chapter, “It’s a Furry World,” starts off promising to stick to what I thought was the book’s premise with a brief look at the U.S. before moving on to a 28-page whirlwind tour of fandoms in the U.K., Europe, Russia, Singapore, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Most of the book after this, however, is about furriness outside the fandom. That is, how anthropomorphic arts have pervaded world cultures in everything from sculpture and paintings to film and performance arts.

This is some fascinating stuff. Strike, through interviews and research, has uncovered a lot of truly interesting tidbits about human culture, ranging from the humorous to the slightly disturbing. For example, there is a lengthy interview with Dr. Stuart Sumida, a paleontologist and expert on human and animal anatomy who has served as a consultant on many animated anthro-animal movies such as Brother Bear and How to Train Your Dragon. Dr. Sumida offers insights into how to create believable anthro animals. Strike interviews some avant-garde artists, as well, such as Anthony Ausgang, a leader in the “lowbrow artists movement”; Swedish sculptor Margit Brudnin, who is known for her large anthro-rabbit pieces; and performance artist and director Rob Roth, whose Craig’s Dream is about a homeless wolflike creature’s sad plight.

These are just a few of the interviews and discussions of various mainstream artists, some of them American, some of them from other countries. Mixed in with these chapters are discussions of literature, furry costuming, cartoons, Japanese monsters, video games, TV shows, and so on. Some of the players are furry (such as Patch O’Furr from Dogpatch Press and Dr. Courtney Plante of FurScience), and others are not (as noted above). It concludes with Strike’s musings as to whether or not furry will (or should) enter the mainstream.

This is a desultory, peripatetic performance that makes the book more easily digestible chapter-by-chapter, rather than reading it cover-to-cover. It’s rather like playing Pokémon Go in which you are exploring the world and Strike’s book serves as your mobile phone through which you are able to discover interesting creatures to capture, which makes the book best suited for readers with short attention spans. It’s enjoyable and interesting, with lots of little-known factoids (such as the story of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien at a party wearing some unusual garb), but disorganized in a way that disallows any possibilities for a smooth narrative.

Exacerbating this problem is the lackluster cover and page design (not even running headers or footers?) from the publisher, as well as the handling of illustrations. There is literally only one illustration in the main body of the book (comparing primagens and protogens) with 31 color illustrations at the back of the book. Now, grouping color photos at the back (or, more typically, in the middle) of a book is an understandable (and oft-used) way to save some printing costs on glossy paper while providing nice graphics. However, if you’re going to do that, it would have been immensely helpful to the reader to provide in-text page references for them. For example, when talking about Brudnin’s sculptures, add a note sending the reader to the photos in back (oh, and add page numbers to the photo pages next time, please, Apollo). A much better strategy would have been to put more black-and-white illustrations in the book’s main text, and then, for fun, add extra color photos in the back (or middle). Also, the book has extensive endnotes, which is great, but an index would have been appreciated.

Furry Planet is an enjoyable read, full of discoveries and surprises, but one that needs better focus and definitely a less misleading title and marketing. It’s really not a standalone book, but more of a supplement to Strike’s Furry Nation. I would recommend you buy Nation first, read it, and then get Furry Planet. Both are worthwhile and fun tours of the fandom from very different perspectives.

About the Author

Grubbs Grizzly is the owner of Uncle Bear Publishing, LLC (www.unclebearpublishing.com), which specializes in furry nonfiction. He is also the columnist for “Ask Papabear” (www.askpapabear.com) and runs the annual Good Furry Awards (https://www.askpapabear.com/good-furry-award.html).

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Content warning for discussing animal and child abuse.

Adam Britton was once an internationally respected animal expert, a go-to guy for crocodile research. He worked for Charles Darwin University in Australia, National Geographic, and the BBC with famed nature documentarian David Attenborough. Then in 2022, Britton was caught for secret crime. Due to high profile, the legal process kept him anonymous to avoid undermining his trial until he pled guilty this week.

Australian news led the coverage. This is disturbing to read, and doesn’t even tell the graphic details.

• ABC: Zoologist Adam Britton pleads guilty to Supreme Court charges including bestiality

Beginning in 2014, Britton became a sadistic rapist and killer of more than 42 dogs. He made videos of their torture to secretly share with an underground of fellow consumers on the internet. He also traded child abuse media, raising the level of his charges and showing the severity of animal exploitation.

“Prosecutors told the court Britton owned a shipping container on his property equipped with filming equipment and used the space “to torture, sexually exploit and kill dogs”.

Last year, police seized 44 items including computers, mobile telephones, cameras, external hard drives, tools, weapons, dog paraphernalia and sex toys.

Mr Aust [prosecutor] told the court that Britton operated a Telegram account which was used for the sole purpose of engaging in conversations with “like-minded people”, and that he used another account to upload and disseminate images and recordings of his crimes.

“Using these applications, the offender discussed his ‘kill count’ … and described the shipping container on his property as his ‘torture room’,” Mr Aust said.”

• More news: The Guardian, CBS, The BBC, The Mirror

Sentencing is scheduled for December for 56 charges related to animal sex abuse (zoosadism), each with a maximum penalty of 3 years of jail. There were also 4 charges for accessing and sharing child abuse media. A close professional source told Dogpatch Press “it’s likely he’ll get the max sentence because of the egregious nature of his crimes.”

The crimes were calculated. Britton conned people who placed online ads hoping to find good homes for dogs they couldn’t keep, and led them to believe their dogs were getting good care after he killed them. He told an associate: “I can’t stop. I don’t want to” while feeding the demand of his audience.

Connection to furry fandom.

Before Britton’s trial, there was public news about the crimes that didn’t name him. The news circulated quietly among investigators and media professionals who had known him. People in both groups contacted Dogpatch Press. This led to a furry news article that connects some of this information, and adds parts only reported here so far.

• [April 2022] Dogpatch Press: Zoosadist arrest in Australia shows successful internet investigation.

During the investigation of Britton, Australian authorities tipped American law enforcement that one of his fellow traders was creating similar zoosadist videos. Ohio and Michigan resident Lucas Vanwoert faces charges on 4 counts. 

• Fox 2 Detroit: Michigan truck driver made graphic dog torture videos and shared them online, feds say

Lucas Vanwoert’s connection to Britton was reported by mainstream news, but they didn’t report that Vanwoert was active in furry fandom as “Graves.” Thanks to @keroarchive for reading legal documents and making this clear. 

Vanwoert’s photo from court documents and his tweet

Vanwoert exchanged over 700 files of animal abuse with Britton, and also killed dogs and traded child abuse files. The high amount of files indicates that these people were part of an underground trading network that intersects with furry fandom. Vanwoert hid in furry groups and made connections to like-minded people until his crimes became known. 

Heather Vanwoert, his wife, was also charged for 12 counts of crime to animals. This reporter hasn’t learned if she was active in furry fandom with him.

These weren’t lone actors. They were feeding demand of a sub-subculture of zoophiles. Vanwoert’s X/Twitter profile is still active (NSFW content). You can see furry zoophiles following his account. It shows zero follows by him, because he deleted them around when he was arrested. But he was too slow. This reporter was tipped fast enough to view Vanwoert’s pre-established, mutual zoophile connections that he wanted to hide.

They included familiar long-time members of furry groups who use fandom to secretly meet each other, and even openly argue that animals can consent and animal abusers deserve acceptance. These zoophiles use the zeta (ζ) symbol and hashtags like #zoopride to engage with their network.

It's sad that this crime came into furry fandom, and can not be ignored, because Vanwoert wasn't alone. He wasn't just networking with Adam Britton, but also with a sub-subculture of zoophiles. Vanwoert's profile is still active and you can see some following him. pic.twitter.com/Gnqq18LlFl

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) September 26, 2023

Three problems of zoophile infiltration.

All communities have some crime and abuse. The important part is how to respond. A substantial response starts with naming problems and saying what the community is for, not hiding things with denial about what it isn’t. Many furries are there for art, and say animals can’t consent and they don’t tolerate zoophiles. But that alone doesn’t stop zoophiles from riding their (coat) tails and reaching for acceptance.

This leads to…

PROBLEM 1: Size and network effect. This zoophile furry group on Telegram has 1000+ members, and they have had a group that large since at least 2017. It justifies itself by claiming to oppose abuse, while splitting hairs about different kinds of abuse and redefining some as consent. Arguing that animals can consent inherently enables abuse, when there are no zoophile networks that don’t make demand for it between members.

Nuance: The size is significant, but this isn’t ammunition against furries itself, because it doesn’t prove there is higher frequency of this in fandom compared to the population outside. Reliable data must be hard to get, but it could be equal to latent frequency anywhere. Look at the classic 1948 book by Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy and Clyde Martin, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Research found that between 8-50 percent of all American men in their sample groups claimed to have crossed the species line at some point (depending on farm proximity). Of course, latency is not openly organized with network effect.

If a 1000+ member “zoofur” group doesn’t prove frequency, and furry fans can deny guilt by association — what does the size show?

Opportunity. Try to name another group that 1000+ zoophiles use as cover to organize inside for acceptance, whether the cover group approves or not.

https://t.co/uoTmGzC1A0 has survey data from conventions, i would venture to say it must be hard to measure objectively but there may not be incidence different from the general pop. Maybe the issue isn't frequency but ability to organize by internet, using shelter of subculture.

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) September 27, 2023

PROBLEM 2: Corruption. Abuse scandals, like in the Catholic Church or Boy Scouts, happen when abusers bounce from place to place and keep abusing. Close watchers inside furry fandom can see problem people bounce from group to group with little organized opposition.

That isn’t just enabled by internet platforms and weak security when it also has permission from high places:

• Whistleblowers who chaired the Further Confusion furry convention faced staff threats to walk out if zoophiles were banned.
• This corroborated a 2019 Dogpatch Press story where the same staffers acted to cover up zoophile friends.

How high does corruption go? Look no higher than the longest existing furry convention, Eurofurence in Germany, and its single chairman since 1997. This person of social influence uses it to defend zoophilia by attacking “bigots” with whataboutism rhetoric — as if a vegan diet is required to oppose animal sex abuse — or as if they are a vegan convention with purity and superiority to backlash at concerns about abuse. Meanwhile…

• The chair of Eurofurence shared group modding with, and defended zoophilia to a zoosadist (the same zoosadist that con staff acted to cover up in 2019.)
• The whataboutism defense either echoes or derives from zoophile political lobbying. Germany has one of the world’s only zoophile political lobby groups.
• German law bans nazi propaganda. The chair of Eurofurence followed this commendable policy by officially approving “nazi furs fuck off” messages one year; but zoophiles are welcome, and this is the hypocrisy and insanity at the highest level.
• The head of security for Eurofurence labeled himself with a zoophile Zeta (ζ) and calls it a “sexual preference“.

Eurofurence chair’s belief since at least 2003: “many zoos are furries… I don’t find zoophilia reprehensible at all.”

Tweet from Eurofurence head of security in 2012. Note tiger userpic and a community habit of using separate “after dark” and main accounts.

PROBLEM 3: Limited power and consequences. Convictions of offenders as extreme as Britton and Vanwoert are rare. For animal crimes, victims can’t tell, human ones get priority, and local police are too busy or can’t go out of jurisdiction for internet crime. Charges are commonly dropped. State laws are “often poorly equipped to accomplish meaningful convictions” according to The Animal Legal Defense Fund, while for federal authorities, it’s often beneath their radar and left to states. This is slowly changing but it’s a big loophole where animal abuse networks stay outside justice.

As a result, saying “call the police” can be no better than punting the ball to nowhere. Sometimes it’s deliberate. “We can’t judge before a conviction” — gets flipped after a conviction to — “we can’t judge someone who paid the price”, meaning organizers are sitting on their hands. Even if the price paid was a tiny slap on the wrist for a repeat offender who did far more crime and the issue isn’t about banning but about extending privileges.

Nuance: Legal liability limits how conventions can ban people, because it sets a precedent that can get them sued for not banning someone else they aren’t aware of. Read that again until it makes sense. General screening or banning by conventions is not the point.

The points are:

• Zoophile network members are all complicit with raising demand for abuse.
• This abuse is unlikely to get solved by police, or it will just get weak consequences on single members.
• The issue isn’t about catching single members, but undoing networks.

But:

• We don’t own most internet platforms that let abusers bounce from group to group.
• That’s not just a problem for one weekend conventions, but for 365 days a year.
• Even with these limits, police don’t run groups, YOU run them and can do something inside.

It can come down to choices of who and how you pay, trust, support, or make people aware. That can mean choosing who gets privileges of being a con dealer, guest of honor, accepted on staff, or simply who is welcome to be friends. None of those are asking cons to ban people. Opposing abuser networks can start personally and locally, and the next Britton and Vanwoert can have one less place to meet.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

NOTE: article topic is not to be confused with inside fandom-made documentaries. Please send confidential tips to: patch.ofurr@gmail.com

In June, Dogpatch Press was approached by a company “developing a documentary that takes place in the world of furries.” True-crime was mentioned. This is something that Dogpatch Press covers — and isn’t a bad thing to ask, by itself.

Whenever media producers make contact, first they are checked to see if they’re real people with a history of solid work. If they are, they may get cooperation and support. I had already checked this company before they contacted me (with advance notice from others they contacted) and got a middling impression. Making some innocuous airtime filler isn’t so bad, because work is work.

I told them: “One long lasting annoyance about furries as a group is their dogma against “the media,” as if Fox News and PBS are the same thing. Actually I started my news site to push back on that. But I will be picky on what outlets I talk to, and look at their work before considering it.”

Then I gave an opinion that their proposed topic had low chances to get fandom cooperation — and got no further reply.

This September I was surprised to hear about more furries being approached by the same company. Here’s a snippet:

Now the proposal has increased from a single documentary, to a docu-series with “darker stories”. A story per episode might mean approaching many people.

Again it’s not bad to look at true-crime or darker stories — by itself — if the approach is good. But the new approach I was shown? It asks about a specific person, and their story has previously gotten careful consideration and doesn’t meet the standards of Dogpatch Press.

This site won’t blast out a name that isn’t newsworthy for much more than mental illness symptoms. A name whose brief connection to a major news story was cleared by police. If this was a serious approach, producers would already know it’s questionable to connect the name. It also risks some big ethical concerns about putting a private person in a spotlight.

The persistent but questionable approaching now makes me ask:

Has anyone else been approached by a production company? Please tip: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.

I’m being charitable in not publishing the company, their ideas, or names right now. That’s on the chance that these are innocuous or contracted people — and let’s avoid connecting opportunists to them if the motives aren’t good. (Bad interviews come to mind.)

I’m also keeping this vague in order to point out some possible suspicions, on the chance that they aren’t true.

It hasn’t been very long since another producer wanted to get inside the furry fandom.

Read on, then ask: can you trust ANY producer whose motives aren’t clear?

Suspicions and high alert

In February 2023, Dogpatch Press posted an alert: Furries warn each other about casting call for “Life As a Furry” TV show.

The story featured a separate producer, and pointed out red flags. Most alarmingly, he went on a podcast that hosted Republican strategist, insurrectionist and convicted criminal Roger Stone, AKA Satan. If you don’t live under a rock, you’ll know how right-wing sources (it is ALWAYS right-wing) keep lying about “furry kids demanding litter boxes in schools.” It’s part of a larger wave of bigotry. They refuse to stop spreading the lie because it riles up gullible voters. These liars will exploit without remorse, and must be guarded against if this community claims to care about its members who face the attacks. That’s why even a whiff of being close to Roger Stone puts a media producer under scrutiny. He chose to go on the podcast – his fault.

The producer was upset. Requests to take the story down were refused so the community could decide for itself what to trust.

From the communications I got, I sensed production money was invested by someone who may not give up that easily.

Which brings us to the current producer approaches.

Hollywood writer’s strike and unscripted programming

The February story Furries warn each other about casting call for “Life As a Furry” TV show concerned a proposed reality show. It has no obvious connection to the producers who approached me in June… However, their company social media posted a video of them attending a Netflix reality show exhibition a week before June. The writer’s strike in Hollywood made reality and unscripted programming much more in demand, while getting work has been hard. Hmm.

In an older interview, the February producer claimed he was behind 30-40 shows in production, but oddly almost none were publicly credited. Huh.

Put this all together and follow the money. Are there bad intentions towards this community following waves of “litter box” fake news?

Or is it just ordinary business, and how trustable is that even if there’s nothing else going on behind this docu-series?

Your history

In the history of furries in the media, some media has a lot of bad behavior to answer for. But don’t get me wrong… this point is coming from someone who made a news site to cover things that deserve more attention. It offers access to good faith media who can apply professional resources and the will to air things the community suppresses. That’s also a big problem. Ignorance and suppression brings private tips here all the time from people who can’t speak openly, for the same reasons whistleblowers are harmed anywhere. Don’t hate “the media”, because knowledge is power.

Public interest reporting is welcome here, bad faith is not.

UPDATE from Gamepopper in the UK – another effort by media producers there.

“Hello Patch,

I saw your recent post and thought I’d share this with you. Back in August, I got a message on my Facebook from a producer/journalist who wanted to do a documentary about “what being a furry really means, dispel any misconceptions, and create an accurate picture about the furry community”.

They didn’t provide any info on who they worked for, and when I sent a text response asking about what misconceptions they intended to discuss, they were insistent on talking over the phone. Was a little suspicious, so I looked them up, and it turns out they work for TalkTV.

TalkTV is a right-wing British free-to-air opinion-orientated television and radio channel owned and operated by News UK, owned/operated by Rupert Murdoch (also behind Fox News, for reference). The channel is currently best known for having Piers Morgan as one of its hosts.

Already made a warning to furmeet organisers in the UK, and although I’ve not heard anything since then, it could be possible they’re still trying to get British furries in particular involved in the project.

Hope this is useful.

Regards,
Gamepopper”

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Statement on Peter’s official Facebook page

The gall of these people.

Peter S. Beagle created The Last Unicorn, made millions of fans happy, then got dragged through elder abuse and had to go to court to stop it.

In his 70’s, Peter was supposed to be making his magic and enjoying the golden years. Instead he had to spend years of battling his former manager, Connor Cochran, who was found liable for financial elder abuse, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and defamation.

Before his disgrace, Cochran would try to sue critics for saying what he was doing, and wanted to shut me up that way. He failed when I sued him before Peter did.

Now Peter is back in control of his career. His official Beagleverse site has an FAQ about his battle with the court judgement showing the black-and-white truth.

But the Beagleverse site warns: “Unfortunately, there are still several websites controlled by Peter’s former manager. Beagleverse® is the best source for all things Peter S. Beagle.”

Peter doesn’t control a Last Unicorn Facebook page with an official check mark. It was made in 2008 before Peter sued Cochran, and is now being used to manipulate 182,000 followers.

Its anonymous managers are spreading references about Peter with evasive, tryhard, blowhard posts full of ageism. While they hide behind the official check mark from years ago, they’re also blocking the official team of Peter, the actual creator, while pretending to be a “fan” page for fair use of his creation. They’re misleading other fans who don’t know their agenda or what a court already judged.

Peter’s official statement about the page is open to comment and has hundreds of shares. Meanwhile, the latest “fan” post aiming at Peter is locked to comments and has some dozens of shares. You should see what some of the sharers are saying:

• “I’m so tired of people talking BS about Peter S. Beagle, like he’s some old man who can’t do anything or doesn’t understand. He doesn’t deserve this treatment or abuse and this isn’t the first time it happened… Stop gaslighting his fans by claiming you’re just a fan page.”
• “You don’t need to read the post below – tl;dr – deny, deflect, defend. It’s telling that this novella is in the same verbose, bloated language as when the former manager was trying to defend their defenseless position throughout the lawsuit. It’s also telling that a) no names are given on page ownership b) there’s hella ageist language being dropped here, and c) no comments are allowed…
  This is not how a fan account run by true fans of the work should behave. It’s embarrassing.”
• “That’s a lot of words for “we’re lying” lmao”

If you’re a fan of Peter and his creations, be kind to other fans and let them know the movie Facebook page is NOT to be trusted.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Hello, I’m Gamepopper, a British furry author of the newly released book Furtannia: The History of the Furry Fandom in the United Kingdom. Buy it at the link from Uncle Bear Publishing.

I’ve mentioned this book on Dogpatch Press in a guest article calling for preserving the furry fandom’s history, when it was under the (admittingly cheeky) working title of Furry Kingdom. This book tells a long and multi-faceted account of that history, but this time from the perspective of British furries.

The origins of the modern furry phenomenon can be traced to America — specifically, California — and it eventually grew and spread to other countries. The United Kingdom was one of the first places outside the United States to embrace Furry, but it wasn’t just a new discovery; a lot of media that inspired the modern-day fandom originated in England.

Furtannia covers that growth from the first housecons and furmeets in the UK, to conventions like ConFuzzled, and how they differ from American furcons. Along the way it covers unique British Furry media and events.

That growth was influenced by California fandom reaching towards an international presence almost since the beginning. In 1987, Mark Merlino, Rod O’Riley, and a few American fans hosted a furry hotel party in Brighton during the 45th World Science Fiction Convention. A handful of British science fiction and comic book fans travelled to the United States or purchased imported American comics, discovered the fandom, and kept in touch with each other.

An American group-wide visit to a comics festival in France led to half a dozen furry fans meeting some of these British fans at a house in Yateley in 1992. The event led to a regular furry housecon. The British fandom grew to the point where they could produce fanzines and comics and host furmeets, and eventually, their conventions began in 2008 with ConFuzzled, the second largest furry con outside of North America with 2,661 attendees in May 2023.

Furries in the United Kingdom have been known in online spaces, from FurryMUCK to chat rooms, mailing lists, discussion boards and web forums, all before social media, not to mention all the creative talent the British scene offers in art, writing, music, fursuit creation, and even furry radio. Furtannia collects this all into one background they share.

My writing process

This book has been a passion project of mine since 2019, after having an overwhelmingly positive reception towards a talk I did at ConFuzzled on the subject. I took my current two years of research and expanded further. I talked to more furries, visited libraries and archives, and read too many articles, discussion threads, and webpages than any furry would want to admit.

While I was writing the book, I learned a lot of aspects about the fandom I wasn’t aware of back during ConFuzzled 2019, such as how the furry fandom functioned when the world wide web was yet to be mainstream, or the ways furry fans produced fanzines.

It’s also had the fortune of recording and preserving some parts of history that would have been completely lost had I not done so. In that guest article on Dogpatch Press, I talk about how Yahoo wiped away mailing lists (a popular method for local furry groups to socialise through) from their databases. I managed to recover and archive a few that aided in my research.

Meanwhile, near the end of 2019, I got to speak with Ian Curtis, the organiser of the furry houses and one of the founding fathers of the British furry fandom, at his home in Yateley. He helped give insight into how the furry housecons ran back in the early to mid-1990s and shared various comics he had in his vast collection. It would shock most when his friends posted in September 2021 that he had passed away.

I initially planned to cover events up until the end of 2019. When COVID-19 hit, the emergency lockdown rules forcefully cancelled conventions. I had to record what happened in the furry community.

Overall, I am proud of myself for working my way to this book’s release so that furries worldwide can learn and hopefully expand the ever-growing knowledge of our fandom’s history. There were some hiccups near the end, a few delays, and online storefronts taking issue with our launch. Still, Furtannia can be purchased directly on Uncle Bear Publishing’s website below.

https://www.unclebearpublishing.com/furtannia.html

The book is also available on Amazon (Kindle and Paperback), Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, and other online book retailers.

My copy of ‘Furtannia’, a history of the UK #furryfandom written by @gamepopper, has arrived!

(I spot @all_the_ears on the cover.)

Next on order will be ‘Furry Planet’, @JoeStrike‘s sequel to 2017’s ‘Furry Nation’. pic.twitter.com/3VOX7jqKAr

— Oliver (writer of ‘Komos & Goldie’) (@OliverGoldie1) August 6, 2023

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Event background video Sunset Beach Bonfire: Raccoon’s Den Episode 112

Blood was drawn by violence between furries in California’s Huntington Beach, in a story that’s raising hype and misinformation. The hot-button term “nazi” is part of it. So is years of peaceful history for hundreds of members, even when a fight between a few of them is like red meat for media vultures who don’t care about the background. Here’s a story with witness evidence for readers who care.

The setting was the 11th annual Sunset Beach Bonfire meet on August 12, 2023. This event in Southern California is so popular, the attendance rivals entire furry conventions. Members of their nearly 1000-strong chat group go for grilling and fursuiting with so many friends, they need a megaphone for crowd control, like to organize group photos. This is a party for people who are full of love and fun who have been very successful at growing it.

In March, the official update channel announced they had reserved space: “It’s a private location with a volleyball playground.” Remember it was private access. Tents and a fursuit lounge were provided to keep cool in the sun. Nobody expected the chill vibes to heat up with a megaphone being used for a weapon, a scuffle on the ground, and an arrest with charges still to get decided in court.

Me trying to see that one dude who beat the shit out of some guy with a megaphone. #Furry #MoreFurLessMonday https://t.co/f7fX34OBM2

— OposFurvana (@Real_Opos) August 15, 2023

A short video clip of the fight went viral, with context twisted by the hype. It started with accounts for fight videos, then went to sensational tabloid and right-wing “news” sources with trashy reputations:

• Man Attacked By Furry At Huntington Beach Meetup, Wild Video Shows – TMZ
• Furry Fight: Chaos Erupts At California Beach ‘Furmeet’ As Pirate Furry Drills ‘Chud’ With Megaphone – Outkick
• Bizarre moment man is attacked by FURRY after he’s caught filming fetish group in Huntington Beach – Daily Mail
• Pirate furry tackled by cops for attacking man with megaphone at ‘Furmeet’ – Dexerto
• Furious furries fight back after busting man filming them on beach – NY Post 
• Man filming fetish group attacked by furries on beach – Toronto Sun
• Furry Attacks Man at Huntington Beach – Total Frat Move
• VIDEO: Furries Attack Man At Beach – Barstool Sports

Those are archive links to deny traffic for stories of conjecture and regurgitated, third-hand info. They don’t care about accuracy because they have agendas. It’s implied that there was an “attack” on a random man for simply recording the group (but in fact, there were years of provocation by inside members causing a problem). Some of them wedge in malicious bias by mocking pronouns, using “fetish” innuendo, and for no sane reason, comparing furries to “street thugs” who do retail looting. There have even been bewares in furry groups about right-wing news trying to get inside. To help debunk the fake news, Dogpatch Press can provide direct info with cooperation from people involved.

Fake news from “Longtime InfoWars host and conspiracy theorist David Knight”

Years of provocation – and why the Nazi term comes up

Apart from tabloid stories to blame the community, members tended to consider this to be community defense like a history of opposing neo-nazi infiltration in subcultures, from punks to furries. Were Nazi furries involved?

Quick points about the beach event:

• The location was private and reserved, not public, and access could be denied.
• Two people were banned from attending: Skaard and his boyfriend Renn (person hit with a megaphone).
• Skaard is known for being in the neo-nazi Furry Raiders and doing the type of harassment the group is known for.
• Dogpatch Press staff have been harassed by Skaard for reporting about neo-nazis, earning him a permanent block.
• Skaard’s behavior went on for over six years and caused prior bans from furry groups and events, and they applied to enablers too.
• Skaard and his partner knew they were banned from the beach meet, and picked the fight by going anyways.

Proof of years of provocation:

• 58 screenshots of group chats showing Skaard (AKA Valyrym) and Renn’s bans from groups and events.
• Skaard’s participation in neo-nazi activity, which he denies with common excuses spread by those groups.
• Thread of evidence and discussion.

A witness statement and the aftermath

A source from the Sunset Beach Bonfire event explained the fight (identity withheld for security.)

“There were two people involved, Skaard (Nazi) and Renn (boyfriend to Nazi). Renn was the one who got bonked.

They were told previously that the two of them weren’t allowed to attend this meet; they ignored warnings on purpose. They were also escorted off premises at a similar meetup a week prior by law enforcement during the FurBQ. They have been banned from numerous southern Californian furry events because of death threats and harassment campaigns to the members, most of which were done verbally with no recordings, along with affiliation with the Furry Raiders, a known Neo Nazi Furry group.

We had a reserved area on the beach, and the staff of the event organizers were allowed limited control of who was or wasn’t allowed there. During the beginning of the confrontation, these people were told that they were allowed to go anywhere else on the beach other than our area which we had a reserved permit for. We also didn’t want them interacting with our suit lounge, which was part of the permit.

This was incident #3, and the other 2 incidents had been handled without further trouble. Law enforcement told us earlier in the day when the first incident occurred that they either wouldn’t help us, or couldn’t be able to help us.

Renn, who was recording the entire event the moment he walked onto the beach, after being talked to for over 5 minutes that they were not welcome, that they needed to leave, and that the person who owns the permit didn’t want them there, he basically said “Too bad, I’m not leaving.”

It’s regrettable that it came to violence, but there shouldn’t be regret about who it happened to. There was an attempt to just be loud at them using the megaphone to annoy them into leaving first. After Renn was hit, the alleged hitter was then tackled to the ground and pinned by a non-furry bystander. He didn’t resist being detained.”

The alleged hitter was arrested and booked at the county jail, then released after arraignment. The charge was Felony Assault with a Deadly Weapon, but it was reduced to a misdemeanor. The court ordered no contact by the accused with Skaard or Renn. A next court date is in September for the process of going to trial.

Editor’s opinion

This isn’t a story of furries confronting nazis using nazi symbols and trying to do hate crime at the event. It was inside conflict with people who refused to take “no” after bans. They happened to be a past nazi-sympathizer and enabler who wanted control to undermine healthy gatekeeping. It was up to the community to handle their intrusion after police wouldn’t. That’s about behavior more than politics, but can still count as community defense. If people want to cheer for punching nazis, it’s smart to consider the cost and try to avoid giving them what they want.

UPDATE:

As the owner of these stolen photographs, I have contacted Daily Mail about their licensing violation, negotiated a settlement, and am proud to announce that I will be using that money to buy my next fursuit. https://t.co/SaA0bEp1Wg

— Scotty (@ScottyWuff) August 17, 2023

UPDATE 2:

An attempted debunking was made to show an alternative truth to the experiences of a community who put up with 6 years of bad actors pushing in. It’s a longwinded journey that starts with a pre-made conclusion – forget how Skaard called himself a “nazifur”, these aren’t “nazis”, so calling them nazis must be the real problem. This sets up the end goal of whataboutism at fed-up people.

Along the way it elevates the bad actors by swerving through excuses, speculation, and dubious assertions. It couldn’t have kept a straight story anyways, because most of the community refused to talk for it. (“The SoCal furries have included me in their media blackout order, so I’ve only been able to pick up that side of things by secondhand reports”, the author wrote to me.) It doesn’t disclose that reason for partial results… and they were right to be suspicious, when the whole thing was made to confuse cause and effect in the 6 year pattern with the common denominators Skaard and his enabler Renn.

6 reasons to skip it

1) Unreliable source. The author was previously most known by furries for doing a hoax that inflamed hate against furries from right-wing smear accounts. It was excused with justifications that you can entertain if you want to indulge everything else wrong here. The site host is also known for apologism about transphobia and overindulging obvious bad actors.

2) Bad faith. When bad actors push for 6 years, is it a surprise if someone pushes back? Or is the surprise that it took that long? Handwringing about reactions sets all that aside. Then it goes back to say Skaard’s original offense was just “asking for rides.” That’s an obvious bad-faith reduction of disrespect, meltdowns, and threats that went along with it. The whole thing copes and swerves around such inconveniences, making a checkerboard of omissions to defend the two common denominators. They are absolved for problem after problem that got them dismissed from group after group over 6 years. Their feud with Golden State Fur Con is not even mentioned, where Renn got them dropped from staff for bad behavior, then attacked the con with bad faith claims that it was “stolen” from them! (The firing had nothing to do with calling them “nazis.”) This distorted defense goes up to dismissing a BBQ incident that got police/rangers involved, because if police wouldn’t help, it must not matter. If someone threatens you, how many chances do you give them, anyways? Zero is all you owe, period. You don’t owe justifying your “No”. But the piece presumptuously declares, “there is no justification for treating someone as irredeemable based on their beliefs alone” — uh, bullshit. That’s not for us to decide for fed-up people, especially while minimizing threats.

3) Poor excuses. It all stands on one very unbelievable excuse. It’s fine to point out a confusing look of “not-nazis” acting leftish, but not while excusing the “not-nazi” for displaying swastikas… because… he was only 20. That’s not a child. Then we’re supposed to trust that the “not-nazi” who ranted against SJW’s for making him remove a swastika was just being an ironic edgelord but somehow also an innocent “socialist” member of furry nazis to “spy” on them. A claim with zero evidence of spying. Real spies don’t use main accounts, and guess what? There were real spies, they were organized, they knew each other, and this person wasn’t one. I know because I was there. We’re supposed to memory-hole how a not-nazi got pissed off about removing swastikas, because of posting leftish memes somewhere else. I would love to hear the math behind this: does a Bernie Sanders meme neutralize 2 swastikas and an n-bomb? Keep in mind that virtue-signalling isn’t actually incongruent as claimed, and being a 9/11 conspiracy truther helps to show how little you can trust these people for anything at all.

What a liar looks like

4) Platforming liars. To bolster the spy excuse it quotes Foxler, a person known for running the organized-crime-like Furry Raiders, claiming to be into bestiality, and child sex offending. Gosh if you ask a creep like that for the truth what do you think will happen? In another section it presents lying about me from someone going by “HeWhoRoarks” (about a story I didn’t write.) The results of this were…

5) Bad assertions. The piece claims complete truth based on half-assed, impossible to confirm information. Searching a Furry Raiders Telegram group for messages from the “spy” didn’t find any, so they say, (let’s be charitable about how many accounts they go through there.) But Furry Raiders were also on Discord during Skaard’s membership. A gamer would be on Discord and so would a spy, when the worst activity was there. It was so bad that Discord repeatedly banned and deleted their groups along with a wider sweep. This wasn’t even considered for the narrative, and the excuse about learning this later was special pleading about not getting Discord records after not asking for them. While hypocritically failing to show evidence of “spying”. Which takes this back to #3.

6) Bad priorities. The big reason to skip it is how the whole thing treats nazi threats as overblown and just about personal spats. When cons have been canceled because of them, and they have terrorist organizers and mass shooters, don’t waste your time looking for the list of leftists who do any of that. But the priority is to excuse a 6 year pattern from bad actors who picked a fight, in order to do whataboutism at a threatened community. Based on the effort already expended you won’t see anything better from that source than lip service about the big picture. They just don’t care about all this evidence, because when you break down all the feigned bad-faith “reasonable” “centrism” as I’ve just done, what you’re left with is the ugly dishonesty at their hearts. It wasn’t journalism – it was counterprogramming made to manipulate people and get them complacent about bad actors, including the ones doing the apologism. If you ever see them come posing as reliable media again – beware!

Admitting being among “Aushwitz RP” and mass bans, but not being liable, trust me bro… Claiming naivety at age 20? K

I don't know what I expected from the Blocked And Reported podcast by Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog, but, ya know, really digging the bait and switch here.

"I'm just seeing no evidence of anyone involved being a Nazi! How absurd!"

"oh well I mean other than the Nazi stuff" https://t.co/8rzofbQiE3 pic.twitter.com/mMrOSElLAh

— Michael Paulauski (@mike10010100) September 8, 2023

He created his fursona as a Nazi

He repeatedly hung out online as that fursona

When others noticed that fursona was a Nazi, he called them "SJWs"

When others chose not to associate with him, he showed up, in person, to "settle things"

Come the fuck onhttps://t.co/P7BdNlPR8N

— Michael Paulauski (@mike10010100) September 8, 2023

(Also, showing up to an event where the organizers have said you’re not welcome is creepy stalker behavior in and of itself and frankly one of the few times I’d get the cops involved, though I understand why people might not, ACAB and all.)

— Isabel Cooper (@ICooperAuthor) September 8, 2023

UPDATE 3:

A rant was sent in by Skaard where he admits offenses but wants to justify them. With that horse long since beaten dead, there’s no point in airing argumentative manipulation. Let’s just summarize it:

• Denies being a nazi sympathizer, with zero accountability for labeling himself “nazifur” for all to see
• Blames a 16 year old for giving him swastika art, with zero accountability for attacking people who found it offensive
• Says he was never involved with Furry Raiders, while blaming the founder of Golden State Fur Con for getting him involved
• Instead of owning Renn’s bad behavior that got them let go from GSFC staff, doubles down on attacking the founder
• Admits harassing Dogpatch Press before this story with zero provocation, doubles down on attacking without apology
• Pity tripping about being immature and reactive, still with no apology to anyone except feeling sorry for himself
• “Whatabout” attacks at a long list of enemies, where he is the only common denominator
• Rules-lawyering about boundaries, like the “I’m not touching you” game to justify flouting them for years

A strong definition of Creep isn’t just someone who crosses a boundary, but manipulates offenses to be everyone else’s fault while persisting with it. That isn’t going to interfere with the truth here.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

UPDATE: DEADLINE EXTENDED TO AUGUST 15!

Samayoukodomo (more)

Each June, millions of people see the San Francisco Pride parade. Hundreds of thousands of attendees cheer for over 200 contingents. For 2023, five contingents are shortlisted to win the Best Overall Contingent award. Northern California Furries have the huge honor of being one of the five.

You can help win big positive recognition for furries everywhere. Spread the message and get everyone you know to vote!

Voting Poll is here: https://forms.gle/QvVoPoBd82ajMcUV9 – Don’t wait, the poll is open until August 15.

Their history in the parade goes back to 2002, and this isn’t their first recognition. They have received multiple “fabulous” and “outrageous” awards. But being shortlisted for Best Contingent is the most recognition yet.

Organizer Zoren called the 2023 event “another wonderful time. We had around 150 (or more) show up and march and had fun showing our pride. It’s also becoming fairly clear, that SF pride loves seeing us. We don’t do it for the awards and acclaim, but nonetheless, we have won awards prior years for being our fabulously outrageous selves. Thus with much excitement, I’m happy to announce that Northern California Furries has again been nominated for an award for how much Pride we show. We along with four other contingents are in the running for Best Overall Contingent in the 2023 SF Pride Parade. Yeah that’s right THE BEST. How do we win that though? Well it is a community award so it takes all of you and even more from the community voting for us.”

Zoren emphasizes that it’s about raising pride, not just awards: “we will indeed return to party again in the future. Because, that’s really what matters.”

Northern California Furries brought 150+ members to the 2023 @SFPride parade, and now they are nominated for an award for Best Overall Contingent.

Vote for NorCal Furries to help them win: https://t.co/3kXIED5ozH pic.twitter.com/6txRp7865Z

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) July 14, 2023

Post-Pride Review

Organizers said the crowds “loved to cheer and howl back… it was deafening.” There was a migration by public transit in fursuit to reach the parade; it was “super good for morale and for people around us.” A popular afterparty was hosted by group member Relay, and access to his place was valuable in case anyone checked out during the parade. 

Organizer Spottacus compared the Norcal Furries to previous furry parades apart from Pride. Spottacus said: “We stand on the shoulders of those that came before us, but whoah are we different.”

Spottacus felt that other groups “worried about what OTHER people thought more than they worried about how WE felt. It was important to act Normie, and not scare the family. It was important to blend in. It was important that very outwardly LGBT people NOT be allowed to talk to the media. It was very important to please the OGs. There were fears of what “people” thought, and rules on how furries should behave, rigorously applied by a team of leaders. After all, there were Children there (sound familiar? Think DeSantis). It was very serious business, even if that made it less fun. We were representing and no one should smear the team image. All for one. In essence: we know better, you should behave within these boundaries.

We started with strong discouragement and angry pushback from the old guard. We said: HEY! We do not care what people in Iowa think of us. Just come as you are. And we came: old and young, latex and in fur, as fembois and gender queer. And sometimes naked. We didn’t say “what will the families think?” (though we did discuss it internally). We just said: “HEY! Just Be you.”

Our parade could not have happened without other groups and for this we are thankful. Our parade couldn’t have happened without the Stonewall Protest (it was NOT a riot). We stand on these excellent shoulders. But what we have achieved is so different and so empowering. Forget gender appropriate (again, Fuck you DeSantis), we aren’t even species appropriate. And… and… they LOVE us. The kids too. I can dress as a femboi dragon, ON TV!, and they love us. We are strong, and beautiful. LOOK AT US. Be jealous. Be Proud. And if you are hateful then BE SCARED. We are numerous. We are Proud. We are furries!”

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

 

For members who completed an RSVP

Photo: AniMajor

The SF Pride Parade – Sunday June 25, 2023 – General info at SFpride.org

Let’s go! The parade is on Market Street, from Embarcadero to the Celebration area at Civic Center. Spectators will be watching from 10:30 a.m. until late afternoon. ABC7 will be broadcasting the parade to watch from home.

Be there with 150 furries. Be there for the GO moment when the crowd roars. Hundreds of thousands of people will make the street your stage. Many furries will march and interact with watchers, while some will ride the float. It isn’t just for fun and photos, but also to say that we’re not going away. That’s Pride for LGBT people and allies, while we help bring the diversity of it all.

Northern California Furries first joined the parade in 2002, and last year marked their 20-year anniversary. This year brings more interest than ever. Thousands of furries will also join Pride events internationally — see other news and history in the Pride tag.

NOR CAL FURRIES MEMBERSHIP – RSVP for standby

We had open RSVP for up to 150 members but that is now closed. Due to parade regulations, you can’t be guaranteed a spot by showing up. If you are signed up for standby, you can come try to get a spot, with a Plan B to watch from the audience.

• Telegram info channel: Announcements only, no chat.
• Telegram chat group: The live connection to everyone.
• Donations are still accepted with extra going toward raising quality.

TIPS FOR GETTING AROUND – Be early!

This is a high energy, moving event that requires walking several miles and some self-reliance. There are 30 or so spaces on the float, so be ready to walk unless you have a condition that makes that challenging. Know your limits and don’t overheat, but expect mild weather. The float will have hydration and calories. The only bathrooms will be portapotties with long lines. Relay Raccoon is opening his apartment to host before and after (info below).

• Start with breakfast and changing at Relay’s, or just start with the parade.
• The parade starts miles away from Relay’s. Public transit is the best way to get there.
• Don’t expect easy parking, and expect traffic jams with blocked streets, so rideshares may drop you off to walk the rest of the way.
• Give yourself a lot of extra arrival time. The parade can’t stop, and latecomers get left behind. Seriously. Don’t cut it close.
• At the end of the parade is the crowded celebration area. The marcher group will split towards there while the float drives away to park.
• Try to push through the crowds, find the float and regroup. We strive to help, but this is when you may have to get yourself places on your own.
• Pool people to share rides, or buddy up and find your way to Relay’s. The afterparty resumes there.

MARCHERS MUST ASSEMBLE by 11 a.m. – VOLUNTEER MONITORS by 9 a.m. – Map for the parade route

Find assembly area N1 for contingent #115. It is the west side of Main between Mission and Howard. (At rainbow paw on the map by Urban Park.) The float will be there at around 7.

• Coming by car: No cars or dropoff are allowed at the assembly. If you’re very early, try a garage, or park farther away and take rideshare as close as it gets.
• BART riders: go to Embarcadero. The south central exit is closest to the assembly. Any station can let you cross Market when the street is closed.
• Allow time for costume changing. There could be hours to wait before step-off, and it will depend on every group that goes before, but don’t do anything that may delay going at any time.

COSTUME AND FURSUITING – No hard bins allowed!

Fursuiting isn’t necessary, and any themed clothing is OK for those who won’t do it.

• Bring soft folding bags only, due to lack of cargo space. Repeat: NO HARD BINS. They won’t be carried.
• Fursuiting on public transit is enjoyable for many members, and coming in fursuit is smart. So is changing at a car or right on the street (nobody cares at Pride.)
• There may be an easy-up shade structure for changing but don’t count on much privacy. Start at Relay’s for more privacy.
• Is your costume not safe for TV? Would the news censor it? Please check where the TV cameras are on the map, and stay far from them with respect for other marchers who want to be broadcast for friends and family at home.

PHOTOS – Group photo at 11:30 a.m.

Change and assemble for a group shot, after the final arrival and costume change time.

• Please give all attention to the organizers, they will address the group!
• We want photographers. If you plan to do photos or video, please share afterward. Join this channel to collect photos and ask an admin to give you posting power.
• Hashtags for social media: #Norcalfurries, #Furrypride, #SFPride.

MOVING – Show your Pride and stay safe

Marchers: When the float starts moving, it won’t stop, and don’t try to climb it. Keep pace, avoid wheels, and listen to the monitors. Monitors are IMPORTANT, please be on the job. It’s about a mile and an hour long route.

• Watch where the float is. Try not to bunch up, leave gaps or be too distant. The front-facing banner is where the crowds will see the group first, but going up to the side crowd barriers is good too. Use the whole street between the float and the crowds on BOTH sides. Dance, pose, give hugs and high fives. Wave at the TV cameras at their place on the map.
• End at 8th and Market: don’t follow the float – continue walking forward towards Civic Center, then loop around for a few blocks to get back to 8th where the float should be. Regroup and pick up anything you had on the float, and plan to reach Relay’s.
• Crowds have usual risks – see this safety page. No glass bottles are allowed. If you enter the festival at Civic Center, there’s an 18” x 18” size restriction on bags.

RELAY’S PLACE – Changing/breakfast and after party 

Relay’s place is near Dolores Park in the Mission district. Address is by request. You need an RSVP with @RelayRaccoon.

• Early changing opens at 7:00 am and will close at 10:00 am for travel to the assembly.
• The dinner party is after 5:00 pm and is only for age 21+.
• From Relay’s to parade assembly, take BART or the J MUNI line from Church to Embarcadero.
• After the parade ends, BART may take you from Civic Center to 16th and then it’s a 15 minute walk to Relay’s, or use Muni J Church.
• Remember, street parking will be scarce.
• More after party volunteers are wanted!

NEED HELP ON SUNDAY? 

Volunteers will be hard-pressed, so please contact them only for emergencies after using net search, the group and other members for advice. Contacts: @Zorenmanray, @Patchofurr, @Mr_Disk0, @Superjayhawk, @DidgeDingo, @RelayRaccoon

SEE YOU THERE! Art for banners by Kado Husky.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Check out the winners in 14 categories for the 2023 Ursa Major Awards. The awards feature the furry fandom’s favorite media and other anthropomorphic animal creations they love, with popular voting by anybody. This year there were 1350 voters, with their vote count broken down here.

• Dogpatch Press was voted Best Magazine. Thank you to everyone who votes, and the volunteer team who manages the voting process and sends physical awards. I’ll post a photo when it arrives.
• The best novel stood out as unlike other furry fantasy and romance nominees; it’s a young adult novel by an author of other non-furry writing with crossover appeal that isn’t locked to the furry scene. Watch for an upcoming article with the author.
• The best fursuit category had no award due to low participation, but there’s already eligible fursuits listed for the next awards.

See the current Recommended Anthropomorphics List — it is maintained year-round — you can discover and submit this year’s works eligible for the next awards now if you have something to share. This helps make community, discovery for new creations, and opportunity with campaigning. A nominee can win by simply mentioning it, because few do. Consider donating to support this service via paypal@ursamajorawards.org.

2023 Good Furry Award winners announced. Grubbs Grizzly of Ask Papabear and Uncle Bear Publishing introduced the award in 2019 for fandom members who do outstanding things for the community. The award comes with a trophy and $500 check. Past winners were Tony “Dogbomb” Barrett, Ash Coyote, Cassidy Civet, and Soatok Dhole. Who among 30 outstanding furry nominees won this year?

• Kite’s Windswept Wanderings. A maker of Youtube videos with furry costuming and gatherings that bring positive light to the community. And…
• A Lifetime Achievement Award for Reed Waller. He founded the furry comic APA Vootie in 1976, and collaborated with his wife Kate Wooley to create the influential early furry comic Omaha the Cat Dancer.

NEWS: Next year’s Good Furry Award is changing to 3 categories for raising positive image, volunteer and charity work, and general contributions or achievement, broadening the recognition past honorable mentions.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)