Dogpatch Press

GUEST POST: Eberra Wolf (sounds like “a-BEAR-uh”) is an independent reporter from New York City, and focuses on the northeastern United States. He has been a furry since December 2022. Eberra is using community access to submit news as an on-the-scene correspondent – you can submit news here.

Furries playing outside in the courtyard of the Mount Laurel, N.J., DoubleTree on Saturday. (Eberra Wolf for Dogpatch Press.)

Furgeddaboutit had its inaugural convention over the weekend of May 2-4 in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Created in reaction to Garden State Fur the Weekend, another New Jersey convention, it was held on the same weekend 47 miles southwest, about 50 minutes away by car.

By the end of both cons, comparison of the respective results would make an example for the global fandom to remember.

Furgeddaboutit was hosted by Furrydelphia, with staffing assistance from community groups Anthro Outdoor Adventures, Furgen County, The Furst State, and Pinefurs — though the plan is to eventually spin Furgeddaboutit off into an independent organization run by people in New Jersey. “The intention is that once this is over, we’ll be electing an actual board,” said Bangaroo, one of the people who spearheaded the convention. “Most of the people from outside of New Jersey are probably going to step down or step back,” including himself.

Opening ceremonies on Friday morning. (Eberra Wolf for Dogpatch Press.)

It was decided that it would be easier and faster to use Furrydelphia’s corporation to put cash upfront and sign contracts. Furrydelphia Inc., based in Philadelphia, PA, took money out of its cash reserves—likely a five digit sum—to put into running Furgeddaboutit, which it plans to recoup in its entirety. Cash left over is to be given to the entity that will host Furgeddaboutit, when it is established. Bangaroo added that “we’re trying to leave as much over for the future event to set something that’s bigger and more sustainable.”

The convention began planning back in December of last year—a lead time of six months, which is a very short amount of time to organize a furry convention. “The time between us realizing that we needed to do [this] and us announcing it was less than two weeks,” said Bangaroo.

A wedding event on Saturday, one among a few weddings who crossed paths with the furry convention. (Eberra Wolf for Dogpatch Press.)

Not only was there Garden State that was being held alongside Furgeddaboutit, there was also The Big One, a large, two-day furmeet hosted by Pawsouls nearer to Garden State. Even in the DoubleTree Mount Laurel where Furgeddaboutit took place at, there were several weddings happening alongside the convention, which it had to coordinate with. (Wedding season made it more challenging to find a hotel at an acceptable price on short notice.)

A bridesmaid posted on TikTok a short clip of them walking in the courtyard with furries cheering them on, which was widely-shared. Susan, the mother of one of the grooms this weekend was surprised at our presence but thought the convention was “wonderful.” The vendor hall had been booked by Furgeddaboutit until Saturday afternoon, where it was then used for wedding banquets for the remainder of the weekend.

Officially, Furgeddaboutit took a we-pretend-not-to-see-it stance towards Garden State. The website describes it as a “safe, friendly, furry place to spend May 2nd-4th, 2025,” distinguishing itself from Garden State if you read between the lines. Garden State was not mentioned by name by Furgeddaboutit staff, but it was clear what they were referring to when the con was brought up in conversation.

The con’s primary reason for starting up was to actively attract attendees and vendors from Garden State, and it worked. Garden State’s inaugural convention the year prior had 957 attendees. Their second year had only 348, less than half. By comparison, Furgeddaboutit had surpassed that in pre-registrations and check-ins by Friday morning, and 638 attendees by the end.

Several dozen sources were consulted for this story, including five who went to both conventions.

Experiences at Garden State: “Something’s not quite right here”

Attendees and vendors who went to Garden State on Friday or Saturday described empty halls, sparsely-attended raves, a barren atmosphere, and not much to do. Several jumped ship during the weekend to go to Furgeddaboutit instead, many unaware of the controversy surrounding Garden State until they learned at the convention itself.

“It was dead,” a Garden State attendee who later went to Furgeddabout it said. “There was barely anybody.” Another said that, on Friday, “the main lobby only had a couple of people.” “Opening ceremony probably had between 30 to 50 people,” a third Garden State attendee said.

One attendee told me there were about a half dozen fursuiters participating in the fursuit games (though the attendee still enjoyed it). A sticker panel had no panelists, according to another attendee, who also said that events were being canceled during the convention. The sticker board itself had a deceptively-inflated amount of stickers, including one sticker that had not been made for years by a furry who was in New York during the convention. A third attendee said that the bug photography panel had only 30 minutes worth of material, despite being scheduled for 90 minutes.

Con ops, the control center of the convention, was not set up by Friday evening, according to a pair of attendees who needed assistance from that department. (They were reached out to by Furgeddaboutit and offered a discount on their registration.)

Rose Pup Supreme, who went to Garden State Fur The Weekend in 2024, found out about the event from flyers at Anthro New England. “As I went into Garden State Fur The Weekend, I didn’t really know what I was stepping into. And my experiences at Garden State Fur The Weekend were sort of bad overall” because of the staff, and specific “problematic” attendees, who staff were associating with. “I was just sort of like, Oh something’s not quite right here.”

She described to me how she reported a negative interaction with another attendee to the staff, who took down an incident report, but two times when she followed-up after the convention, she did not get a response. It was “[un]deniably uncomfortable that they didn’t respond.” That soured her experience. She wanted to vet new conventions more thoroughly after that.

Others did have empathy for the staff who committed to working there. “I don’t want to knock any individual staff members,” an attendee of both told me. “The ones we interacted with were objectively doing their best.”

Some people noticed that there were a lot of children at Garden State. “This very well might be their weird hobby that they had to beg their parents to let them go to a convention for,” one of them said. “And they arrive and it’s a room of 30 adults” who are not in their age range. “Nothing’s going on” for them, they added. “Nothing’s going on.” Those kids appeared to have moved to Furgeddaboutit, as on Saturday and Sunday, there were many playing around outside.

A dismaying experience came from a new congoer at Garden State, who posted on Bluesky: “first con i go to its fyre fest”, a video of first-time fursuiting at a sparse dance captioned “a whole rave just for me!!” and the unpleasant surprise of looking up con pics afterwards, and discovering a person he played games with was the con owner going incognito because of “very publically caught being a nazi but still wanna profit…”

Attendees and vendors were actively attracted to alternatives, consumer choice favored Furgeddaboutit 

Vendors last year at Garden State said they had a good time then. Those who attended this year’s Garden State purchased booths on recommendation. Many found things were not as they expected.

At Garden State 2025, several vendors planned to or had already set up shop, but bailed and came to Furgeddaboutit. Vendors began packing up as soon as Friday afternoon, either to go home or to Furgeddaboutit. This continued throughout Saturday. Garden State had posted a dealer map of 27 vendors; but two vendors both estimated that they started out with 16, which dwindled to single-digits.

Twisted Tails Escape, a company who goes to furry conventions across the country to set up escape rooms, closed up shop Saturday morning “due to some unforseen [sic] circumstances and what appears to be some kind of stomach bug”.

Twisted Tails Escape heard criticism for going and said more to resolve it: “We were under the impression that GSFTW cut ties with Nazi furs and sympathizers. So we decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. We have not and never will associate ourselves with Nazi Furs. Additionally, due to recent information that has come to light regarding certain group members being seen on the premises at the convention, we made the decision to leave the convention early.”

Yvonne, a vendor, said she lost $475 on two booths at Garden State Fur The Weekend. (Eberra Wolf for Dogpatch Press.)

Furgeddaboutit had done a push back in February to invite vendors, much closer to the convention weekend than is typical for organizing vendors, due to Furgeddaboutit being set up on relatively short notice. Invitations continued during the event.

Some vendors who were at Garden State Friday told me that Furgeddaboutit offered them a free booth, effectively encouraging them to cut losses and migrate. “It sounds like they’ve been creative and made more room as people needed to come in,” one vendor said.

Vendors who switched conventions mid-weekend worried that they would not recoup the cost of attending Garden State. One vendor told me that they wouldn’t have broken even on the cost of their booth if they had stayed the whole weekend. Several vendors said they paid $242 for their tables. One said they stayed because of not wanting to lose $242, when Garden State was “being ridiculous when it comes to refunding dealers who have opted to cancel their spot. They will only issue refunds if they get another vendor to take their place.”

Of the vendors who backed out months in advance, only some got refunds, and only one directly from Garden State. Others were refunded by filing disputes with their bank, if Garden State refused. Yvonne, a vendor recovering from cancer treatment, said she paid $475 for a two-table booth, and was not refunded despite pulling out a month prior to the convention.

The vendors who switched mid-convention contrasted their experience with Furgeddaboutit, which they said was more lively. At Garden State, vendors played music to entertain themselves and entice customers. “Night and day,” an attendee of both conventions said. “Genuinely night and day.”

Charity for wildlife

Erin Rounds holds up a turtle while Jim Hansen talks about the animals. (Eberra Wolf for Dogpatch Press.)

Furg’s charity was Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge, based out of Medford, New Jersey. “In our wildlife hospital, we take in over 7,000 animals a year with the goal of [rehabilitating] and releasing them back into the wild,” said Ashley Krusen, who is the nature center and membership manager at Cedar Run. Cedar Run representatives go to schools, retirement homes, and festivals to do community outreach and education.

Cedar Run was “excited” to be invited to Furgeddaboutit. “Obviously we love animals,” Krusen said. On Saturday morning, director of education Erin Rounds and after-school coordinator Jim Hansen hosted a panel showing off animal parts and live animals. Rounds and Hansen brought two snakes and a turtle for attendees to look at. (The snakes were put in pillowcases so that they weren’t overstimulated during travel.) They also brought animal pelts and turtle shells for attendees to touch.

The wildlife refuge services pretty much all of New Jersey, and its outreach extends further north, out of state. “We’re the busiest wildlife refuge in all of South Jersey, and we can only service within New Jersey for wildlife rehabilitation services,” Krusen said.

The campus, in Medford, has a lake between its two buildings: the nature center and the hospital and rehabilitation center. The wildlife hospital and rehabilitation building can have almost 500 animals at a given time. There are also outdoor enclosures on the property. “We are primarily volunteer-based,” Krusen said. “We have almost 200 volunteers that help us out.”

Animals have stays for as short as two weeks; babies in the spring may be held for three months. Some animals brought to the hospital in the fall have to stay through the winter until conditions are suitable for their continued survival.

When releasing the animals back into native habitats, they’ll put the animal in a safe area near where the animal was found. Cedar Run doesn’t conduct follow-up work on the animals, though occasionally they will partner with the state to band birds.

Some animals are ‘habituated’ or ‘imprinted,’ animals that were raised by people before realizing that they’re wild, not pets. These are kept permanently because they’ll “never be able to live on their own in the wild,” Krusen says.

Lisa Franko (right) in front of a big pile of cash that attendees gave in the last-minute collection during closing ceremonies. (Eberra Wolf for Dogpatch Press.)

In all, $8,260 was raised for Cedar Run. Lisa Franko, director of development at the nonprofit, was on stage to represent it during closing ceremonies. She was ecstatic at the more than $1,000 donations that streamed in at the last minute from attendees cleaning out their wallets. Franko told the audience that by contrast, even at large fundraising events, Cedar Run only fundraises one or two thousand dollars.

An attendee plays with the fire billboard in the hotel hallway. Attendees could adjust where the needle pointed, from ‘low’ risk to ‘extreme’. (Eberra Wolf for Dogpatch Press.)

‘Controlled burn’

Furgeddaboutit’s theme was “Controlled burn,” and the convention’s mascot is an orange phoenix named Ashley. Nocturne designed Ashley, along with the logo and the badge. Ashley, like Nocturne, is non-binary. “It was a big move to make sort of a more fem mascot for a convention,” said Percey, another member of the art team. “A lot of the convention mascots always end up very masculine-presenting.”

Percey assisted Nocturne and drew the dealer’s den map. That drawing was quickly outdated as new vendors showed up, though some modifications were made onto the print, which was then auctioned off for charity.

Osiris Adustus created the fire danger risk billboard, which hung out in the event hallway outside the dealer’s den. Nocturne and Percey say it will likely be used again next year.

Keeping with that theme, early Monday morning the fire alarm at the DoubleTree went off around 1:39 AM. Two fire trucks came, and a Furgeddaboutit attendee was hastily packing up their luggage into their car from their first-floor room. According to the front desk, it was a guest who had tripped the smoke alarm. A fitting end to the convention.

– Eberra Wolf

Editor afterword

Dogpatch Press has been covering controversy about Garden State Fur The Weekend for over a year. The first report in 2024 said: “It’s not enough to dig out problems. You also have to fill in the hole.”

Furgeddaboutit is the fruit of such positive effort. These factors make it unprecedented:

• Openly eschewing a pre-established con that draws support and attendance from the same region. Usually, cons aren’t meant to compete, but Garden State was already under investigation for unusual behavior that the community wouldn’t support.
• Foundation by coalition with active but informal local groups. They cooperated to make an alternative to a formal event with first-start advantage, raising challenges for the plan to succeed. There were even multiple alternatives made.
• Very short timing to successfully carry out the plan. Healthy attendance made a base to grow without being defined by other events going forward.

There’s also the way that Garden State struggled for control with deception, false advertising, mass purging of critics, and duress on vendors to unsuccessfully stave off controversy and people’s free choices to leave. When Garden State couldn’t grab goodwill by force, they tried blaming narratives of outsider takeover. Furrydelphia is close and staffed by New Jersey furries — compare to how chronic staff turnover left Garden State reliant on core organizers from Florida. Aggression by the Garden State head of PR led a critic to say: “Thank goodness he doesn’t live here”.

For many furries in New Jersey, Furgeddaboutit stood for what the community wanted and had collective power to organize, especially when they felt misrepresented until they acted. From this spark, the con represented how to adapt and thrive against adversity, and make a beacon to others who feel the same.

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.)

A street celebration and a party on a battleship – Two of the biggest events for one of the world’s most active furry communities.

For June 29: NorCal Furries are raising funds to be in the San Francisco Pride Parade.

This huge city-crossing festival will be on national TV with a million watchers, for a high energy show of costumes and colors where the furry group keeps getting awarded for expressing the purpose of Pride. Generous donors make tickets and the group’s own club party free for the community. Plans are in motion with about 300 tickets, so if you want to join, visit the page to get one now while you still can.

For May 24-26: Galactic Camp returns for a whole weekend.

Their 2018-2019 single day parties drew close to 1000 members. Those made a launch pad for an “un-con” on a WWII aircraft carrier, the USS Hornet, a floating historical landmark and nonprofit museum that’s sustained by unusual events. This unexpected non-hotel space will have panels, dealers, bars, DJ’s and the dances you do expect. Don’t miss the boat for this wonder of the furry world. Basic registration is upgraded to next tier for a limited time.

All of this makes a highly anticipated season after the local Fur Con – imagine living here!

SF Pride’s theme this year is Resistance

Since 2012, the NorCal Furries have brought hundreds of members a year to the San Francisco Pride Parade. Anyone can join, and it’s uniquely on a public street – this isn’t the typical closed hotel fursuit parade.

The unboxed experience requires checking weather, self-preparation without change space on street, and walking a mile route, besides hustling through crowds to meeting points. It’s worth it for here-ness with the allies of queerness, where high energy meets delighted viewing; it’s a good thing fursuit heads can protect you from all the cheering!

There’s something new and significant this year: stakes.

The government has been chilling sponsorship that keeps Pride events free to join. It’s less politically safe for corporate support, funds are tight, and it’s harder to get insurance for groups. There’s also overt moves against LGBT rights. Oppression of trans people uses furries as a pretext. Politicians in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, and even the White House have named furries as causes to defund media and education. With such stakes on everyone, here’s a message from the executive director of SF Pride: “Ford says this year’s ‘Queer Joy is Resistance’ theme is a reminder of where Pride started: As a protest.” – ABC 7 News

The link again for tickets to march with NorCal Furries on June 29.

Ready for battle?

The USS Hornet is a battleship that ran missions like recovering astronauts from the ocean for the Apollo Space Program. See the artifacts, stick your face in the jets of vintage aircraft, or get your fursuit photo next to a real space suit!

It’s like a whole town to explore below deck, and it might be haunted… you’ll know if you catch a whiff of smoking in the officers lounge… but officially the refreshments are from 4 furry-run themed bars reachable with hatches and ladders, and food trucks out on the dock.

Those can keep you going for panels, the Dealer’s Den, gaming, or the dance competition. Learn fursuit building, art, storytelling, or just meet others in a nautical way – the rats on this ship can talk. Galactic Camp is sure to make stories unlike any con on earth.

The link again to register for Galactic Camp on May 24-26.

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.)

Furry True Crime is a genre

In 2024, the Fur and Loathing podcast came out with Guardian journalist Nicky Woolf and Dogpatch Press. The show investigated the Midwest Furfest 2014 chemical attack, based on previously unseen FBI documents and interviews across 4 states. Apple Podcasts gives it a 4.5 star rating, and it has 4.8 from critics, who call it “made with deep reverence and contribution from maligned, largely disenfranchised communities… I think Fur and Loathing is pretty much exactly what I want in true crime.” – Podcast Promise.

Those are results to keep in mind when expecting another Furry True Crime show on the way. They make 2 examples of this suddenly-a-genre (and there’s a third one coming later.) Other kinds of documentary may raise less eyebrows, but these examples aren’t fur-sploitation or salacious tragedy porn. Sorry, the mainstream already makes too much trashy stuff for weirdos who aren’t furries, go find it somewhere else…

Here you’ll find intensely curious investigations for smart people who care about problems and solutions. They feature experiences within the community, made with members, using pro resources to tell deeper stories than can be told without their combined forces. Socially responsible true crime media exists, and we’re already in it.

Streaming July 17, 2025 on AMC+, Sundance Now and SundanceTV (announcement)

The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster is a docu-series about abuse that sometimes uses furry fandom as a cover. Any community can contain abuse, like schools, churches or Boy Scouts, because it’s part of society. Solving it can start with attention and resources that haven’t yet been applied.

The four-part series examines the 2018 Zoosadist Leaks, which exposed a horrifying conspiracy of animal abuse lurking beneath the fandom’s playful exterior. It follows citizen investigators and official police investigation as they confront abuse, fight for victims, and defend their community from the evil within.

One of few other documentaries in a similar vein is the 2019 Netflix series Don’t F*ck With Cats. It focused on identifying and solving crime by one person. This one introduces the organized group kind that makes a new form of cybercrime. It may educate the public about underreported zoosadism, a term that many people don’t even know. Why now? Look into the consequences there weren’t after the 2018 leaks.

The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster is directed by Theo Love and produced by Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions. Who are they?

When the mainstream media wants a look inside furry fandom and reaches out to this site, they’re judged by past work and intentions. These pros made an impression of top notch accomplishment and creative merit. Theo Love’s The Legend of Cocaine Island applies big-budget crime thriller style to an absurd story that stands out in its genre like documentary doesn’t usually do, with wit and heart. His Alabama Snake appraises a troubling character whose trial has him judged by his past, making a fable of sin and redemption. Story and character beat preconceptions in these movies. (Theo was happy to know they were seen by this reporter on first introduction.)

A truth this reveals about us all, from the bottom to the top of society

Crime stories can be accused of painting the community as bad. Transparency is good, actually. It says the problem is not the community members who work for solutions. It’s a problem with power.

Abuse can hide behind trust and respect, and the worst kind can come from the most respected people. Every community has powerful people inside, but it’s contextual while furries are used to being marginal without a lot of credit outside. Now let’s compare some people at the top of American society and how they treat animals.

• Eric and Donald Trump Jr. proudly displayed the mutilated remains of animals they killed to corruptly impress other powerful people.
• People.com – RFK Jr.’s Alleged Troubling History with Animals: Blending Mice, Freezing Roadkill, Staging a Bear Accident and Beheading a Whale
• Kristi Noem was Governor of South Dakota and is United States Secretary of Homeland Security. She published a widely-condemned confession of executing a dog named Cricket because he wasn’t obedient enough, followed by killing a goat because she wanted to.

“Treating animal life as so disposable is a shocking repudiation of the kind of relationships that so many of us have experienced with animals.” – The truth Gov. Noem’s puppy-killing scandal reveals about us all (Humane World for Animals)

“She was apparently still in an uncontrollable rage… Noem got angry enough to kill a dog and decided she needed to kill again.” – Noem’s dog killing was bad, but to really understand her, consider the goat (South Dakota Searchlight.)

This is a clue about how Noem later regarded humans when she made “gross and cruel” prison photos to show her power.

Cruelty from the top of society gives perspective when it exists among us, to neither accept scapegoating from above or dismiss it within. Being in community means knowing we’re not immune, but not helpless. We can take charge by empowering each other with knowledge.

You will see this represented by The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster.

The evil that furry PR can do by putting optics over solutions

Setting a crime documentary among furries isn’t an attack. It’s telling a vital story through the experiences of witnesses, instead of a detached essay, like the movie Spotlight features a community confronting abuse in a specific church.

There’s many stories about furries doing charity and making people happy, but saying to only tell good stories doesn’t help the community. It promotes helplessness and lets other people tell stories for you, giving the power to those who don’t know you, and won’t be respectful for talking about you.

The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster owns the power to tell it from inside, collaborating with selected partners who have experience and resources we don’t have. However, no matter how top notch the production is, it’s likely to get some inside backlash that happens so often to the media. You may hear denial, accusation of glorifying, or broad-brush dismissal of true crime as a genre, with lack of media literacy about shows we’re already in.

(Examples withheld to not feed a drama cycle.)

These are common experiences with Furry PR, which can be evil the same way that all PR can be evil. PR is used to push bias and suppress criticism. “Bias” applies to everything, when fandom itself is a form of bias; and it’s not necessarily harmful until it makes warped priorities — as in suppressing priority on solutions and victims, and moving the priest instead.

That happens in furry fandom. It comes with selfish priorities like keeping parties safe for people with social power, while neglecting safety of others and driving away people who are mistreated. Insiders who do that are the real enemies of your community and image. Suppression with warped priorities has been a factor in many fandom stories, including the 2018 zoosadist leaks, while reporting for public interest.

The task of public interest reporting

Public interest reporting involves seeing and hearing those who are unseen. It wasn’t a task chosen by this site; the 2018 leaks were dropped on it by surprise. There was no pay for high labor, pitching for deals, or strategic boosting for hype — just a stream of tips without resources to do what paid pro news does while the issues are highly underreported.

That’s how you can get inside insight here that won’t come from mainstream sources. The coming documentary is like the tip of an iceberg. It wasn’t made to generate exclusive material, but there will be exclusive posts for the $5 subscription level on Patreon for Dogpatch Press. The modest support there helps with intense work behind the scenes.

Dogpatch Press will be at the theater premiere of The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster on June 10, at the Tribeca festival in New York City.

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.

Ursa Major Awards voting deadline is APRIL 19

The Ursa Major Awards feature the furry fandom’s favorite media published in the past year. Anyone in the community is welcome to vote for movies, short films, series, novels, short fiction, nonfiction, comics, games, websites, magazines, illustrations, music, and more…

You only have until Saturday April 19, so go to the voting page and do it now!

For nonfiction, please consider the Fur and Loathing podcast. Reporter Nicky Woolf and the team at Brazen worked hard to produce a podcast series investigating the Midwest Furfest 2014 chemical attack. They gave respect to the community and would appreciate recognition.

Follow the Ursas on Bluesky. Behind the awards, Rowedahelicon is new on staff and taking suggestions, and there’s a new policy about AI generated content. The awards are organized by a small team of devoted volunteers, and there is a cost to maintain this – you can donate to support them:

Nominations Open for 7th Annual Good Furry Awards

The Good Furry Awards recognize members of the furry community who help others and improve it through charity and friendship. You may nominate as many furries as you wish at the GFA Nomination form.

Prizes go to three categories:

• The Good Egg Award: for doing charitable or volunteer work, such as supporting furcons, raising money, or other service.
• The Image Award: for presenting a positive image of the fandom in media like YouTube videos, documentaries, websites and more.
• The Furtastic Award: for good works that don’t easily fit other categories.

Anyone active in furry fandom is eligible, and can be voted on by peers to win trophies and $200 cash.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is a special award presented by a select committee. Previously it has honored Mark Merlino and Rod O’Riley (joint), Reed Waller, and Steve Gallacci.

Nominations are open from now to July 31, then voting will begin, and awards will be presented in September.

The award is hosted and sponsored by Uncle Bear Publishing, and will be presented at Another Furry Con in Ontario, California.

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.)

Furgeddaboutit is coming to New Jersey on May 2-4, 2025. Info: Furgeddaboutit.org. There’s also The Big One furmeet. More about this shortly…

Many New Jersey furries have been demanding more honest events while protesting Garden State Fur the Weekend, the corrupt convention with a history of favoring nazi-furries. This has new developments.

• How often does a community create not one, but two alternative events to make up for a toxic one?
• Ever seen a con struggle to deny a toxic reputation — while officially operating on a pro-nazi site?

How Garden State Fur the Weekend disgraced itself

The problems with Garden State Fur the Weekend go back to its founding in 2020. Their May 2024 launch could have been a chance to set things right. Instead, if you attended, you were exposed to the management escorting Fox News cameras while they filmed nazifurs praising Trump on national TV. This was a surprise to innocent attendees and performers on stage who were NOT happy to find themselves in the crosshairs of hate. GSFTW issued excuses while critics were banned from con groups for complaining. Nazifurs are still welcome at the con today after boasting about this on Kiwifarms.

It was part of a parade of mismanagement, with ongoing reporting:

• January 2024: First article before the con. GSFTW was engaged and had a fair chance to answer, but broke their promises.
• October 2024: During and after the con, there was more deception, like switching a Chair who “stepped down” to be the owner.
• December-now: Monitoring thread where the con will not stop lying. (LONG!)

Con staff tried in vain to hold management accountable and avoid endangering attendees. It led to repeated staff revolts, losing guests of honor and artists, resignation of two chairs, and condemnation by other cons, but nothing could bring honesty. Now GSFTW will always be Nazi Con to those who saw it happen.

I’m so beyond disappointed by GSFTW I was so hyped for an NJ con and now it’s overrun by Nazis and Nazi sympathizers. It’s a shame because I had fun (besides being ’d but that’s a separate issue) and had high hopes. But I refuse to support a con that allows hateful people

— Ghøstwere (@ghostwere.bsky.social) December 4, 2024 at 7:51 AM

Curious Florida and Indiana connections

After Garden State Fur the Weekend lost many staff, many of their key people come from Florida, for some reason. (Like their third Chair in a year.) They are still appealing to the community as if they are a typical local con that deserves support.

Cons raise funds for charity, and Furgeddaboutit picked Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge. The New Jersey-based charity displays a commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on its home page.

Garden State Fur the Weekend picked a charity based in Indiana, for some reason. It has a mascot, @cryptogroundhog, who predicts cryptocurrency prices and solicits crypto payments.

Charity from Furgeddaboutit helps baby skunks in New Jersey — GSFTW would support a place in Indiana.

[Editor note: updated to omit a detail about websites that is calculated for drama that doesn’t deserve to be fed.]

Guest of (dis)honor

Garden State Fur the Weekend had to get replacement guests for ones who quit. NIIC the Singing Dog stepped up, bringing the same kind of baggage as GSFTW’s owner… NIIC had gone on the Furry Raiders podcast. That’s for nazis to reach other nazis, and nobody else; a very dubious move to excuse, especially when moving on to support a disgraced convention now.

If you might wonder if this nazifur stuff was mistakes or accidents — and if you feel like excusing people for not knowing what they were doing over and over, check out what GSFTW did next…

ah I see that the jersey fash con found some entertainer for their venue after most jumped ship. NIIC, yeah I’m aware of that name. One would think given optics alone, why involve yourself. but then again hmm, yeah that tracks. Tell me GSFTW, how’s that whole “removing of nazi furs” going for ya?

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— Kojak (@kojakcoyote.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 3:55 PM

Official alt-right channel on Rumble

Garden State Fur the Weekend just opened a channel on Rumble, weeks before their next scheduled con. It’s definitely them. It uploaded videos before or at the same time as their other official channels.

Rumble is alt-tech; a would-be YouTube competitor listed by Media Matters this way:

Rumble — Extreme, right-wing video-sharing and web services company

Founded by Canadian tech entrepreneur Chris Pavlovski in 2013 and backed by various high-profile right-wing figures, Rumble plays an important role in the alternative digital infrastructure that caters to the extreme right, including far-right figures that have been banned on mainstream platforms for misinformation and hate speech. The platform is rife with QAnon content and other dangerous conspiracy theories, harmful medical misinformation, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ hate speech, and white nationalist and antisemitic rhetoric.

A pro-nazi platform. After a year of controversy about supporting nazis and denying it… what were they thinking?

As deliberate as a Hitler salute

Searches of Rumble found zero other furry conventions using it. Results for “furries” are full of hateful attacks labeled “freaks”, transphobia, etc. Most channels titled Furry are for scammy, clout-chasing reuploads. There is no sign of any legitimate fan presence on Rumble. GSFTW has 2 followers there.

Making the channel accomplishes nothing but aligning with outsider malice, and giving a Fuck You to people who oppose nazis. Instead of pretending to care about fixing the reputation, GSFTW embraces it as surely as going on stage and throwing a Sieg Heil.

Remember that they recently welcomed back the nazifur who praised Trump on Fox News and boasted about it on Kiwifarms.

You don’t need to be exposed to bad management when you can pick events that leave no doubt that nazis are not welcome.

CHOOSE BETTER: Furgeddaboutit.

Furgeddaboutit has unique bona fides named on their site. It may be one of the only cons created by multiple pre-established groups, joining together with a common cause for the community.

Two of their Guests of Honor are Gadget and Gizmo, New Jersey fursuiters who met through their jobs as character mascots, designed and built their fursuits, and use professional mascot experience to entertain.

Their charity, Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge, has long history. It was started in the 1950’s by Betty and Jim Woodford, dedicated conservationists. Generations later, the family legacy lives on in a team and network who don’t just nurse injured/orphaned wildlife back to health for release, they also provide educational opportunities. They worked with the furry fandom in 2016 by teaming up with fursuit makers to build a mascot, Scout the Red Fox, who will be at the con.

Learn more and register at Furgeddaboutit.org.

The Big One furmeet

A two day event where there will be panels, fursuiting, dances and more.

The Big One is a furmeet rather than a full-fledged con, and they aren’t in competition with Furgeddaboutit, the con supports them. The Big One is supported by the former staff artist of GSFTW and many New Jersey furs. It comes from Pawsouls, the former PR lead for GSFTW, who joined the second wave staff revolt and went on to make a new event as proof of commitment to community.

Learn more about The Big One here.

You have the knowledge and options, and now the rest is up to you.

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.)

Collaborative guest post submitted by Ash and edited by Patch O’Furr. Ash is a bunny, propagandist, and performance artist in Austin, TX. After you read, please vote for the Ursa Major Awards for the best furry creations of last year. Please consider the Fur And Loathing podcast for Nonfiction, featuring investigation by Dogpatch Press.

Extreme times

Lone Star Fur Con picked the right place for a furry convention. Austin has always been a haven for the freaks and weirdos of Texas. The timing is a little bit less than ideal, because furries are now in the crosshairs of reactionaries in the state government.

The convention is at Holiday Inn Midtown, a stone’s throw from the bus station shown in the opening scene of Slacker, the 1991 movie that helped spark the 1990’s independent film movement. Austin has spawned counterculture staples like Eeyore’s Birthday (an annual citywide party for 60 years), the Armadillo World Headquarters, and counterculture-turned-gentrification staples South by Southwest or ACL Fest. Austin has touted its slogan of “Keep Austin Weird” and cashed in on it in equal measure. It has been no stranger to controversy or moral panic about queer issues; Leslie Cochran, a former trans activist and politician, has a day named after him by the city and is considered the personification of “Keep Austin Weird”.

It’s been 20 years since furries ran their own con in Austin. In 2004, Texas Furry Con launched its first and last event. It was officially sponsored by Shiner Bock Beer, and a target of “infiltration” by the Something Awful forum, achieving mainstream crossover at both the most and least friendly extremes.

In 2025, we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it; but some people refuse coexistence to the point of official government oppression. Texas senate just introduced the hoax-fueled F.U.R.R.I.E.S. act, “an attack on roleplaying as a form of expression” that is “deeply reminiscent of the Satanic Panic that gripped the nation in the 80s” (Rascal News.) Texas governor Greg Abbott piled on by naming furries in the same breath as trans people, as a pretext to defund public education.

News from Texas: right after a ridiculous proposal to ban furries from schools, the governor is piling on by citing furries to remove funding from public schools to pay private ones.

It’s “just politics” until they carve up education to enrich their cronies and deprive the poorest students.

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— Dogpatch Press (@dogpatch.press) March 14, 2025 at 2:37 PM

Weeks before the political news, Lone Star Fur Con’s launch was successful and large for a first time con, with over 800 members attending. They raised four thousand dollars for their charity.

Setting itself apart from other conventions that support animal causes, their charity was Queertopia: a local non profit dedicated to outreach to LGBTQ homeless people. Events organized to fundraise for the con included camp cleanups and packing hygeine supplies, while pumping the funds directly to the most vulnerable. The partnership wasn’t just one-way. One congoer named Cy said Queertopia helped them with vocal training at the con, adding “I think resources like this are very important for this community to have access to in these times.”

Austin may not ask to be a bellwether, but that’s the effect of being a punching bag for government reactionaries, and mined for fodder by alt-right media trolls. Texas governor Greg Abbott effectively declared open season on its residents with the pardon of Daniel Perry. In 2020, the far-right former Army sergeant ran a red light, drove into a crowd of protesters against police brutality, and immediately shot one, Garrett Foster. Perry was convicted for the murder, and then exposed for a history of violent and racist messages, sexually preying on minors, and owning a FurAffinity account that attracted fellow furry hatemongers to post support for his crime. The politically-motivated pardon was denounced across the country. (Dogpatch Press reports: original story and Daniel Perry tag.)

Extreme hopes

Furry groups in Austin have not been insulated from national culture war and political controversy internally. 5 years ago, one of the popular event organizers was outed as a devout neo-nazi, splintering them apart. What does a con mean in such a place?

Lone Star Fur Con’s chair, Mango, says: “We are hopefully going to bring a spark of community that the rest of the Austin and Central Texas furry community can take to heart and make into a larger, more vibrant flame.”

This goal prompts the question: how to kindle that spark with two panel rooms, a game room, a dealer’s den, and an artist’s alley? Member DJ Perrito says: “It would have to embrace the diversity and culture of the city, especially the ‘Old Austin’ — making sure it goes beyond the traditional ‘Keeping Austin Weird’ slogan people throw around”.

Lone Star Fur Con logo: It’s a bat, but it’s Texas! Austin is known for its bat colony.

Supplementing the trans and BIPOC meet ups are discussions on soda, dissertations on Batman being a furry, bad movies, and pickles. Eccentric, at times rule breaking, and weird from the heart.

A con means different things to different people. It’s a time to party, to show off, to learn, to meet friends, to relax. All of the above and more. But what does it mean now, when furry is growing and has become a queer boogeyman for reactionary movements? What does it mean to be furry, when the queer civil rights movement is on the defensive? Can we continue to pretend to be apolitical? To be apart from our fellow LGBTQ people?

There’s been a lot of discussion about the charities that cons support. With some people wanting to support more material organizations and help gain traction with causes in the area. This has reflected a change in furry culture as a whole, from being a niche subculture to a very vocal and vibrant part of the queer community. Organizers who started out in their 20’s as college kids back in the 2000’s now have years, if not decades of experience under their belt. It’s time for them to apply those skills to the mainstream, and to the community at large as well.

Furry creators who travel internationally to US conventions may want to hear this warning from Comic con. If you travel on a tourist visa and accept any form of compensation, like a hotel room for guest appearance or sketches for cash, you could be detained by ICE. comicon.com/2025/03/18/f…

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— Dogpatch Press (@dogpatch.press) March 19, 2025 at 8:38 AM

Consider the cost of doing nothing, when conventions now include a risk of having artists detained by ICE if they cross borders for cons. Congressmen in other states are taking steps to defund colleges if they have furry clubs, and right-wing media is pushing hateful propaganda like the debunked litterbox hoax, while threatening ambushes on camera at our events. You can prepare now or be taken by surprise.

In a midcentury Holiday Inn in central Texas there was a furry con. Where the queer community banded together for a party, and raised a bunch of money for a homeless charity. The charity helped people in that community, as well. It’s those ties that will make or break us as things unfold. It’s the relationships that we build now that will determine the future of queer movements in America. The furry community can either step into history or have it thrust upon us. An example was made in Austin, Texas. The former freak repository of the state had a glimmer of what the future could be.

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 Kacey Pink, a trans lesbian writer of adult stories about transbodies and people overcoming adversity, trauma, and love finding a way. You can check out her novels here: pinkkacey.itch.io. Thanks to Kacey for her guest review of a novella based on characters drawn by artist Canisalbus and written by fan RoobrickMarine. 

✦ Sanctuary ✦

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— 𝕮𝖆𝖓𝖎𝖘𝕬𝖑𝖇𝖚𝖘 (@canisalbus.bsky.social) February 2, 2025 at 4:30 PM

Spoiler Free Separation Review

RoobrickMarine’s Separation is a story about reunion and yes, if you can believe it, separation. The novella is hosted on AO3, so it’s available for free if you’d like to give it a read yourself. The setting is 16th-century Rennaissance Italy. It is tagged History But Everyone Is Dogs, and star-crossed lovers for main characters Machete and Vasco.

Over a decade since he split from the only man he ever loved, Machete is now a cardinal in the political mire that is the Catholic Church. He has worked tirelessly to secure his own position and work towards his goals, having abandoned the idea of ever seeing his love again. Things are shaken up, however, when there is an attempt on his life. Now, plots will be uncovered, friendships will be tested, and something abandoned will suddenly be rekindled…

Here’s what character artist Canisalbus said about Separation:

What if I told you that RoobrickMarine went and wrote an entire novella starring my 16th century dog couple? It’s very canon-adjacent, well researched and thoughtfully put together, has inspired me a ton during these past months and it’s now publicly available at AO3. I highly recommend it.

It’s not a terribly grim story, but it doesn’t have a particularly happy ending. However, it does have a dessert at the end for you to enjoy if you want to see the boys thriving.

Overall, the story stands out for its strengths. The mystery and suspense is strong and getting to read a story about Vasco and Machete is really wonderful. I found myself rereading some of the lines in the story because they were just so fun. I particularly enjoyed the flashbacks and the retelling of the two’s history. The present time of the story is not safe or comfortable on purpose, so those escapes to simpler times are powerful.

Thanks to CanisAlbus

My only complaint really, which is more of an observation of the format than a real quibble, is that the story feels limited. I have written stories after pieces of art before and I can relate to one of the goals of this novella. Its goal is to create a story and a stronger context for the art amazing CanisAlbus has made of these two lovely dog boys. In that way, it does feel somewhat restrained. But yes, my big complaint is rooted in “I want more” and I’d love for that more to be wed with more art and context for their lives. An artistic endeavor that we may have to wait for in the form of a more direct work from CanisAlbus, since these babymen are theirs. No shame though, I’m just glad we get to enjoy them at all.

I like to give stories ratings based on where my expectations lay. I’m giving this story:

4 out of 1

I don’t mean to get down on fanfic or anything, it’s valid as a form of writing, I too have written fanfic. You go into the work expecting a certain level of “orbs” and this story didn’t really fall into that trap. Even with my previously stated issues, the format holding back the story, it was a great work. I think with some plot rework and scene adjustment this might even become a 5 out of 1.

I haven’t read anything else by RoobrickMarine, and am not sure how to find out more about them as a creative. It might be this is the pseudonym of an already accomplished author, you never know on the internet. However, this work has an opening note that it’s their first completed work, with a threat that they might rewrite it someday. I hope they do rewrite it and I hope they put it out there, because this is not the kind of work that should go unpublished. I would like to have a copy of this story on hard cover someday, with all kinds of glossy little jpegs within.

Please, I’m begging you.

Make it happen.

– Kacey Pink

For more by Kacey, visit her site, follow on Bluesky or check out her Patreon. 

✦ Ad Astra ✦

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— 𝕮𝖆𝖓𝖎𝖘𝕬𝖑𝖇𝖚𝖘 (@canisalbus.bsky.social) April 24, 2024 at 3:47 PM

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.)

 

Do you know the story where several blind people try to describe an elephant by only touching small parts of it? Nobody can say what the whole animal is.

That happens when furry subculture talks about itself, and protests outside stereotypes by falling into its own… The Geek Social Fallacies.

Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power. If you don’t like the media, Be The Media. That’s the mission at Dogpatch Press, but the subculture keeps stubborn blind spots. Many stories are too inside for professionals to investigate, but hobbyists lack the resources, especially when they need action that people don’t want to take. Then they stay overlooked, underreported, and suppressed. Nobody is immune to the psychology of denying uncomfortable knowledge. This is how you get too much shallow drama between individuals, but too little intensive research. You may say the solution is showing more of the positive; but that’s not seeing the whole elephant.

The more we know, the more it empowers people to do better.

The view through rose-colored glasses

Consider everything that furries say to the media about themselves in interviews and PR.

Nobody owns any single property they all love. No corporation controls what’s marketed to them. Uncritical, open-source fandom lets you connect across social barriers to make a magical zone of free expression and collaboration. How happy and fun it is to see a bunch of colorful cartoon characters making art together. All it takes is a little passion, and maybe making a fursona with no other conditions to join.

That’s the individual experience of interest-driven connection, like the trees in the forest. Then there’s the forest, where despite why you’re there, weak gatekeeping lets anything crawl in. This isn’t moral judgement on people; it’s analysis of structure. The problem is it’s nobody’s job to do better.

Recent revival of a very old topic.

Old-school fan values worked on small scale

Fandom events are traditionally low budget, volunteer affairs. Fans and volunteers aren’t there for a career, and that doesn’t make strong security. That goes for any group run by people who are accountable to nobody but their own friends and collaborators.

Peer-to-peer connection is simultaneously colorful and intimate, but flat and disorienting. It’s hard to truly know people when you only see their fursonas, or you even see their nudes before their real names or groups they’re in. Anyone can compartmentalize with different accounts for different faces while looking like someone you trust. That’s an easy way to get taken advantage of by people with power over you, even just the power to ghost you after it’s too late to tell them “no”. You have to assume trust based on actually pretty weak ties, if it boils down to nothing more than liking the same kind of art. Trust is nice to get, until it turns toxic with friends favoring friends they shouldn’t.

That’s the natural downside of the old-school fan values, but things were more personal when groups were smaller scale. They would put up with a few jerks because it was harder to kick them out and sustain groups. Now add decades of growth, and much bigger scale of members who don’t know each other. (Dunbar’s Number names a finite limit on how many relationships your brain can handle.) Put the problem on steroids with internet platforms we don’t own. It’s not YOU, it’s MATH.

The math of escalating abuse

Rapid and unplanned growth of furry subculture has many unforeseeable effects. Straining the limits of conventions is one covered on Soatok’s furry cybersecurity blog: Furries Are Losing the Battle Against Scale. Convention attendance is doubling every few years and “the furry community is growing at a break-neck exponential speed.”

Security suffers without top-down management at impersonal scale, especially when the more we depend on net platforms, the more problems we have by policy. Social media is built to shift liability for moderation from owners to users. It’s their business model to be unaccountable! The point is to eliminate the cost of the editor/gatekeeper/mod layer by automating the labor and letting volunteers and peers fill in.

Peer moderation may feel like personal control, but meanwhile, bad actors can game the system with off-site advantage. Moderators may respond to simple individual incidents on-site, but can’t even see complex cross-platform abuse. That’s how responses can be weak, scattered, inconsistent, and lack resources for scale, no matter how much their hearts are in it.

If you can’t see abuse, it festers. Think of church scandals where abuser priests were shifted around from church to church. We have that too, but there’s no orders from the top. It’s from being nobody’s job. A long-time creep can use a newly minted fursona to jump from group to group, when it’s easy to change accounts and delete evidence, but an uphill battle to track them or get consequences. Different process, same outcome.

• Bad leadership surrounds sex crime case with Party Animals West (PAW) owner in San Francisco: an abuser moved group to group while reporting failed from 2017-2024.

From Community Organizing Notes

When you can only see a small part of the elephant…

The problem is over our heads and filling someone else’s pocket

Of course bad people are anywhere on the internet, but we’re not talking about a few bad apples ruining the barrel alone. Organized bad apples make groups for each other. That includes hate groups, scammers, cults, and any predators on the weak, naive or isolated. They do it for sex, money, or power. They seek each other because cybercrime benefits from accomplices, enablers and opportunities. You can’t see inside if it’s conditional on doing dirty deeds to join — like incriminating yourself for gang initiation.

Any subculture can be a good cover, because it makes bigger fish in a little pond. They take advantage of access, and it’s nothing new; it’s like the punk scene fending off hate groups who found it a fertile place for recruiting. It happens to marginalized people the same as abuse in churches, schools, and Boy Scouts. Nobody’s immune. Queer and minority people can and do collaborate with those who exploit them. Take it for granted that “insiders don’t betray each other” is a fallacy. NO EXCEPTIONS.

There are no non-participants online. Even if you want to stay apart, you’re a data asset. The point is capitalism; platform owners want to grow traffic of any kind, and lose money if they take liability. It’s basic business to treat traffic as a value-neutral number. Then when under-equipped peers have to moderate each other, corporations generate harm like a factory spills pollution. This isn’t just an organic human problem; it’s industrial smog from unregulated products.

Oceans of digital ink are spilled on how companies keep saying they will do better, but they don’t. (See: algorithmic radicalization, content farming, Elsagate, Dead Internet Theory…) They seem to not even control their own systems, and don’t care as long as their profit goes up while the public pays the cost of responding to organized abuse.

Huge scale since furries used to be the 1% most nerdy on MUCKs and Usenet.

New forms of organized abuse

Pollution makes mutation. Corporate social media has been tearing society apart and reforming it in strange new ways, while impossibly niche groups form and enable each other for behavior never seen before. Technology makes new ways to hide it and ride the rising scale.

Some of these behaviors find a unique cover behind furries, even if they are basically human problems, because of opportunity to meet and be open to each other. That includes sex crimes that didn’t even have common words until recently, like sextortion and zoosadism with their own dark underworlds.

Don’t make the mistake of dismissing abusers as a negligible fringe. It’s not about quantity; it’s about influence, opportunity and extremity. Consider when abuser priests are hidden, and just a few can have hundreds of victims who get lifetimes of harm. It just takes one enabler in the right place, especially if everything comes down to friend-to-friend influence.

See: the sextortion cult called Furry Valley. It uses systematic, multi-level-marketing tactics to grow, with constant recruiting and pressure to meet quotas. Minors are preyed on for nudes, money, or personal info for doxing and manipulation. Deserters are punished. When Dogpatch Press aired evidence in 2018, the cult was festering with nobody looking, and tried threats and harassment to throw off notice. It still has no formal media notice, and is left to hobbyists to warn each other individually without higher consequences in 2025.

• r/FurryDiscuss: Furry Valley Drama?
• r/RealFurryHours: Furry Valley is still alive

The shallowness of online information and clout dynamics.

Take off the rosy glasses and you can see chronic situations of turning a blind eye:

• When people can’t do enough, and get fatigue.
• When people can’t trust others, because they don’t care and give superficial lip-service while doing the opposite in private.
• When people know it’s worse to speak than say nothing, because clout dynamics let abusive people backlash, spread misinformation and gain more power from attention.

Clout dynamics suppress whistleblowing. Popular people benefit from scale of followers, manipulate algorithms and keep their bubbles impervious. It isn’t simply “bad people on the net”; it’s complicated with platforming, people turning a blind eye, and friends in high places who coddle repeat offenses that aren’t recognized as patterns.

There’s a list of popular excuses and deflections when abuse is exposed. “I was hacked” or “I joined that group to help catch bad guys”, claiming guilt by association, or most common, “that’s drama/callout/cancel culture.” The worst abusers are skilled at playing victim, with crocodile tears and DARVO tactics to weaponize trust against whistleblowing. That’s my friend, he would never do that!

When everything is based on peer relationships, it comes down to one simple line. Do friends hold friends accountable? Do you keep petty priority on fun with friends, or bigger care about other people they harm? When bad info emerges about someone close to you, and it will cost you to act, do you act or suppress it?

The Cancel Culture Panic book

Cancel culture doesn’t exist, broken platforms do.

Suppression starts with cliched, pre-emptive complaints about cancel culture. It raises denial towards criticism inside. It’s often paired with deflection about oppression outside, while appealing to the Geek Social Fallacies for unity.

This makes abuse worse, because harm from inside is the most personal kind. The worst abusers are people you know and trust, who don’t deserve blind unity! This isn’t simply saying don’t trust anyone; it’s enabled by bad systems with growing scale, separation of social bubbles, and eroding limits. Although it’s a broad and deep problem, we can also name specific names and crimes inside that have been suppressed.

Dogpatch Press was never intended to report about true crime, but now there are deep investigations like the Fur And Loathing podcast, made in partnership with pro media. It identified responsibility by an insider for the Midwest Furfest chemical attack, the most harmful mass attack on furries. Now, look at how the terrorism was widely treated as an “accident” by fandom rumor (see: OLD, FAKE NEWS), despite that theory being discredited from the start! The rumor came with rose colored glasses about how insiders treat each other, with Us vs. Them framing after the media didn’t help… (except they did.)

The Fur and Loathing podcast investigated an inside job, and it was researched reporting for public service — not a kneejerk callout, something that only works on people who are already nobodies. As a friend said “cancel culture was 100% effective at ruining the life of Central Park Karen, and 0% effective at keeping Brett Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court.”

Saying that cancel culture doesn’t exist is saying to look at the forest, not the trees. See the whole elephant. It isn’t culture, it’s byproduct. Shallow, petty drama goes with dependence on limited bubbles and unaccountability between them, by policy.

The concept of mob behavior (its own discussion you can read elsewhere) is a superficial symptom of the way platforms boost outrage about individuals without patterns. It isn’t effective when someone’s power is off-platform, and it raises power at the owner level. If you have been attacked with lies and rumors on one of these platforms, half the problem is relying on and contributing to the platforms.

There’s also a nastier kind of mobbing you don’t see: friends shielding friends with whisper networks to discredit criticism. This relies on the pre-emptive dismissal of “cancel culture”. With clout dynamics, the risk of saying the emperor has no clothes is to be harassed and frozen out. Suppression culture.

If there aren’t gatekeepers, often the only solution is with friends telling other friends to beware. In the mainstream, #metoo was a movement because women abused by powerful men would be sued for speaking. They had to organize in private because of the backlash. Organize.

Some ways to fight organized abuse.

Do you want a cult, or a healthy culture? It’s not enough to speak alone, or air info for clout suppression on broken platforms. It needs methods of organized support. Here’s some:

• Stop using Xitter.

There’s a Dogpatch Press news account keeping a legacy placeholder there, but ongoing contributions to Elon’s nazi site are moved to Bluesky. Try reducing reliance on any online platform.

• Build well-rounded offline community.

Real life face to face events are glue for online stuff, especially when they’re more regular than once a year leisure vacations. Making them well-rounded means having more than a limited bubble where you’re afraid to get left out or to kick anyone out. People become radicalized in isolation, but cliques can be no better, so don’t make fandom your only social life. Have multiple kinds and cross them over. Make it conditional enough that chronic bad actors will have a hard time meeting in real life.

• Avoid golden age nostalgia bullshit. 

Everyone could use good history, but not the kind about returning to a golden age. Nuisances love it because that’s when they got away with more. Old-school fandom put up with jerks inside when it was harder to kick them out and sustain small-scale groups. That let things fester and it was ALWAYS a problem. If it was solved by tolerance, it wouldn’t have stayed, it would have solved itself when fandom was small. The opposite happened. Conversely, don’t fall for knee-jerk comparisons to Burned Furs and ancient bad media to suppress current criticism!

• Draw lines and stick to them.

Coddlers enable chronic nuisances to keep coming back. Acting like a doormat lets serial offenders take advantage of negligence. Organizers need to give consequences — which, for hobby groups, amounts to a child’s time-out and “pick a lane”. It’s not really hard to kick someone out, and if someone can’t, they are the problem!

• Don’t be nice to jerks, be kind to your group.

Nice and Kind are different things. Toxic positivity is nice. Removing toxic people who harm others is kind. Nice people think they can fix members who join toxic groups, who beg niceness and gaslight everyone that they’ve been alienated and forced to have “nowhere else”. That’s an absurd lie. They are ALL voluntary joiners and you CAN NOT FIX THEM. They don’t leave until they want to, and you hurt other people by giving these malingerers extra leeway to try and coax them out. Take a year to coax one out and dozens more go in. Giving chance after chance is slowly murdering your group. (Think twice about it.)

• Organize pro-actively. 

It’s not enough to give consequences to bad actors. Go farther and work on breaking up their groups. For example, the Free Fur All “fashcon” was a pro-fascist event that collapsed. They were exiled by getting them kicked out of their original hotel — that was antifascist action behind the scenes. When they were stuck with each other in a suburban wedding venue, they turned on each other and proved why they weren’t welcome elsewhere. Seek out resources that apply method to such effort.

• Hold weak organizers accountable.

Remember, the problem isn’t just bad people. It’s platforms they use for peer enabling cliques, and weak moderation conditions they create. You don’t own the platforms, but you can demand better standards from groups you’re in if they’re infested by corrupt and doormat organizers. When a subculture is based on leaderless peers, it all comes down to drawing a line instead of turning a blind eye for friends. Friends hold friends accountable because they care about others, and if an organizer doesn’t do that, get their corrupt influence out! If they hold a death grip on their groups or events, do not make leisure fun time your priority over the bigger picture. Deplatform, demolish, decontaminate, rebuild.

• Support intensive research and reporting.

Inadequate information enables the clout dynamics of shallow personal conflict. Tracing patterns is always better than exposing people. It can take teamwork when hobbyists aren’t well equipped to do it alone. This includes collaboration with outside professionals. Yes, support good media, and it’s easy to vet them for suitability… Unlike most furries, professionals work histories are as public as can be! Knee-jerk complaint about the media is part of the problem; media-literate, well-rounded information production is the solution.

End note / update

While this article was being written, popular furry YouTuber BetaEtaDoleta posted a video on topic, seen after this published.

“The Furry Fandom’s ‘Problematic Person’ Issue” identifies the Nobody’s Job conditions about gatekeeping, but has nothing to say about corrupt organizers or organized abuse, and never really goes anywhere with it. The conclusion is to stay positive and shrug: “Whatcha gonna do? We’re all using the net here”!

What you can do: Skip assuming neutrality, as if we’re all just breathing the same oxygen. Apply analysis of who owns the platforms, how they work, what it means to be an asset on them, and take back your human agency — in this accelerating process of separating agency from all of us, and concentrating it in the hands of a few corporate owners whose only interest is themselves.

A YouTuber that churns out content to 300k+ followers will impress a much larger, algorithm-boosted audience than a tiny, old fashioned, zine style, labor-of-love furry news site. Pouring effort into a non-profit site without chasing clout is the choice a fan makes to consciously create. Your choice is to curate your media diet (and community) or let mysterious and careless powers do it for you.

Dedicated to Mark Willett, Ronald Braun, Carlton Hurdle Jr., Sotalo, and all negligents with priorities apart from having a safe community. Suppression culture isn’t nice.

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.

The Ursa Major Awards are an annual feature of furry fandom’s favorite media. Right now anything made in 2024 is eligible, and anyone can choose what deserves recognition.

GO HERE TO NOMINATE NOW. Time runs out at the end of February 28 so DON’T WAIT.

The Recommended Anthropomorphics List is a helpful guide for many options, but you don’t have to only pick from the list. The list is open for anyone to submit during the year, making a great way to discover things you overlooked or submit things you want to get seen.

PLEASE CONSIDER NOMINATING THE PODCAST: FUR AND LOATHING. This investigation into the 2014 attack on Midwest Furfest features reporting by Dogpatch Press, with a production team led by journalist Nicky Woolf. The series was an intense labor of love including a productive FOIA request for FBI documents, and travel to 4 states to interview numerous sources, bringing exclusive answers about the fandom’s biggest cold case crime. Nominate it under “Anthropomorphic Miscellany.” “Miscellany category has insufficient entries to make it worthwhile”; please nominate it under Non-Fiction.

Consider donating via paypal@ursamajorawards.org to support this service. It’s a connection to roots of fandom with a committee of old-guard fans; and a way to promote and connect with creators on the tides of social media, where it takes so much work to be noticed.

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 Kacey Pink, a trans lesbian writer of adult stories about transbodies and people overcoming adversity, trauma, and love finding a way. You can check out her novels here: pinkkacey.itch.io. Thanks to Kacey for her guest review of “a thoughtful story about love overcoming the programming of self hate”. The work of Rukis can be found here.

Spoiler Free HeartTheft Review

Rukis’s HeartTheft is two books: Covenant and Apocrypha, however when I heard about an 800 page hard cover of both books combined I felt an overwhelming urge to pick it up for myself. I am not terribly versed in Rukis’s work, besides having read one of the Red Lantern comics and having ogled their art for as long as I’ve considered myself “in the fandom”. However, this stands out to me as a very strong novel in its own right. My desire to grab up the book was solely because I knew that if it fell from a high shelf it might break a toe or two. I would like to see more of these long form books, unashamed to be dense and worthy of analysis as HeartTheft is. Did the story of HeartTheft require 806 pages to be effectively told? I am not confident in that. Am I endlessly grateful, however, that we get to spend so much time in this world and with these well constructed and lived in characters.

If part of your experience growing up was learning how you were lied to by people who wanted “better for you”, you’ll probably enjoy this book. If you can relate to a story about religious deconstruction that doesn’t condemn belief and earnestly tackles the pain and suffering organized religion has brought onto people, oftentimes those that are forced by the abuse they’ve suffered to cling to it, this is a good book for you. If you are fond of thought out world building and well measured applications of stakes and tension, this is a good book for you. If you are a fan of gender go third, sex go [redacted], you’ll probably also enjoy this.

Mystery and investigation don’t take a back seat, but the core of this novel is finding answers for yourself about what you believe in. Even if, but especially if, that’s hard to accept.

Family and love face long odds, but fighting for what’s right, fighting for who is right for you, is the only answer.

I prefer to give things # out of 5 scores based on how well they met my personal expectations. It’s all about if I feel they could be improved in some way, and not scoring them in a comparison of pieces to one another. As a result:

I have come to a 4.5 out of 5 for HeartTheft.

There is room for improvement in my opinion, the opening of the book doesn’t move as quick as I’d like, but overall the story is rather strong and the theme and character work is moving. Expect characters having to learn to believe in love. Yearning and learning. This is not a smut book for the hornies, it is a thoughtful story about love overcoming the programming of self hate. But there is, in fact, (spoilers) shameful jizzim.

The books are better together, read as one.

SPOILER HEAVY ANALYSIS TIME

Rukis constructs a believable fictional religion that pulls a lot of inspiration from historical Catholic imagery and deploys it in a thoughtful exploration and critique of the institution and practice of religion. Many characters in the novel represent views or beliefs about religion and the book is filled with all kinds of challenging conversations and representations. Malachi, Dolus, and of course our leads Isidor and Darcy represent important lenses through which Religion might affect a person’s life.

Dolus’s experience with religion is initially characterized, by Isidor’s ignorance of the man, as light and easy going. However, as we understand him better throughout the novel we come to learn that he is not trapped in the system or injured by it, like so many other characters within the novel. Dolus is not easy going. He is simply power drunk. He can be interpreted as The Evils of the ministry. He doesn’t care about corruption or sin, though he is comfortable using them as his own weapons. All he cares about is his own skin. He doesn’t offer compassion or comfort, nor divine retribution. Even though it is his greatest skill, he doesn’t punish sinners (if a thing called sin even exists). He feeds his own pleasures and ego by hurting any within his wake, simply because he has the power to do so. Obviously, his biggest foil is Father Halstrom, the inquisitor now retired. Halstrom is, in fact, the man who Dolus should have become when he was tasked with raising the young. Instead, Dolus only became more embittered and because he has clearly always used his status to his own ends he remains, even after his actions continued to pile up recognizable, identifiable atrocities. The kind of actions that leave people hurt in ways that are not easy to heal from.

Malachi and Isidor’s experiences are established as parallels to one another. Isidor recognizes that the man is a grim reflection of who he could have become if he’d not had such a fateful run-in with Darcy. Malachi has suffered great amounts of pain and repression in his life. His actions are not justifiable but they are understandable. Malachi is, in many ways, the archetypical religious conversion gay man. He uses his pain and belief in Canus (God) to view himself as better. He knows he is above those who commit the sin of homosexuality and do not “get right with god” about it. He identifies with the suffering he inflicts upon himself and sees himself as fundamentally broken. That is the richest vein of his character, that has been hurt so badly that he doesn’t believe in the repression. He needs it. When Isidor tries to echo Darcy’s belief that god could not make a person broken, we see so much more of his tortured soul. It’s like Isidore is slowly cutting the last threads on the rope that is keeping him from falling to his death. We see that in his reaction as well, he says that it doesn’t even matter if what he believes isn’t true. It can’t be untrue, because his doggedness and his penance is the razor edged jenga block that’s keeping him together. He is a hot mess of blood, scars, and abuse vacuum sealed into the giant shape of a man. This is the last piece, seeing Malachi for what he truly is, is the last thing Isidor needed to understand that his newly solidified views on god and the ministry are correct. But the first thing he needed was Darcy.

In the beginning, Isidor is beset by a constant stream of self doubt, self hate, and shame that leads him to being his Father’s favorite leaky boat. There is a constant bailing of water out of himself, a feature that was not only taught to him but rewarded in him by his order. However, when he meets Darcy for the first time, they have an actual real talk about religion, and he is not only pleased by talking about it but is earnestly fulfilled by hearing challenges to his construction of faith. There is doubt within him, doubt that’s not fully pictured but is clear from the outset. Darcy’s words regarding the nature of sin and the meaning of suffering open Isidor’s eyes to something he may have always felt was true. When he is reunited with his father, he fully opens up about everything. It’s clear in those moments that they talk about things they never once mentioned to each other before. There is something about the act of questioning the ministry that bonds the two men more than anything ever could. Isidor doesn’t reflect on it much, but Halstrom has his number when he sees him after the week in the cabin with Darcy. Isidor’s father pulls him by the nape of his neck out of the frying pan that was crafted under him by his teachings and his desire to fulfil them. It’s clear then, more so then it had ever been to Isidor, that his father believes in a loving god. Maybe the old bloodhound had to learn it with time, but the two agree that the ministry is simply rotten in many ways. Something that Isidore realizes his father had primed to learn on his own. When he is ready to love Darcy, Isidor feels no guilt over it. He follows what he believes Canus wants for him. What Darcy knows their god wants for them.

‘Stolen Kiss’
Darcy and Isidor from my novel ‘HeartTheft’

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— Rukis (@rukis.bsky.social) October 21, 2024 at 5:25 PM

In a lot of ways, there is a skewering of organized religion within the pages of HeartTheft, but the real story is how love is the most important thing. It doesn’t make fun of or condemn belief. For that reason, it is an incredibly powerful deconstruction story.

My only criticism for the novel has very little to do with character or theme and is really more of a craft concern. A concern that is fleeting and doesn’t compare to what is very, very right about this book. I mentioned in my initial thoughts that I doubt that this story needed to be 806 pages.

I struggled a lot with chapters 2-6. I found myself somewhat frustrated that things weren’t happening. It was a lot of descriptions of things that had happened and connective tissue that joined many scenes and events together. This happens though with bigger works, there are always weaker sections. Sometimes those get cut or revised. It’s clear that Rukis was very passionate about these characters and this story. I’m also very pleased and passionate about them, after I began to connect with them at least. I genuinely believe the story would have benefited from zooming in on the cat and mouse aspects between Darcy and Isidor more in the beginning. I don’t think it should have concerned itself with bridging all the events within Isidor’s reflections. One thing that stands out as more evidence that those chapters needed more work is how investigation is skipped over, when in the rest of the book the investigation and mystery is handled so, so, so much better.

There is a lot of bloat, and I simply can’t ignore that in the work. I don’t think it’s so intense as to hinder what is good, however. Oftentimes in the book you’ll get a description of something twice. Usually a paragraph will state a thing, and then the next paragraph will state the same thing in a slightly different way. A lot of the descriptions tend to stall out the flow of scenes. I assume it is meant to be a representation of Isidor’s internal monologue sorta spinning out in his mind, locking him up, but it was so worrisome early on in the novel as the story was still finding its footing. Once things were moving, I found it was usually insightful, providing characterization to Isidor or the world.

I hope that criticism isn’t too harsh. It comes from a place of genuine enjoyment of this novel.

The stars of the show are, of course, Darcy and Isidor. Darcy is first because of that deep admiration the boy feels. I know tropey talk can be sorta annoying to some, but the “enemies to lovers” “slow burn” realization-and-acceptance-of-love-plot in this book is pulled off very well. It is more than the tropes it brought to the table. I appreciate how expectations and tone are delivered across the story. There are so many wonderful characters that feel well thought out, but we truly see Darcy and Isidor go through their own developments. I do have a very important reflection on Darcy’s gender as well. It was handled very well.

It’s clear early on that Isidor builds up feelings for Darcy. A strange attraction that fuels him to hunt the feline more effectively. The devices deployed to bring them together don’t overstay their welcome. In fact, the forced domesticity element is amazing. I almost wished we’d gotten more. The constant struggle that Isidor goes through with his physical attraction for Darcy is really stunning. I appreciate the amount of attention that is paid to the guilt Isidor feels and where it lies. In a lot of respects, he is such a perfectly written character to fit with Darcy. I appreciate that when Isidor is told to go with Darcy to keep them safe, he says no. The fact that he says no twice, that he’s given a chance to rescind his denial is also very powerful. The man just doesn’t trust his own feelings and that is clear. Cillian is deployed perfectly in the second book/second half of the book. He tells Isidor to his face “don’t wait to tell someone how you feel” and then Isdor fucks up and doesn’t express any of his, albeit very complex but, very real feelings. His mistake is IMMEDIATELY punished, which was hard to read. I struggled with him not choosing Darcy, but it made the book stronger and I’m very pleased with how it all worked out.

Darcy is a very compelling character as well. I mentioned that the two are well fitting, and  it comes down to Isidor’s desire to please Darcy. That’s what the feline needs from someone. They need someone who sees them for them and champions them. Darcy’s biggest flaw is not a lack of belief in love. They can tell themselves all day that they struggle with believing people, but it’s clear they have faith in Isidor. It oozes out of them on the page when they’re together. It’s more that Darcy struggles with feeling they deserve love, and that’s what Isidor’s whole thing about Darcy is. I was worried initially that this romance was going to be a bait and switch, that the “good thing” for Darcy would be going to Cillian or getting free from any love. Darcy is Isidor’s silver bullet to the chains of sin, and Isidor is Darcy’s mirror that shows them how much they deserve to live. I appreciate the thought put into the balance of Darcy’s behavior as well, speaking metanarratively. The character being a thief could be off putting to people but they have strong beliefs and morals about what is right and wrong and it’s clear that is why Isidor loves them. Darcy’s more obvious struggle in the story is boxes. People think cats will sit in any box, but some refuse to.

I have heard Rukis faced some pushback regarding the choice “not to show the junk” which feels like a very specific kind of person’s opinion. I was aware of this by the time the sex happened in the book and was eager to see how it was, ya know… handled. (Get it?) (A sex joke.) The obvious concern is how do you describe sex without describing the parts smoooshing in some configuration (preferably the pairing of flesh parts that I like (THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THE OBSERVER)), which is maybe a bit juvenile to believe wholeheartedly. A perceptive reader may have noticed that I have very subtly allowed my opinion slip into this object analysis of art. It is a sane question though. How do you rim a cat without describing the parts? The only valid answer for me is to make fun of the people asking the question. Maybe that’s because I am a trans person and nonbinary and have struggled with what that means when it comes to a person’s body. Honestly, no one understands trans and nonbinary bodies. It’s always about the meat. What is the meat doing, is it inside of you or outside of you.

Darcy’s big question as a fictional character in a written novel is how do we get the reader to not put them in a box and still find them attractive. Speaking from experience, once you’ve been defined by a certain majority of people it truly is a burden. You don’t get that story for yourself anymore. You are no longer yourself, you’re answered. A person has done the mental tallying and now you are defined, no matter how you feel. It’s the I know you’re a woman, BUT. I know you’re nonbinary, can’t we just say x thing though. As a trans or nonbinary person, any and everyone will probably do this to you at some point. Even allies, people who don’t just want to fetishize you or take away your rights. People who say they understand you. Those are the times it hurts the worst.

This novel/novels captures not only that idea well, but we see it happen to Darcy when Isidor sees them for the first time. The fear and the pain of it coming out of them. They’ve just been tortured, but the reveal of what’s in their pants is the only thing hurting them. And Isidor doesn’t see it. Literally. It is not described. It is not defined because it doesn’t matter to him. He loves Darcy. Not the meat, or the in-or-out-ness of it.

And that’s pretty fucking astounding to me.

I was moved by that.

That will stick with me.

– Kacey Pink

For more by Kacey, visit her site, follow on Bluesky or check out her Patreon. 

Did you know you can read the first five chapters of Sanctuary for free? The trans lesbian werewolf lovers reunion story all about love and over coming trauma together.

www.patreon.com/posts/s-ctr-…

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— Kacey Pink is Writing (@anotherwolf.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 11:08 PM

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.)

Furry Family Ofrenda on VRchat

It seems appropriate to write about losing things and carrying on, after a doomful week in America…

Hydraheads, an artist in Canada, is a player of Flight Rising, “a social web-based activity site featuring dragon breeding, adventuring, combat, and collecting.” You get your own clan of dragons and work with other clans. It’s more than solo fun, it was also a family connection. Hydraheads joins Dogpatch Press with a story:

Recently, Flight Rising closed my own account and my deceased mum’s account. I adopted and inherited from her before she passed.

It happened when someone attempted to hack in, and I couldn’t reset my password, so I started a trouble ticket and they investigated. They closed my account and hers, because they considered it an unfair advantage in the game to have two accounts. I had been active on both, and it’s against their TOS.

I appealed anyways, because I didn’t really want to lose my mum’s account or dragons she gave me; but you can’t exactly merge accounts or transfer progen dragons. My appeal was denied and I permanently lost both. They issued half-hearted condolences to my mum and said I could start a new account. It stung, mainly because I used her account to set it up as a comforting memorial for myself. We used to play it together and it was our thing.

This made me recognize and reflect on how furries on a wide scale put importance on and have tendencies to memorialize our lost members, friends and family, in ways that I think are uniquely touching. It says so much about how we value each other and are connected. Community ties can be so widespread through a single furry, and make support for one another when facing mortality… The more I look, it’s everywhere. A lot of us live very digitally. For some furries that were more isolated, this was their life. Maybe it was their only way to participate in the fandom.

Be it shrines on Second Life, or VRchat, obituary posts, or the ∞ of Furaffinity (RIP Dragoneer), you can see the outpour of friends and strangers coming together for someone like Dogbomb when they pass, and the continued memory for furs like them kept alive by the rest of us. It’s a beautiful thing.

Furry Family Ofrenda on VRchat

Losing an important account like that says something about the difference between corporate owned spaces, and things we make and own. Having a choice of how to keep things private also brings to mind an experience for Patch O’Furr:

Go back 5 years, when my girlfriend then brought me into her favorite things, before I brought her into mine. She helped found a huge monthly Bike Party event years before I met her. It brings 1000 people to the street on festive lit-up bicycles, like a rave on wheels, with music speakers on trailers, and dance party stops in special places. We started going together, and I figured out how to mount a fursuit head on my bike handlebars and ride in partial suit or bring a full suit on a trailer for the stops. Then she joined me for street fursuiting events. She even volunteered to be a helper and dressed fabulously for our furry contingent at San Francisco Pride, and fit perfectly as a non-furry.

In 2021, she died, and hundreds of people rode bikes for her memorial. Only a few dozen private furry followers got to read about it and see our photos together, because I wanted to keep it personal.

Around then, there was a glitch with this news site. I’m not the admin and it’s purposely kept minimal, like an old-school paper zine put on the web. The glitch wasn’t immediately solveable and I was busy. Then an insistent stranger who claimed tech expertise got upset that I wasn’t personally fixing it immediately, talking down to me without knowing how the site was set up. They assumed I was admin and had the latest install of WordPress instead of a version with a legacy theme on purpose, which couldn’t accommodate what they expected. Since I wasn’t fixing things right away, this person called in friends and led an online harassment dogpile campaign while I was busy helping my girlfriend’s mom. As hate posts poured on, I wasn’t looking. I was saying goodbye with her family at the edge of the San Francisco Bay closest to where she grew up, and scattering her ashes on the water.

Her memorial was huge on the street, but it stayed purely for those involved because I wanted it to stay private. Now the bike party runs every month and everyone there is carrying on for her. I’ll keep photos to myself, except this one was us…

Till next time, LA pic.twitter.com/oUvm6I1x0U

— [adult swim] (@adultswim) November 17, 2019

Hydraheads adds:

Sorry to hear about your girlfriend, goodness. It’s people like them that are still a part of our community by extension, even if they weren’t a furry, they were loved among and by furries. My mum thought furries were cool AF, even if she didn’t fully understand it, haha, but she was so supportive too.

That’s beautiful despite the circumstances occurring, I’m genuinely relieved that your IRL friends could do that for you to preserve her memory. And I like where this topic is going, about perseverance and strength, and trying to find and make those things in the shadow of uncertainty that comes after death. A friend shared this one with me and it has helped me cope: “When someone you love passes away, the things they leave behind or the qualities you remember them by are now gifted to you, and become your qualities. That’s how they live on through us.”

We continue to try and live and honor those things and carry forward through bad times. With your personal story about your girlfriend, it’s important that we ourselves as a community recognize the reach we have to one another. Good and bad. Whether our family and friends were furry or not. They were a support for you alongside and part of that network or our community too.

Considering the elections and what everyone is now facing going forward in America, more than ever we need the strength of each other, and the memories we hold of each other helps to propel us towards the vision and keep our focus. The importance of why and who we stay strong for. Ourselves, our family. For those ahead and after us, and in honor for those that have already departed.

One of the best keepers of memories is Changa, who is deeply involved on VRChat with the Furality event, and founded the Furry Family Ofrenda. Since 2020, it has collected memories of departed fandom members to view with a Dia de los Muertos theme.

Have you ever had a close call with death, and did it make you think about instructions for what to do when the time comes? If you have a very active life online and with a fursona, should your identities be remembered all together, or kept separate just for those in the know?

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.)

It harms pets too, never overlook animal abuse as a red flag.

In 2018, I told Dizzy he shouldn’t come to a furry party at a club in San Francisco. I was one of the organizers who keeps an eye on who is coming. He was a soft-looking guy who acted persistently pitiful about it, so I let him know it wasn’t because of something I knew he did, or any personal issue. It was for caution and to keep things harmonious, and there were other events he could go to. If he had a bad reputation, he could change it by doing good at other ones. I just wasn’t going to be pliable to begging for pity. If you don’t respect someone’s “no”, that’s a red flag itself.

To my confidential knowledge, the caution was because of multiple people tipping me to beware of someone abusive who they were uncomfortable being around, who they said would try manipulating for sympathy.

A few years before this, some other manipulation pulled me in to being a victim of a con artist. (He was judged liable for fraud and elder abuse after I had to defend whistleblower retaliation, cross-sue and beat him to stop it, winning a $32,000 judgement. When people sue me for defamation, I don’t settle and I bankrupt them.) The con artist was a monster with a lot of power over others, who were viciously whipped up against me for reporting abuse by their then-trusted manipulator. The experience of being the only person to point at The Emperor’s New Clothes and fighting for vindication made it easy to say no to Dizzy, stay firm, and watch what happened.

We had no more contact until it just came up again. Now I see things got worse after 2018 for Dizzy (AKA Hushpuppy, real name Brooks Buncher). A lot of Beware evidence was gathered by other people and got him removed from many groups. An elder abuse lawsuit also comes up and a TV news report that interviews him about being homeless in San Jose, CA. There’s allegations of rape including pets. Then he was charged with serial domestic violence causing the 2022 murder of a furry named Fin, who I had no idea existed until now.

One source talked to me about having an experience in common with many others, with being convinced into sex by Dizzy and then pressured and disturbed by possessiveness. It involved a super sketchy abandoned house and “hardcore guilt tripping rants”:

I was both surprised and not surprised when I saw the murder charges, and it seems like a lot of people who knew him had similar reactions. Dude is crazy and the venn diagram of domestic abusers, zoophiles, and rapists is basically a circle.

I don’t know how many people knew or tried to help Fin, but even many police and hospital visits didn’t do it. It’s so disturbing and sad. Maybe that doesn’t mean to blame the furry community for failure, but it reminds me — I never see helpful action from anyone who reacts to Bewares with counter-complaints about terms like “witch hunt” — which I see a lot when trying to report patterns of behavior. Superficial social media often has knee-jerk reactions to single offenses that may be mischaracterized, but petty offenses are different from allegations of abuse. Patterns is a good word, because there are often many victims before an abuser is caught once. It’s very helpful to apply a little pattern recognition, which is often dishonestly omitted from complaints about “witch hunts”. I will never trust anyone who presents callouts as a problem with false equivalence to abuse.

Some people tried to do something about an abuser here, but not enough. Now the least I can do is tell what happened and pay respects to Fin.

I’m sick of organizers who don’t take charge of supporting more than escapist fun while they pass off decisions to police or others and say it’s not their job to judge. Actually it is. When you run a group, you can just tell someone “no”, then see if they respect it. Whether an organizer is even capable of saying “no” is a test of competence itself. I’m not talking about conventions taking liability, I’m talking about the pure social level and social fallacies about who is welcome.

Next: a nice story about memorializing.

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.)

Two arrested during preparation for a big party

On 9/26/2024, a popular furry event organizer (Frisky Hyena) and another group leader were arrested together for child sex crimes. They have been in jail without bond since then. Both had furry scene influence in the San Francisco Bay area, after Frisky relocated there from Las Vegas. This report features Steven “Frisky” Darling as the owner of Party Animals West (PAW), with an LLC registered in Nevada.

Frisky’s organization used a team of helpers to throw parties around the year, sometimes with rooms at conventions, or partnered with other furry brands or DJ’s. PAW also hosted a chat group of 1000 followers who would mobilize support across furry spaces. Their larger events would attract hundreds of paying attendees, using venues with professional light and sound, like a barcade chain with locations in several big cities. Many gave support without knowing Frisky’s secrets, but after he was jailed, his partner Scoop stepped in to play one of his surrogates for actions that are very controversial now.

For the last weekend of September, supporters were looking forward to a huge occasion in San Francisco. Folsom Street Fair would draw hundreds of thousands for kink-themed activities, including many furries to the PAW barcade party on 9/29/2024. As it approached, on 9/27/2024, Frisky’s surrogate Scoop decided to tell the PAW chat group that Frisky’s phone was broken and he couldn’t answer. His accounts were allegedly accessed for impersonation messages to tell close contacts he was taking a break.

Frisky has a slew of serious charges with a long history

Frisky’s surrogates knew, and weren’t telling, that he was jailed the day before on charges of:

• Sodomy with person under 16
• Oral copulation with person under 16
• Lewd Act Upon A Child
• Penetration By Foreign Object: (V) Under 16
• Contribute To The Delinquency Of A Minor
• Arranging a Meeting with a Child for Lewd Purposes
• Attempting to Contact Minor w/Intent to Commit Offense
• Distribution or Exhibition of Lewd Material to a Minor (with Prior)

After keeping people in the dark to take support for Frisky’s event, over the next month, the arrest news started to circulate. It shocked many, but others were upset that it was being reported at all (neglecting aid for victims to come forward). If that isn’t messy enough, hindsight and connecting dots finds a history of red flags, where sources report complaints were suppressed in Las Vegas for a long time until history repeated in San Francisco.

Since 2017, complaints went without action even from the police

In Las Vegas, Frisky had built a reputation of unreliability and failing to pay debts, until relocating to California to resume parties there. Around 2017, an apartment sharing debacle led to discovering illegal media on devices Frisky kept there. He was known for preying on minors, but reports to police in Las Vegas had no results. Allegations have come out about furry groups enabling this situation by favoring cliquish friends.

More recently in the SF Bay Area, details of the arrests match a situation of risky people being allowed in groups, putting all members at risk while certain organizers shift blame and act like others should do their job for their meets. The problem started with letting risky people in at all especially after being warned and overruling it. These negligents have a chronic history of sympathy for offenders, rejecting responsibility and overlooking problems until police intervene, if ever. This reporter has been experiencing that behavior since 2018 while negligents turn their backs on protecting their groups.

Party promo – lives were ruined.

Suppression surrounded Frisky’s arrest for a month to keep his PAW organization operating, instead of accepting that it’s fatal to things under his name. Some people did work against the in-group pressure. Las Vegas Fur Con (LVFC), other events, performers, and associates ended their relationships. Finally, there was a grudging statement about dissolving PAW from operators like Scoop whose credibility was lost.

How soon could this have been stopped? Abuse might have been prevented if complaints were heard and leaders took responsibility. It could have been easier to prevent at the gate instead of trying to fix it after. We don’t yet know the extent of the problem, with multiple offenders and ties to other suspicious people. The whole situation has legal action pending, with sensitivity about it being undermined on behalf of offenders and helping them to escape consequences again. Therefore some information is protected for security and this report is edited to be a general summary.

Furry space can be for predators to access victims, and leaders to prioritize selfish fun over ruined lives, with negligence about red flags. Or…

You can take action

If you have any information about abuse in the community, or enabling by organizers, and are reluctant to come forward without confidentiality — Dogpatch Press has an established role of working with whistleblowers, making legal privilege from being compelled to disclose private information. That gives ability to report what others can’t. Even if police aren’t helpful, solutions may start with carefully documenting what’s suppressed. (Be careful, because even people who slept with Frisky didn’t know about problems made worse by leaders suppressing things.)

Police don’t manage your community. YOU DO. Protecting it doesn’t have to wait for years of processing while suppression makes things worse, and there is no entitlement to invitation into its spaces. It can be run with care instead of making it so open that anything can crawl in.

To understand harmful management patterns, also check the recent article about Garden State Fur the Weekend and what it welcomed in.

Some sources

PAW chat group: now closed (a full export is on file.)

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/BEg4f

https://archive.ph/Mrd1n

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.)

After a mismanagement crisis was excused with PR statements, New Jersey furries are sick of more deception from the same broken leadership. 

UPDATE 12/4/24: CON ISSUES STATEMENT, STAFF RESIGN, PUBLIC CALLS FOR BOYCOTT.

Garden State Fur The Weekend was set to have their first convention in May 2024, but in January, their organization was rocked by a staff revolt. It leaked out with a Dogpatch Press report — Grassroots action: Leadership changes and weeding out hate at Garden State Fur The Weekend. The inside story can now be told in more depth, because cautious community members who stayed quiet before have come forward to ask for new reporting. GSFTW’s own PR person quit and reports being lied to. Numerous sources with deep involvement spoke to Dogpatch Press about how a chronic problem was “fixed” by moving it higher:

Many sources spoke on condition of whistleblower privacy.

Trouble before launch

The mismanagement was insufferable, especially by the con Chair, Dashing Fox. Dashing and his sympathetic board were enabling nazi-furries who infested GSFTW chat groups, like the Furry Raiders, with their child-preying leader Foxler in Colorado. The infestation got nothing but excuses. Who were these assholes coming in from outside and making themselves at home, like they had permission to make the place their doormat or were secretly in charge?

It was like that from the beginning. GSFTW was registered in February 2020. In April 2020, Dashing tried to put Foxler’s right-hand man Aeveirra on staff. Dashing was warned of their toxic nature by a vigilant staffer who understood the security risk. A month later, he still went on the Furry Raiders podcast to promote the con, as if he was bent on making a shit magnet for the worst of the community. The podcast blatantly named him a friend of Aeveirra.

Warned in April, ignored in May during con startup. The corruption was baked in since 2020 and persisted for 4 years with numerous instances of ignoring it.

The problem wasn’t drama over petty differences or “politics”. These nazifurs are a security threat to anything they touch, with a long history of sabotage and crime at cons. January’s report linked evidence of their malice like this:

• Had a secret plot to bring Proud Boys street violence to Midwest Furfest 2019, forcing MFF to head it off with bans.
• Ardently defended sex-offending friends, causing multiple arrests with conviction for witness intimidation and retaliation at this reporter.
• Publicly embarrassed Anthrocon with political hate symbols in the fursuit parade, forcing AC to make new policies to prevent repeats.
• Funded Free Fur All, the nazifur convention, which fell apart due to competing factions having to put up with each other’s insufferable trolling.
• Free Fur All’s mission was to host “canceled” people like the Confederate Fursuiter; main suspect in the chemical attack on MFF that hospitalized 19.
• Schemed for control of regular furry groups and cons, and abused power when they got it, driving away the real community.

This threat pattern was openly documented since at least 2017. Dashing’s enabling for it irritated the community for years about meets he hosted, but it didn’t boil over until GSFTW launch was near. The pattern predicted future disaster, unless it was forced to change against resistance at the top.

The entire board is the problem

Who else stood in the way of change? Inside GSFTW, Dashing’s loyal board knew and enabled problems for years. Then they treated the Aeveirra incident as old news from 2020, while nazifurs kept making themselves at home under their watch.

This raised scrutiny on who some of the board members were; not New Jersey furries, but transplants from Megaplex in Florida, allegedly motivated against COVID masking after a board rift there.

COVID badly delayed many cons in 2020, so the Aeveirra incident wasn’t actually that distant. Isn’t that interesting timing to grab opportunity to start a con? It also wasn’t the only red flag about problematic people getting on staff; and there was more mismanagement concern than that.

Staff faced problems about money with budget numbers hidden, unlike at other cons run by the same staff. Money questions are extra shady when Dashing’s friend Aeveirra funded the Free Fur All nazifur con, a “spitecon” started after the founders failed bid to run an Oklahoma convention in 2020.

The purpose of GSFTW came with strangely competitive talk about taking the place of other furry groups and events, against the nature of nonprofit, volunteer-based fandom. (Below, Furrydelphia’s management talks about hostility by GSFTW.) But let’s return to January…

“The inaction of the board is deafening” — a staff ultimatum, walkout, and removal of Dashing.

Rifts about nazifurs grew with GSFTW management as staff attempted to get them to see reason, without success. This led to a January 10 staff ultimatum to remove Dashing and problem people. On January 11, the pressure forced the con to make a statement against nazifur activity. Evidently words weren’t backed by action. With the ultimatum ignored, on January 12, the Dealer’s Den team, Registration Dept. and others walked out. Here’s before and after messages from then by Hospitality lead Osiris Adustus:

At least 15 staff joined the revolt. One whistleblower says:

“Over the course of those few days, various people tied to the con and its leadership continued to tell on themselves, essentially handing us the evidence of who they really are. Given how GSFTW was able to somehow bounce back from that in such a short time frame… it gives the appearance they had people on standby or secretly had people on the downlow already and misled staff on who was who.”

The next day, January 13, the con was forced to act again, with registrations and money at stake. Now Dashing would step down as Chair, and be replaced by new chair Shy Matsi. Finally some nazi-furs were removed from chat groups (but not banned from the con). Dashing excused himself as being uninformed about them, and blamed sickness for resigning a day after a staff revolt.

Later in May, Dashing also blamed his Furry Raiders podcast appearance on “poor research”, which omits how it called him Aeveirra’s friend, and the warning he ignored about it from his own staff.

Dogpatch Press made many requests for comment after the revolt, and got a little PR and a lot of stonewalling. Dashing blew deadlines to respond. Despite serious misgivings, the January report put a charitable spin on the forced action, and did hard work to avoid harming the con and engage anyone willing to do better. GSFTW got back to business, as if benefit of the doubt is deserved for people who just learned that nazis are bad… (and need to keep learning, again and again)… Meanwhile, Dashing’s sickness excuse stayed the only official removal reason, at least until the coast was clear.

A month before launch, GSFTW changes from a nonprofit to a for-profit LLC — owned by Dashing — without comment. 

Why didn’t the con really fix things? In April, the step to “remove” Dashing was walked right back.

From April 2024, ownership makes Dashing the responsible public face in the open government record naming him.

What’s the point of switching to a for-profit LLC, besides making Dashing’s removal a revolving door for his ownership? Did anyone even catch on to it becoming the toy of someone who misused the community so badly? The switch was so close to launch in May, that hotel and travel plans would be done for many goers, so was this timed to suppress awareness and let them believe it was nonprofit, while diverting support to Dashing’s private benefit? We could ask, but GSFTW and Dashing have already been evasive.

The greasy gambit worked. In May, the launch proceeded. You may be thinking… did the con make some people happy? The average con-goer doesn’t scrutinize leadership when there’s fun to be had; but that low standard and PR about “new” leadership hides how a chronic problem continued with Dashing’s replacement Chair, Shy Matsi.

Evidently, Shy Matsi just played Dashing’s right hand. After Dashing had blown off questions and used the sickness excuse, he wasn’t too sick to be spotted in Con Ops, run main stage events, and be front and center at the closing ceremony.

Tweet by Zero, a deeply involved community organizer and con staffer.

Dashing publicly and openly resigned as Chair while citing his health as the reason, but remained as the CEO, contract holder, and de facto leader. Shy Matsi played a figurehead, a cardboard cutout for Dashing to stand behind while remaining in charge and protecting all of his problematic friends. They think they can take community support for granted by fooling you with a title switch!

Excuses from the puppet Chair: nazifurs can be LBGTQ too, so let them in?!

Shy Matsi does more ass-covering than just for Dashing. After a staff revolt and forced statements — after the con was over and it wasn’t even crucial time for PR — he proceeded to deflect responsibility, pile up excuses, and beg tolerance for alt-right trolls as if hateful malice just makes different opinions equal to the targets. It made the con PR about zero tolerance mean “except when they’re our friends, or use their identity to excuse their toxic beliefs and behavior”.

January 11, 2024: Official PR by con during staff revolt

May 8, 2024: Shy Matsi excuses alt-right hate by prevaricating.

Zero Jackal collected a Google doc of chat logs of trying to reason with Shy Matsi right after the con. (Full log images.) The chat was in a group of friends including community mods and con staffers who had worked with or known him for a very long time, but distanced over time as problems grew.

Several whistleblowers have discussed the long history of enabling before GSFTW existed:

“Shy Matsi has harbored nazis, far right extremists, and all sorts of other unsavory folks in this really fucked up mentality of “giving a home to everyone”. This insistence on ignoring issues and “just being nice” doesn’t work. Shy is wholly incapable of ever telling bad actors to go away. He’s repeatedly made excuses for awful people, or allowed people banned from local chats into furmeets, as to not be “mean”. I used to respect the guy but he enables this stuff. Locals who have known him for literally 2+ DECADES are cutting ties with him as he refuses to explain why.” — More logs collected from the mod chat:

Shy Matsi is of POC and LGBT identity. This raises eyebrows in the community in light of the enabling for threats towards POC and LGBT people, like the crimes and definition of “collaborator” in the January reporting.

Critics of the enabling include the targeted identities; and to underscore the incongruity of Shy’s collaboration, Dashing made conflict with other furry groups for being in support of Black Lives Matter, while spreading partisan political narratives against it. (Circa 2021):

Shy Matsi was even more than just an enabling friend of Dashing. They roomed together with another cause of complaints, an alt-right troll named W0nderdawg, a fellow meet host, making very personal corruption in handling of the problem.

The nazifurs they let in… who used GSFTW to put politics on Fox News.

After GSFTW did damage-control in January about removing nazifurs, security sent messages to several: W0nderdawg, Astral (a NY-based Furry Raider who waved a hate flag in Anthrocon’s parade), and Astral’s friend Peter. They were banned from the con chat, but not the con.

Astral and Peter were then photographed at the con. Not just attending, but being interviewed on Fox News. The Fox demographic has one relationship with furries: mocking them for anti-LGBT propaganda, including hoaxes about litter boxes to dehumanize them in “joke” form. Letting Fox use GSFTW for their entertainment would be like slamming yourself in a locker when you see a bully coming.

Below: Astral, his friend Peter, and a clip from a Fox News Jesse Watters show, where Peter declares: “Trump 2024 baby!”

A whistlebower claims “The Watters crew WAS tipped off about the con from an insider, but I’m told they just showed up and started filming with no press pass.” At least, that’s what staff would think when hit by surprise… but what if the GSFTW board secretly colluded with Fox?

The Fox News clip of Peter also shows Shy Matsi, the Chair, on his left near the con ballroom. Clearly the cameras weren’t hiding, press pass or not. They got comfortable to hang out. We know because Peter went on the notorious alt-right Kiwifarms hate forum to boast about how they interviewed him longer.

Besides helping Fox News push politics on the fandom, Peter says he brought many friends and did A/V work for GSFTW, and there he is with camera.

More problematic staff

Here’s a few staff who had been officially listed. Turbulent staff turnover, as you will see below, may or may not apply now — it’s hard to trust the con’s PR — the point is this was the quality of who was trusted to run this con at some point.

• Arctico, IT lead, spread inflammatory MAGA sentiments. GSFTW claimed Arctico didn’t show up for the job after this drew public criticism.
• Zade, DJ coordinator, who follows numerous nazifurs. A tipper says “I have no idea how this man has been allowed to remain socially in the fandom for as long as he has, despite being an overt racist and nazi apologist. His twitter is a cesspool.”

“We were lied to”: PR lead Pawsouls quit GSFTW, wished the work was for a “more deserving boss”

Pawsouls was PR staff in January, when contacted for comment by Dogpatch Press without much result while GSFTW did damage control. Whistleblowers had their own criticism: “Pawsouls constantly defends Dashing’s actions, attempting to sweep it under the rug, instead of addressing it. They were asked, had their chance to explain and didn’t…”

After the con, Pawsouls had a change of heart, and quit GSFTW with statements that shed light now:

May post-con tweets: (1) (2)

October tweet

This shows how staff goodwill would be misused by a non-transparent Board. Pawsouls followed up with gracious replies for this report:

“PR was told Dashing would be stepping away from a front-facing and leadership position, as he was recovering from mental and physical stressors and being in the hospital. Only for that to be twisted into him stepping back on stage, without confirmation from anyone that such a thing would be happening, which was then left for PR to handle blindly. And that’s not including having Fox News at con without PR Dept. approval or oversight. I know registration also wasn’t aware.

The sudden wave of changes a day or two before the con, and then during the con, was insane and we found disrespectful. I got into an argument with Dashing during the con, and the Board, about how it seems everything seemed to just done without following the con’s own CoC (which a fellow member of the PR team helped in writing). It was met with Dashing just stating excuses and throwing blame on me and my team.

At that point, my focus shifted into making sure my friends were safe during the con overall. A lot of staff were local furs I know and friends of mine. Which why when I left, a lot of staff left. I believe it’s almost all new people on staff now.”

It’s murky how Fox News even knew about a small, local, first-year con, and succeeded in filming there without a pass. Pawsouls says:

“In terms of approving them, that was left with the board. They seemed to know what was going on and didn’t notify anyone on staff.”

Who quit after the con in May, making a new staff collapse?

“To my knowledge, all of PR left, head of Reg, head of Dealer Den, original head of the gaming room, head of Security, multiple floating volunteers, and I believe one or two board members.”

Pawsouls was used by Dashing for diligent service, while under fire without quitting for personal interest so the con could happen with safety for friends. Some involved were critical of not getting support before, but Pawsouls didn’t have to come forward now about being misled, and do the same diligence in speaking for public interest. The candor is valued.

Budget and finance sketchiness raises questions

Lack of transparency has been a common whistleblower complaint. For example, staff requests for budgets were stonewalled, with instructions to provide Amazon wishlists for the board to pick what to approve, when every item was needed.

Some leaked discussion with Kiba, the GSFTW treasurer at the time:

Whistleblowers questioned the finances and official attendance, before and after con:

(Before) “If their first year is anything like similar cons, they’re looking at at least a $30,000 hotel contract, plus service charge and tax. Plus their AV needs, equipment, etc, they’re going to need at minimum 60k to get their event off the ground. Their reg is $65. That means they need almost a thousand people to make it happen. I don’t really see them getting that many folks. Same exact thing that happened to CCFC. That’s the problem with a lot of new cons. Eyes are bigger than their stomachs so to speak.”

(After) “Their numbers ain’t adding up. Nearly 1k attendees (but sure didn’t have that in person). They had to have had outside benefactors artificially boosting their reg numbers on paper and secretly funding the con so it wouldn’t go belly up. U said it yourself, Aevierra and Foxler are no strangers to propping cons up financially like Freefurall.”

Official attendance was 957, but there were claims about the con being empty, including the Saturday rave at peak of con. Is 957 accurate, and not inflated with Reg Dept turnover making it hard to detect? Claims of sparseness may not be easy to verify, but would make it murky if the budget was covered, what it was, and from what source. Can you trust what they say? Even their own PR person came out to say they lied.

The bottom line: This is how hate finds a home, unless the community says no.

Incompetence at the top risked the first con’s ruin by causing a staff revolt, but it wasn’t enough to get better care inside. Note Pawsoul’s complaint of what it was like to run PR after January PR apologies. It puts red flags on any future cons.

Even with an appearance of a nice regular con, the idea of growth for GSFTW is tainted with reports of spite and competition towards nonprofit community, and harboring staff that other cons dropped for good reason.

Tweet by the Chair of Furrydelphia.

Dashing, Shy, W0nderdawg and others in this report continue to inhabit local organizer chats and grasp influence. Those who came forward are fed up and would like the public to give no more chances. “Why not let it die, and make a new con with a better team, instead of the one that let nazis fester?”

Afterthought: A pattern where Shy Matsi’s site was so insecure, it leaked revenge-porn.

Here’s a story that was left out of January’s report to avoid bias, showing HOW CHARITABLE the reporting was.

Around 2017, I had personal adult images made with a partner for fun, kept privacy-locked on Furries Xtreme, a hookup site owned by Shy Matsi. They were leaked as revenge porn to retaliate at Dogpatch Press reporting. A Furries Xtreme admin would have access to locked profiles, and one was in Nazifur groups who targeted enemies that way. Put 2 and 2 together.

When told, Shy Matsi did nothing. Zero Jackal says: “This tracks. I have receipts of multiple people in his chats (most of whom myself or other mods have kicked for GOOD reason, like sending us death threats), have notified him to do something about it, and he’s refused / outright ignored us.”

Imagine if you were harassed with revenge-porn leaked under Shy Matsi’s watch… and still gave him neutrality about becoming chair of GSFTW, with responsibility for the con’s trust and safety. The owners had so much leeway to improve after Shy was talked to in January, and Dashing blew off questions. This reporter is still doing the job, after harassers thought they could run off reporting for public service. Now that includes a personal opinion:

If you expect cons to be trustworthy and safe, and you were thinking of going to GSFTW in 2025, don’t. Save your money and tell your friends to Beware.

UPDATE: more cronyism, and insight about shady finances and the greasy LLC switch

Showing their true colors:

In a new hilarious turn of events, since apparently he has nothing to say for himself, Shy has now adminned Dashing on the NJ Events Chat (bottom). At this point I'm calling it, and he's 100 percent in bed with the nazifurs. Seriously mental behavior. pic.twitter.com/3v6D2U7J4v

— Zero Jackal (@Zero_Jackal) October 25, 2024

If the con’s official attendance number was inflated up to the break-even point for estimated cost of this con, when allegedly many less people attended… Who paid for the hotel deposit? And how can the attendance be verified?

Notice that no official fursuit photo has been seen. This is a point of pride for legitimate cons. Proportionally, a con of around 1000 furries would have 200 fursuiters.

A tipper supplied more visual clues of sparse numbers:

Next, an explanation for the greasy LLC switch. There’s one logical, reasonable, sensible reason why anybody would turn their event from a 501 nonprofit to an LLC, changing the entire organization structure just a month before the event. Tip:

“I was talking with some very high up people who work in the convention scene, and in this conversation we put two and two together.

As a 501 organization you’re only allowed to accept a certain amount of monetary donations from a singular source. I believe it cannot be any amount over $5,000 or more than 20% of the overall revenue generated from an event.

However an LLC is allowed to take in as many donations from any source that they want, as long as they are put on their books as taxable income.

So what I think happened is they were getting very close to the convention and they did not have nearly the amount of money required to fulfill the deposit necessary on the hotel reservation. So they get in touch with some of their right wing friends to bankroll the event… but one problem, they can’t accept the money as a 501. So they as fast as possible switch to an LLC, which allows them to take in as much dirty money as they need to in order to fund the event.

In other words they never had the attendance required to fund the event, so they had to have external funding in order to make it run. There was never a thousand people there or registered for the convention.

There is a pitfall to being an LLC which in their shortsightedness I think they fail to understand. As an LLC you are an official business and everyone who works for you is an employee that requires payment. You are not allowed to have any type of volunteers or non-paid staff as an LLC. This also means that if they were in LLC during the time of the convention, then they essentially had people working illegally for them as unpaid employees.

This can be easily verified through a quick Google search of the IRS website.”

GSFTW is now a for-profit business, and by mismanaging it, they are now taking gambles with all of the community’s support and payment. Remember whose decisions brought it to this point while watching what happens next.

DON’T MISS THE UPDATE THREAD THAT FOLLOWED THIS ARTICLE, REPORTING CHRONIC PROBLEMS THAT GSFTW REFUSES TO SOLVE.

Garden State Fur the Weekend is currently hosting Furry Raiders who are welcome back with no explanation after previous bans, and teaming up to flood their chat with inane posts as if they’re just regular furries dogpatch.press/2024/10/21/g…

[image or embed]

— Dogpatch Press (@dogpatch.press) December 2, 2024 at 9:27 AM

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.)

People love a business run by and for their community. A place that knows you and welcomes your friends, run by people you trust, who answer your concerns.

Seattle’s Slightly Furry cultivated that look for their cider making brand, while reaping support like $73,000 in donations to their for-profit business. It lifted them above fandom by converting popularity into sales, getting their product in stores and bars, with mainstream news and festival prizes.

As Slightly Furry promoted being ambassadors for the furry fandom to the public, watchdogs started raising concerns about shady management that ignored community interest. Initial complaint emerged from ConStaffWatch on July 16, then was reported by professional investigator Naia Ōkami on August 3, after she was banned and censored for trying to engage them for questions. Dogpatch Press also sent questions on August 12, which were knowingly received with no answer, then published a report on August 22.

Facing a shocking story, dodging, then pushing ahead

The August 22 story featured activism against animal abusers and their secret presence in the community. The outstanding example was Adam Britton, a formerly respected zoologist exposed as a serial killer of pet dogs. Britton gained collaboration by networking with other zoophiles. Some emerged among Pacific Northwest furries. One was a co-owner of Slightly Furry, named K0mpy. Although Britton and K0mpy were not known to have direct interaction in the iceberg that spawned them, it’s beside the point. The point is, conscious networking between zoophiles at all raises demand for abuse, and it deserves a solution without conflict of interest. [Edited for clarity.]

Instead of addressing questions for the story, Slightly Furry posted a Code of Conduct for their followers at the time given for answers before publishing. The terms of it showed a bias to shrug off the networking as a “personal problem,” while punishing the sharing of evidence. Critics characterized it as a tactical PR move; they would play ambassadors when convenient, but sidestep when one of their owners was corrupt.

Meanwhile, in 2023, Slightly Furry had won a prize at Cider Swig Festival, an annual event with dozens of vendors. Assuming the problem was swept away, they were on track for more goodwill and sales with an advertised return to the September 2024 event.

Trouble behind the scenes, and wavering support, while direct action raised the pressure

The tactical PR move didn’t succeed in deflecting protest towards Slightly Furry. Many community members circulated bewares, while activists went beyond unproductive engagement to contact the Cider Swig festival, asking them to drop support. Soon, the direct action made impact.

The festival removed Slightly Furry from their channels, with proof from the sponsor:

This must have REALLY stirred things up and forced crisis management. And then… a reversal.

The festival resumed promoting them in the lineup. A few weeks later, Slightly Furry finally posted a response to the controversy, just before the festival. Like the Code of Conduct coincided with a publication deadline, the timing implies the reason was crisis management about public pressure to the festival.

Slightly Furry’s response.

Sep 25 – Breaking our silence

Hiya folks, we want to acknowledge the concerns raised within our community and have taken time to reflect, consult experts, and make decisions with the well-being of our members in mind and apologize for not responding sooner. While our personal relationships and feelings are deeply valid, we are committed to handling this situation objectively, ensuring that all decisions serve the best interest of our entire community.

Since July 1st, K0mpy has not been involved with Slightly Furry in any capacity, and there are no plans for future involvement. We are filing updates with the State of Washington to reflect the change in ownership which takes time to process and be reflected in public record.

Slightly Furry has always been, and continues to be, a space where harmful behaviors such as zoophilia, zoosadism, or any form of harm or exploitation have no place. We remain committed to maintaining spaces where all members of our community feel safe and respected. Our mission is to ensure the Slightly Furry community is inclusive, safe, and welcome to all. We are dedicated to continually improving our policies and practices to maintain this commitment. In situations where potential harm is raised, we will act swiftly and decisively, ensuring that the space remains a positive environment for all. We heard your feedback about our code of conduct and are working to simplify the wording and make it more accessible to all.

Slightly Furry moderates all spaces with community safety as our top priority. If any reports of harmful or dangerous behaviors are brought to our attention, we will take swift action, including removal from our virtual and in-person spaces, if necessary. We understand that rebuilding trust takes time, and we are committed to ongoing reflection and improvement to ensure our spaces remain inclusive, safe, and supportive. We welcome feedback and are open to continue conversations on how we can do better.

Take a moment to feel the reasonable goodwill, then let’s pull out a puzzling detail.

LAST MINUTE EDIT: THE ABOVE LINE WAS STEALTH-REMOVED FROM THEIR STATEMENT ON SEPT 28 – WHILE THIS STORY WAS ON TRACK TO PUBLISH AND THEY WERE AT THE FESTIVAL.

PROOF IT WAS THERE

Sounds legit, but… July 1?

Separation from K0mpy on July 1 (with no reason given) would be weeks before ANYONE said ANYTHING, when initial complaints rose on July 16.

If July 1 was true timing, it makes grudging response hard to explain as a need to wait for legal clearance to say K0mpy was already gone. They could have headed off controversy by mentioning his separation at any step between multiple sources of concerns for many weeks, instead of publishing a sketchy Code of Conduct for PR while dodging questions. There has been no formal correction sent in response to reporting that K0mpy was an owner in August. Think hard about why the festival dropped support in September, and what had to be done to get it back.

Why back-date to July 1? One reason: “he’s not fired, he quit”. Face-saving PR mitigates dispute between owners, but without transparency there could have been. That lowers credibility, because is it really cutting ties or just on paper? Maintaining quiet partnership may be a familiar problem to long-time watchers.

Hold on, this isn’t just one reason to be skeptical. There’s also this, and the next part:

The good, the bad and the ugly

The Good: Activists won a statement that promises one thing they most wanted; deplatforming one shady person from some of their community influence. (UPDATE: Slightly Furry’s stealth edit leaves this up to them to further explain – if they answered questions!)

The Bad: K0mpy runs a kink events production company too. This was just one individual while a network remains in the community, with more ties than reported. Yes, there are alleged actual victims here… and a lot that hasn’t been said yet.

Reference to K0mpy’s husband by a privately verified and protected source, who does NOT typically do callouts.

The most ugly result was exposing how some Slightly Furry supporters really don’t get what’s going on, and are too grudging to even try. They’d rather spread excuses and misinformation than sincerely address zoophile networking, while attachment to alcohol business gets priority and whistleblowers get backlash.

Attitude behind the PR

Here’s misinformation posted in the Slightly Furry chat group towards the previous Dogpatch Press report:

• 2015 tweets by K0mpy: The confession to consuming zoophile media isn’t a decade+ old.
• The strange claim that 2015 was “a different time”: That would be a very naive person’s idea of a long time ago. This reporter has been reporting since 2012, and been a furry since the early 1990’s. Ask what the time was like right here.
• Zoophilia always meant sexual interest in animals. Here’s a 1998 website for furries showing no different meaning then, specifically linking to abusers. Implying that it wasn’t a problem then — so it shouldn’t be now — compares to excusing someone who used to be into pedophilia.
• Calling photos “blurry”: Omits how they were directly posted by K0mpy’s husband with an unmistakeable “zoo pride” symbol this year.
• Reporting by Patch O’Furr is falsely attributed to Naia Ōkami. Naia wrote her own separate report on her own site, and has never posted here. The reporting on this site has the byline right under the headline. Apparently they didn’t even care to read it before backlashing.
• Out-of-context character attack at Naia, to discredit reporting she didn’t do: It deceptively frames things that Naia has addressed, such as her condemnation of Matt Walsh for an ambush she is being blamed for. The attack disrespects her queer identity and omits crediting work to remove abusers from the community because of caring about victims — actual, proven community service — not just priority on alcohol sales for cronies.

This isn’t just random misinformation from an onlooker, it’s a glimpse into private attitude behind the PR. The source posts about being part of Slightly Furry operations, at least delivering product for them and allowance to enforce their group policies. Using their group to excuse zoophilia, smear watchdogs, and spread misinformation about reporters is a bad way to show goodwill and trust for problem solving. (For a kicker, recall that they made a policy against reporting with the screenshot!)

Naia’s response, and ongoing concern

Naia Ōkami:

“I’m not impressed with Slightly Furry’s statement for a number of reasons. It seems very performative and an attempt to get their attendees to return in the midst of other financial problems they have been having. They were unwilling to engage with the original whistleblowers and instead, kept them banned from their taproom and “virtual spaces”. They are not interested in collaboration against abuse, transparency regarding their operations and dealings, or doing better and it shows by their actions of making a hollow apology to the community but refusing to even speak to the individuals who blew the whistle and were most effected by their actions. Furthermore, they kept their code of conduct regarding screenshots to punish future whistleblowers. The snake is simply shedding its skin.”

You can say: “They conceded with a statement and got rid of the shady manager, what else do people want?”

How about recognition that zoophile networking is bigger than isolated individuals, while the community deserves to cut ties with it, with leaders who give more than minimal and grudging effort forced by pressure and attended by backlash.

Followup to the previous article: 60 Minutes Australia features Adam Britton

As this piece publishes, 60 Minutes Australia is airing a TV episode about Britton’s crimes. This is intensely interesting for those following the case. Britton’s silent ex-wife was a subject of heated questions about protecting her role in his life. The show trailer shows her breaking silence for the first time to condemn him for ruining hers.

Now there’s major mainstream news about animal abusing over there. And a controversy about conflict of interest on the independent fan level over here.

What more evidence can be published about zoophile networking that connects these things?

It sure would be interesting if someone does it. Especially with the perspective of a human problem like abuse scandals emerging from churches, schools or Boy Scouts, and not just a problem for PR to save face.

Keep watching the news.

__________________________

In August, the questions sent to Slightly Furry aimed to discuss a human problem like abuse scandals emerging from churches, schools or Boy Scouts. They covered positive fandom success, and tried to probe the issues with zoophilia, with broad concern about responsibility of protection that goes with claims of ambassadorship and queer representation. Queer history includes internal organizing to deplatform abusers.

Much care was put into preparing to report, but there was no response except the PR to evade pressure. There is a lot of petty controversy online, and business benefits from PR, but that’s not a solution for abuse scandals where abusers benefit from coverup or lack of notice.

In Seattle, the problem in furry made only a few serious arrests for a network since 2017; it can’t be understated how serious it is to have uncaught members operating freely and even commanding influence now. 

For all the headache this may cause people tied up in it, the problem only gets worse by ignoring it. The headache of responding gets better by being pro-active: don’t do business with zoophiles. Don’t let them in your groups. If one tweeting confessions isn’t enough of a red flag, then maybe the problem is with the entire social circle that ignores it. You can not trust businesses or one-weekend cons to solve this. It’s for 24/7/365 decisions by everyone to draw a line.

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.)

Vote HERE for the 6th Annual Good Furry Awards 

See the nominations HERE before you vote. Since 2019, the Good Furry Award has been recognizing fan-nominated furries for outstanding community spirit. It has grown from one award to 4 categories:

• 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.
• The Lifetime Achievement Award is selected by committee, and is in its 3rd year.

With the amount of awards, payment is phased out, and now winners get a trophy from founder Papabear Grubbs Grizzly of Uncle Bear Publishing.

The winners will be announced at Biggest Little Fur Con in Reno on October 15.

Art by DBruin

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.)

Three stories with one cause

It was a major week of news for activists against animal abuse, especially the kind that comes from zoophile networking.

AUSTRALIA: Adam Britton was once a prominent zoologist, but now he’s a convicted serial killer of pet dogs. International media featured Britton’s August 8 sentence to 10 years in jail. Outside the court, activists protested for better animal protection, followed by a unity walk with Kiki’s Justice, an awareness campaign named for one of Britton’s victims. The worldwide shock of the case is documentary-worthy.

OHIO: Britton’s online accomplice was Lucas Vanwoert, a truck driver, furry and dog torture-killer. His wife Heather VanWoert was convicted for participating in the crimes, but released in May after a short sentence. It’s a wake-up call about abusers in the furry community. Many furries oppose abuse, but are troubled by how others enable lovers, friends or business partners involved.

SEATTLE: furry brand Slightly Furry brews cider, runs a taphouse, and has an owner named “Kompy” involved in zoophile networking. Watchdogs aired evidence at the same time as Slightly Furry ran a crowdfund and raised over $73,000 from donors to support their for-profit business. Slightly Furry refuses to respond about Kompy’s corruption — except by censoring and banning people who ask questions. Why do they refuse to explain this to the community, after taking so much support and calling their business an ambassadorship of furry to the general public? What will stop the enabling, after Pacific Northwest furries already faced exposure of a shocking abuse ring?

This is about networking, not just isolated offenses. When zoophiles organize to meet each other, this enables a spectrum of harm to animals who can’t consent, from coercive molesting to deadly zoosadism. Demand for abuse media is raised by the network as a whole — a well-known effect of pedophile networks, where participants are held responsible whether or not they did abuse themselves. (Below: more about how this works and how it gets enabled. Like: “It’s no-contact… trust me bro!”) Networking is never harmless.

Reporting zoophile networking

This news is reported by Patch O’Furr, with thanks to Naia Ōkami in Seattle. It’s the latest in ongoing coverage at Dogpatch Press:

• 2021: Introduction to Naia Ōkami — an investigator who got an abuser convicted after reporting about it here.
• 2023: Previous report about Adam Britton, Lucas VanWoert, and how the problem intersects with the furry community.
• Naia was a local customer of Slightly Furry in Seattle, until they banned her for asking questions.
• Patch and Naia live-tweeted Adam Britton’s sentencing on August 8, in cooperation with Kiki’s Justice and observers in the court room.

When furry spaces are used to shelter the networking, it doesn’t mean everyone knows about it — it means there’s a job to do — but the reported evidence has suffered poor comprehension, weak help, and backlash inside the community. (Below: much more about this and how it can change.) Of course, it’s not just with furries. It’s like suppressed abuse coming out from churches, schools, or Boy Scouts. It can be anywhere from anyone, including the most trusted people…

Adam Britton, the famous zoologist who was secretly a serial killer of dogs, is being sentenced now in Australian court. I'm watching live updates from people in the court. Adam's crimes were in a network that needs to be exposed, which made furry news. https://t.co/99HCQ9s74U

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) July 11, 2024

Adam Britton is one of the worst and most prominent zoosadists ever reported

Britton built a successful career as a zoologist working with crocodiles in TV and movies, with the likes of National Geographic and Sir David Attenborough. Then he set up a shipping container as a torture room on his rural Australian property.

One by one, he took 42 dogs there to exploit and kill them slowly over days each, prolonging the victim’s pain for enjoyment on videos made for secret trading. While feeding the demand of a secret network, he fed their remains to the crocodiles that made his career.

In court, the torture details were so severe, that court staff and observers were directed to therapy. Kiki’s Justice is sharing suicide helplines to those who know.

It’s a glaring example for how devotion to an animal-related profession doesn’t exempt anyone from abusing. It’s commonly known that pedophiles slide into child care work and exploit the opportunity, but it’s little known that zoophiles do the same thing. Many cases overlap both things, and Britton was charged for downloading child abuse images too.

Britton calls himself a zoophile. His court defense portrayed him as helpless to control a paraphilia condition that he hid behind professional achievement. That was the excuse for his systematic, calculated deception of families trying to rehome dogs that they couldn’t keep, who got fake reassurances of their welfare after they were killed. “I can’t stop. I don’t want to”, he told eager trading partners who remain uncaught.

He submitted this apology to the court:

I take full responsibility for the demeaning crimes that I perpetrated on dogs. I deeply regret the pain and trauma that I caused to innocent animals, and consequently to my family, friends, and members of the community I affected. I let you all down, and I’m truly sorry.

I now acknowledge that I’ve been fighting a rare paraphilic disorder for much of my life, and that shame and fear prevented me from seeking the proper help I needed.

No amount of words can convey how sorry and ashamed I am, nor undo what I did. But I am determined to prove that I am better than this, that I will seek longterm treatment, and that I will find a path towards redemption.

Please give my family the space they deserve to heal. They were not aware or involved in any way.

Adam Britton

On August 8 in Australian court, watchers were breathless with anxiety that Britton might only get short jail time for each of 42 victims, to be served all at once.

The outcome was mixed. 10 years of jail was taken as too short, but relatively more than the outcomes of other cases within the limits of the laws.

Britton could be eligible for parole after serving 6 years, but with 2 served before trial. He could walk free as soon as 2028. He is supposed to register as a sex offender, and has a lifetime ban on animal contact, but it’s limited to mammals — so he might try to work with crocodiles again.

Outside the court, furious activists waved signs and spoke to media about weak animal protection laws. Then on August 10, the Kiki’s Justice Unity Walk led supporters and their dogs to a picnic with guest speakers about animal welfare.

An organizers said: “From the Adam Britton case, animal lovers have come together and stood united in their fight against those who abuse animals. Friendships have formed, from a place of absolute heartbreak. People are working together, to address social media and hold those platforms to account. And to use Adam Britton’s own words against him “We can’t stop… we don’t want to.””

Kiki’s Justice represents families of some of the killer’s victims. They plan to take out ads any time he’s up for parole. His academic work, TV appearances and online accounts are being removed. His doctorate might be next. A book will document what happened, and the activism goes on for other cases.

One observer said: “what he did far surpasses the death by neglect and killing a dog by beating, which is what people imagine dog killings to be. We must make people aware of him, and make him aware that we will never forget and will track him when he is released.”

8 years jail for Lucas VanWoert, wife gets a slap on the wrist for participating

Lucas VanWoert is Britton’s most known accomplice. He used furry name “Graves” as they exchanged 705 files of animal and child abuse and inspired each other to torture and kill. In their networking, there’s 3 things to notice about VanWoert:

• Anyone can call themselves a furry, and as far as his online profiles show, he was a nobody without special favor or influence in the community. But…

• He was far from an isolated abuser in furry. The owner of a secret trading group that hosted VanWoert and Britton was also in furry spaces. VanWoert wasn’t well hidden, with the same online handle across kink and bestiality sites visible on the web. He was also mutual followers with furry-zoophiles in a secret iceberg of thousands (covered in a previous report.) And…

• He was enabled so strongly by at least some, that his wife Heather Vanwoert also got 12 animal abuse charges.

On May 30, Lucas Vanwoert was sentenced to 97 months in prison, with 15 years probation after release. Heather VanWoert was convicted and served 6 months in jail but released in May. The light sentence caused disappointment and alarm among activists who know animals aren’t safe when predators have little consequences. That and their presence in furry shows a reason to join activists for change and transparency, and not let the opposite happen…

FRUITLESS: Seattle’s Slightly Furry dodges questions about co-owner Nick “Kompy” Charbonneau

Furries like supporting projects by each other. Seattle is a fertile place for that. Slightly Furry harvested that energy for cider brewing, and opened a taphouse, making a physical base for events and groups. That powered over $73,000 in donations for repairs — with a rotten side they can hide if it doesn’t raise sales of a for-profit business.

In 2018, shocking evidence emerged of a zoophile network in the Pacific Northwest furry community, with deadly zoosadism at its core. A few participants got decades in jail. Many had no consequences and remained active. For a time, Matthew “Cupid” Grabowsky was one of them. Dogpatch Press reported he was a convicted zoosadist at furry events, but his presence was protected by PNW organizers, until investigation by Naia Ōkami led to his new conviction and removal to jail in 2021.

Look for negligence and enabling when a known, severe problem returns with permission by organizers.

Nothing was foreshadowed in glowing P.R. about Slightly Furry in Seattle news from The Stranger. The story features three owners: Aaron “Martini” Kalin, Raymond “Spork” Araldi, and Nick “Kompy” Charbonneau (who also runs a kink event production company).

Kalin wants the taproom to feel like the first floor of a furry convention, a social space where furries can be themselves and the curious can get a taste of what an active FurCon might feel like. He even envisions the bar as an ambassadorship of furry to the general public, an important aspect of both his and Araldi’s identities.

“It’s not just for marketing,” Kalin said. “It’s me putting myself out there in probably the most intense, bravest way that I can possibly think of, saying, ‘No, this is really me, I’m not going to dial it down that much for you. So you can kind of take it or leave it.’ And luckily, as far as we can tell, the public has received it pretty well.”

The curious public might look at Slightly Furry’s “About us” page. Then they might wonder, where’s the third owner, Kompy? Why aren’t they putting him out there? Maybe something is dialed down. Here’s 3 things that they might not want to have bubble up.

THE “ZOO PRIDE” FLAG. Kompy’s husband posted selfies with this sticker on his phone made for zoophile networking. (NSFW archive / Info.) There is no mistaking photos from the source. Consider the conflict of interest this makes for Kompy and Slighty Furry’s management.

HOOKING UP WITH CONFESSED ZOOPHILES. Cenny is a furry who gained 30,000 Twitter followers and $5,000+ a month for making adult media with other furries. He has years of wide criticism for zoophile networking, including consuming real-animal media. The clout drew enabling and denial, but he proved critics right by coming out with the zoophile Zeta symbol (ζ). It’s the most obvious networking there is. Kompy and Cenny are so close that they make porn (NSFW) with Kompy’s husband. Again consider the conflict of interest for Slightly Furry’s management.

• Evidence: Cenny archive / Cenny husky is a zoo / Cenny Beware / Zoo on Cenny’s F-List
• Youtube videos: Zoophilia Doesn’t Belong in the Furry Fandom / The Cenny Husky Drama

CONFESSION BY KOMPY: Not just networking and enabling, but directly consuming zoo media and raising demand. Kompy deleted this to hide the evidence shortly after watchdogs pointed it out.

Add up three clues. Once can be a mistake… twice a coincidence… three times triangulates a location.

It isn’t Safe-For-Petsylvania. It’s not part of the Pro-Consent-letariat. You don’t need to be on moral high ground to know it’s not a place of hope or trust, if you want to report abuse and expect a priority on victims. If you want to try, don’t knock on their door. These boozy would-be furry ambassadors will be lost in the sauce or out at the zoo.

If we still give benefit of the doubt, there’s a simple way to clear things up. Ask them directly if they support zoophiles. It’s easy to say “no”.

Kompy’s Curiouscat page. Even if you want to be roofied at an alcohol venue with sketchy management, inebriated sex has no legal consent defense.

Slightly Furry owner Aaron “Martini” Kalin acknowledged a request for questions for a news story, which were ignored.

They couldn’t answer when asked point blank: “Should there be such a thing as Zoo Pride, and is it welcome at Slightly Furry?”

They also couldn’t answer if they had any safety policy or a process to report a problem.

Then on the given publishing deadline, they posted a strange Code of Conduct. It defines consent to restrict sharing evidence, like screenshots… but a Code doesn’t override law, in the opinion of a furry lawyer consulted for this:

“The appropriate benchmark has repeatedly been whether a speaker has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the environment, and most cases I’ve seen have said “not in chat rooms,” analogizing them to voicemail. It’s kind of like if a con had a “no recording” policy for panels and then tries to argue a panelist or audience member had an expectation of privacy if someone did record. It’s not gonna stand, probably because you don’t have an expectation of privacy when speaking to a large group of people.”

Naia was banned by Slightly Furry for asking questions, and thinks the Code hides “sketchiness”. (The lawyer also noticed that QR code access isn’t good for legal agreements.) Naia says:

“The obvious intention of this policy is to have a chilling effect on criticisms of the bar, its owners, its staff, and its patrons. It’s extremely bizarre that these policies are hidden behind a QR code. This can be done for a number of reasons, including their intention to possibly need to change policies again, as they have done as a result of this scandal, and not wanting to have to constantly change physical signs. A much more obviously apparent reason is to hide the sketchiness from newcomers.”

The announcement.

Then there’s the most relevant part. Slightly Furry’s Code defines community concern about zoophile networking as a personal problem.

If the abuser isn’t abusing at their place — like their participant who was convicted of deadly zoosadism — their Code says it’s not their problem.

Of course private bedroom activity isn’t public interest — but when it’s a person of community influence, a manager with power for running events and their safety — is it really our problem to address the amount of zoophile networking, demand for abuse media, and rape they enable?

Until they make it their problem too, Naia and other watchdogs like Con Staff Watch have been documenting it for them.

Based on the evidence, the well-documented Zoophile Mute List by Heika displays Slightly Furry as a zoophile supporter.

Herd denial and learned helplessness towards a zoophile-industrial complex 

Consider the general human problem, not just for furry readers. Like suppressed abuse coming out from churches, schools, or Boy Scouts.

Movies like Spotlight depicted abusive priests getting moved from church to church, letting them prey without recognition. It was buried by active shifting. The disconnection of furry spaces also lets abusers cycle freely through new groups using new fursonas. Abusers don’t need active cover to skip town with passive policies like “if it didn’t happen here, it’s a personal problem”. Different route, same result.

Group disconnection starts with being marginal, as many gay people know. They find safety in niche community. Bigotry helps set the problem up before it’s inside, and insiders get an overactive immune system towards negative attention. When Bewares get conflated with bigotry, and freedom means from transparency… in-group-ness can liberate against outside problems, but stifle ones inside.

Suppression helps abusers hide. It’s enabling when evidence is blindly blown off with the “cancel culture” or “witch hunt” cliches sent towards previous reporting. The blindness starts to change when community members get aware, inform each other, do transparent ambassadorship, and meet outside help while the general public is also getting informed.

Herd denial doesn’t just represent individual corruption, but a wide scale “nobody’s job” dilemma. It’s not just misuse of influence, it’s built into how the internet let interest communities spiral fractally into more and more granular and unregulated niches. From furries, to liberated kink, to hidden abuse, to core zoosadists, with lagging recognition and inadequate remedy. (What can a little blog do besides say it’s everyone’s job?)

In internet no-mans-land, zoophile networking starts with signaling. They use codes, flags, hashtags and personal ads to furtively meet, then propaganda like magazines, blogs and podcasts to consolidate groups, while begging inclusion like an identity with rights. Some of these studiously avoid sex. It’s a fake front.

No matter what, networking raises access for other zoophiles who claim that animals can consent. There’s no network without the touchy ones, with no way to tell the difference from the “trust me” ones. Then a spectrum of abuse grows beneath notice while animals are unable to tell. Not saying “no” isn’t consent, and animals can’t consent, any more than toddlers can, so abuse is not an identity, and rights are for victims. (This report is not directed at pro therapy that isn’t networking.)

Even when abuse is known, it’s so rarely prosecuted, that there are individual abusers with more victims than the total of American prosecutions each year. (Around 100 cases with all statistics kept “artificially low”.)

Vacancy of oversight makes easy apologism. Networking participants do hairsplitting between “bad abuse” and a “good zoos” myth — as if coercion is consent, or a pure non-contact network exists for innocent fantasy or quack DIY therapy, and “trust me” will protect victims. Then if a bad one does get caught, “good” ones deny responsibility for doing abuse themselves, after they enabled demand and opportunity. Some offer up sacrificial tokens after the harm, (in other words, throwing liabilities under the bus), and claim to make things safe by catching abusers after giving them a place to prey.

There are no safe zoophile networks. If one is visible anywhere, something is wrong, and you can show them the door. It’s certainly possible, because pedophile networking isn’t welcome in your space, is it?

“Not our job” ends up being learned helplessness. It doesn’t take police help to stop giving attention, favor, enabling, or $73,000 in donations towards a threat of zoophile networking getting influence over community management. But sex and alcohol and clout make an industry where zoophiles like Cenny make a comfortable living, and asking their friends to care gets you banned. If the community doesn’t solve its own problems, one alternative is for whistleblowers and activists to team up with outside groups, taking it beyond limited bubbles and fruitless appeals to places they can really be heard.

A few links about networking: 

• ActiveFence (Trust & Safety for platforms): How Are Pedophiles Hiding In Plain Sight on Platforms?
• Wall Street Journal: Instagram Connects Vast Pedophile Network
• Australian government report: history of pedophile networking as organized crime.

Follow the group 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.)

https://x.com/NickyWoolf/status/1802698153272947183

Listen to Fur and Loathing here.

Here’s a wrap-up for the investigation of the Midwest Furfest 2014 chemical attack, by Nicky Woolf with help from Dogpatch Press. For the last episode, we recorded discussion of these points (although not all made the final cut…)

• Being a community under attack.
• The limits of the justice system, and how people can get away with crime, even if we know it.
• The need for community protection from inside.
• It can also take resources and reach we don’t have by partnership with outside help.
• Without public awareness and being fully informed, negligence can cause more harm.
• How different could things be if we had more transparency 10 years ago?

REVIEW: “Fur and Loathing is so fucking good.” – Podcast Promise

There are good and bad True Crime shows. Bad ones have sleazy stories with annoying hosts who giggle about suffering while milking it for views. But “Crime and Punishment” is the title of one of the greatest novels of all time. The good kind teaches about the justice system and the pursuit of resolution.

Fur and Loathing aimed to deliver original research with respect for the community. The producers of the show thought the great review at Podcast Promise really got everything they were trying to do:

I feel like most true crime is ultimately exploitative and antithetical to my politics and ethics.

But not all true crime is most true crime. Some true crime is anti-cop, anti-prison, and pro interrogating our carceral systems. Some true crime is made in partnership with its subjects, or the families. And some true crime, like Fur and Loathing, is made with deep reverence and contribution from maligned, largely disenfranchised communities.

I think Fur and Loathing is pretty much exactly what I want in true crime.

This approach will be followed for more Furry True Crime reporting to come… but we can’t talk about that yet. Stay tuned.

NEW WITNESS REPORT: “I stepped on a pile of what looked like fine white powder”

This tip recently came from a furry reader. This story of handling the crime scene certainly says something about the outcome…

Hello,

I just started watching the MFF 2014 coverage on the Fur and Loathing podcast. I have some first hand knowledge if this would help.

I literally stepped in (what I now understand to be) the cleared crime scene and I had no idea what it was at the time.

I walked up the stairwell after they let us back into the hotel after the all clear. The mess that was left was one floor under my room in a stairwell.

I stepped on a pile of what looked like fine white powder with small clear curved glass shards mixed in. From how much white powder and glass that was left I would guess that it would have filled a small glass mason jar. It looked almost like someone dumped baking soda and glass mixed together.

What blew my mind was that there was nothing in the hallway whatsoever to mark that this was evidence or anything of the sort. Plus that it was just left there. Not even a little yellow wet floor sign to indicate that a mess was on the floor.

It would not surprise me if some hotel cleaning staff swept it all into the trash the next day, while having no clue what it was.

I am sure that I was not the only person in the wee hours of the morning to step in it either as lots of us took the stairs to get to our rooms rather than waiting for the elevators.

That was a hell of a first furry con for me.

I don’t recall much more than that and in hindsight I wish I had gotten a picture of the mess. I was so tired that it did not cross my mind until I got home from the con. Thank you!

MORE READER REACTIONS (Spoilers)

Another reader wrote about the suspect Magnus Diridian, who has a news tag for background to this:

I had some discussions with family after they heard the last episode of Fur and Loathing (I got them hooked on the entire series). Magnus sounded very guilt ridden when questioned about the attack. I wonder if he had genuine remorse for making that Confederate fursuit. Or was just upset that it was received the way it was. Magnus’ behavior is the kind of stuff that a school shooter might be thinking: “I’m in pain, you’re hurting me, here is a message that is equivalent to what I’m feeling.”

Dogpatch Press replied:

Magnus has a past of being a chronic violent felon, alcohol abuse and guilt, and always wants to bury things but he can’t because he won’t admit his past. So he does a bunch of coping, contradiction and compartmentalizing. I think he just hates consequences, and he definitely wasn’t remorseful while bringing out the Confederate fursuit for years after 2017. Notice 2020 date in the photo.

Magnus’s stunts seemed reactive and trollish rather than supporting or organizing anything, apart from the Trump sign. So he didn’t have a manifesto. But the Confederate suit is a statement. He isn’t a sophisticated propagandist but we can call this political.

I wish the show could have gotten into threads that it didn’t. The fake Lemonade Coyote suit for example, made to piss people off by stealing from a dead guy. Or what was said by some witnesses who wouldn’t go on the record about what they knew. And allegations of violent crime that isn’t the stuff he was convicted for.

Magnus is an interesting guy in some ways. He was active for a long time with other interesting people. I don’t hate him so much as consider him messed up, but I don’t think we’ll ever have real justice about the attack, and don’t think he should be welcome at cons or in the fandom. He is currently active with nazifurs. That says a lot about what they do.

Why did the FBI’s Angelo Defeo fly from Chicago to Colorado to interview the well-known nazifur Foxler? And why did Magnus freak out when I asked him about Foxler in 2018, and admit knowing him for a long time (since before Foxler was grabbing notoriety?) That makes interesting questions about their association and how Foxler got charges dropped for his own crime case. So what did he have on Magnus?

I always wondered if there could have been others involved, but I don’t think there’s evidence of that, and Magnus is the only real suspect. He was known for using stink bombs in public. Why would he need someone else for an attack?

In 2018 I reported a witness from MFF 2014 saying that Magnus had an altercation with con staff there about running in the street in fursuit while drunk, and he got threatened with a ban. He was mad at staff, and that sounds like a motive.

The reader continued:

The show had one FBI person who had just learned of the event and the FOIA docs and even he was just as puzzled why this wasn’t taken seriously enough. ‘You’re missing something.’

Something missing could mean police hiding their own errors after mishandling the crime scene. Maybe the Rosemont police really didn’t want the FBI near. Chicago has a legendary history as one of the most corrupt places in the US. Corruption scandals have gotten federal oversight over local police departments before. We may never know more unless someone inside speaks.

OLD, FAKE NEWS

This review repeats misinformation that has plagued the fandom since the attack.

The claims can be killed by listening to the show, and they don’t even follow basic chemistry. Neoprene is rotted by chlorine. Latex chlorination is done by liquid, not powdered chlorine. That treatment isn’t activated with a device made to be smashed to mix 2 things into poison gas. The police ruled the attack deliberate from the beginning. Rumors about an accident were never valid.

FINAL THOUGHTS – How do we look at technical innocence?

A suspect was questioned many times and unable to clear himself. They couldn’t charge him, so police won’t stop him from going to events. It’s up to the community to beware. 

Innocent until proven guilty is a relationship between citizen and government. It’s technical, but not the whole truth. Outside of courts, we use personal judgement about character every day, like when letting someone in your house, paying or employing someone, dating, voting, or letting someone care for dependent kids or animals.    

“Technically innocent” applies to people like Casey Anthony, George Zimmerman, Kyle Rittenhouse, or OJ Simpson. Even when people like this are rejected, sometimes they grab for a kind of American anti-celebrity by capitalizing on notoriety. OJ tried to sell his “If I did it” book. George Zimmerman auctioned the gun he used to kill Trayvon Martin for a lot of money. Kyle Rittenhouse was supposed to be made a “hero” for politics (but is a failure with it). And of course America’s most successful anti-celebrity is currently trying to get back into the White House as a convicted felon. 

Fur and Loathing may not be able to show justice is done, but hopefully can make you think a lot about what happens when it isn’t.

MORE NOTICE

The ICYMI podcast about internet culture hosted Nicky Woolf; he covered the show, and extra background about how internet subcultures work and the place of furries in them. American Hysteria podcast (recorded after episode 2 of the show) covered Nicky’s career.

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 by Heather

The San Francisco Pride Parade is Sunday, June 30, 2024 — General info at SFpride.org

The biggest outdoor furry event of the year is back for Northern California. Don’t miss this huge party and statement of progress for LGBT people and allies. ABC7 will broadcast the parade to watch from home, while hundreds of thousands of people line the street from 10:30 a.m. until late afternoon.

The NorCal Furries will march on Market Street, for a mile to the end near the Celebration area at Civic Center. Over 200 are expected to come and be loved more than ever, after being shortlisted for a Best Contingent award last year. They have been in the parade for over 20 years (see the Pride tag). This year they have an after-party at their own club for the first time. Here’s how to participate!

JOINING THE GROUP — RSVP here

If you don’t RSVP, you can’t be guaranteed a spot and may be turned away, so join now!

• Telegram event chat group: The live connection to everyone and best place to get help.
• Telegram off-topic chat group: For talk that isn’t crucial for the event.
• Donations are still accepted: Help pay for the float, because volunteers work hard to make this.
• Volunteers are still welcome (message a group mod).

PRE-PREP AND AFTER-PARTY at Spritz! 181 Eddy Street — RSVP here, must be 21+

Spritz! is 21+ by law, so bring ID for checking at the door. The club is a short walk from Powell BART. You can meet and suit up before proceeding to the start of the parade, and meet afterward to desuit, eat, drink, relax and party. There will be DJ’s, food, drinks, chill space and play space.

• At 9 – 10:30am, you can change clothes and get breakfast before leaving for parade assembly. You can leave personal items and pick up after the parade.
• At 5 – 11pm, dinner is provided at the after-party, and you don’t have to be in the parade to come.
• Donations and volunteering are welcome, message @RelayRaccoon on Telegram.

from Callie Cat

PREPARATION AND GETTING AROUND — Map of parade route and meet spots

This is a high-energy moving event. It requires walking several miles and self-reliance to get around the city. There are 200 members but only 30 spaces on the float, so be ready to walk unless you have a mobility challenge (contact a mod for a rider space). Know your limits and don’t overheat, but expect mild weather. Hydration will be provided. The only bathrooms are portapotties with long lines. Dress right, bring sunscreen or snacks as needed, and a charged phone. Don’t bring anything you can’t carry, cargo items may be turned away.

Know the map and schedule for the full day:

• Streets will be gridlocked with traffic before the parade, so don’t expect parking or rideshare near it.
• It’s smart to ride BART. See the BART info page about their Sunday schedule and tips for Riding With Pride.
• You can start at Spritz! for breakfast and changing, or just start at the parade assembly.
• Parade assembly is a mile from Spritz! and public transit is the best way to get there.
• Give yourself a lot of extra time to get there, because the parade won’t wait, and latecomers get left behind. Don’t cut it close!
• At the end of the parade, marchers split away from the float, and will need to go several blocks through crowds to regroup.
• Regroup (if you want water and a break): Quaker Meeting House, 65 9th St.
• Go with others or get yourself back to Spritz! Any BART station lets you cross Market when the street is closed.

Read on for details by hour.

PARADE ASSEMBLY — Use 155 Main Street for directions, marchers arrive no later than NOON and volunteers by 11 am.

Find assembly area N2 for contingent #132, on Main between Mission and Howard. The float will be there very early, so you can arrive as soon as 8am.

• Coming by car: No cars or dropoff allowed at the assembly. You may find garage space if you’re very early (by 8am) and plan to get breakfast.
• Using BART: travel to Embarcadero station. The south central exit is closest to the assembly.
• There may be hours to wait, but expect to hang out and don’t plan anything except leaving this time open for parade step-off.
• Again, if you arrive later than noon, you may be left behind, don’t cut it close!

COSTUME AND FURSUITING — No hard bins, soft folding bags only at parade.

Fursuiting isn’t required, wear any themed clothing, but for suiters:

• NO HARD BINS at parade, they will be turned away, only soft folding bags will be carried, pack light and avoid bringing extra cargo.
• Suiting on public transit has been fun for many members, and coming in suit is smart.
• Change at Spritz! or you can also change at a parking garage or right on the street (nobody cares at Pride.)
• Consider partialing for comfort, and expect rough streets, don’t wear soft indoor feet.
• Is your costume not safe for TV broadcast? Contact a group mod to discuss and make arrangements.

PHOTOS — Group photo at noon.

Be photo-ready if costuming, and stay alert to assemble because the crowd will be chaotic.

• We want photographers, and if you plan to do photos or video, please tell us and share afterward.
• Join this Telegram channel to collect photos and ask @patchofurr to give you posting power.
• Hashtags for social media: #Norcalfurries, #Furrypride, #SFPride.

WHAT TO DO IN THE PARADE – Show your Pride and stay safe.

When the float starts moving, it won’t stop, and monitors will stop anyone from going on or off. Keep marching pace and listen to the monitors. Monitors please be on the job! It’s about a mile long route that takes an hour.

• While marching, be alert about where the float is. Try not to bunch up as a group, leave gaps or be too distant. The front-facing banner is how watchers see the group first, but going up to the side crowd barriers is good too. Use the whole street between the float and crowds on both sides. Dance, pose, give hugs and high fives. Wave at the TV cameras placed early in the route.
• End at 8th and Market, but don’t follow the float. Marchers continue walking forward towards Civic Center, then loop around for a few blocks to regroup at Quaker Meeting House, 65 9th St.
• You can rest at Quaker Meeting House until 5. Spritz! has dinner at 5 but you may go there right away. Make sure to pick up personal items before leaving.
• Crowds have usual risks, see this street safety page. No glass bottles allowed. For continuing to the festival at Civic Center, bags and many other things are restricted, see the SF Pride security info page.

NEED HELP ON SUNDAY? 

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

SEE YOU THERE! Special thanks to all above organizers and Spottacus for helping make this possible. 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.)

Dutch furry fandom is spawning the Otterdam Furry Arts Festival, a public event celebrating furry culture and art. Part of the festival is a conference to connect academics, researchers, and community members for multi-field learning and presenting. It will happen physically and online, and you don’t have to be professional to contribute.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS — send proposals for work you can present at the event or online — DEADLINE IS JUNE 24, 2024

The Call For Papers has details and suggestions of work to present. History, philosophy, behavior study, economics…

We encourage the submission of proposals for academic papers, short workshops, practitioner-based activities, best-practice showcases, and pre-formed panels. We welcome established academics at all stages of their careers, and warmly embrace independent scholars. We also encourage submissions from non-academic furries and welcome other presentation formats such as photographic essays, alternative presentation styles, etc.

Here’s more info from one of the Organizing Committee. Vanguard Husky is a Postgraduate Researcher in the UK at the Birmingham School of Media, Birmingham City University. He runs Chasing Tails: A Furry Research Blog.

Furry Studies: An idea whose time has come — by Reuben “Vanguard” Mount

Just under a year ago, an academic colleague and I were approached with the idea of hosting a Furry Studies academic conference as part of a wider furry focused event. Honestly, there wasn’t much consideration before we accepted. I had been studying the furry fandom as a furry myself for three years at this time and was stunned to learn that this would be the first academic conference focusing on furries.

The furry fandom has been around for a long time. I know I probably don’t need to tell anyone reading this, but even if we take the first “furry party” as the benchmark, we’ve been here for almost forty years. Conversely, Furry Studies has been around arguably since 2007 with the initial studies from a group of social psychologists that would later become FurScience. Since this beginning, the number of furry academics has grown, with some incredible voices and viewpoints from countries around the world.

This was our starting point when we were approached to organise the first furry academic conference. We wanted to bring together these distant international voices that study furries to come together either physically or digitally to share their research, their thoughts and their knowledge about the furry fandom. It was also this desire to bring together knowledge that led to the creation of Minerva, our mascot.

The final result – drumroll please – is the Furry Studies 2024 conference (furrystudies.org) in Rotterdam, Netherlands, as part of the programme of the Otterdam Furry Arts Festival (otterdam.art). This will be a full-day event at the Nieuwe Instituut (nieuweinstituut.nl) on Friday October 18th 2024, with several sessions planned to fill the whole day. The opening keynote from Joe Strike (joestrike.com), who you may know from their amazing and insightful books about the furry fandom – Furry Nation and Furry Planet.

The theme of this conference is “Being Furry”. The intention of this was to begin with a provocation that was wide enough to prompt a variety of discussions, and one that we think every furry – academic or not – could speak to even if they couldn’t definitively answer. Also, as the first furry academic conference, we wanted to keep the theming simple to lead to more- complex and in-depth questions for future conferences – but that’s a thought process for later!

The Call for Papers is on our website. It’s been warmly received by the academic side of the furry fandom and we have received some incredible and insightful submissions so far. We’re still taking submissions until June 24th so make sure you drop something in before then!

But this isn’t just for academic fluffs! We welcome anyone interested in attending in person or online as registration and speaking slots are open to all. Plus, with all of the incredible events taking place over the weekend for the Otterdam Furry Arts Festival, and the fur con Reffurence (reffurence.com) happening the weekend after, there’s plenty to enjoy during this October in Rotterdam. So make sure you drop down and say hello!

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.)