Feed aggregator

MOOBARKFLUFF! Click here to send us a comment or message about the show!

The gang is all here for Get Out The Float 2025 in Seaside Oregon!  We have a special guest with us: Cassidy Civet! Join us for a great time as we do our normal schtick before a live audience, and play a new game! You won't believe the hilarity! 

This podcast contains adult language and adult topics. It is rated M for Mature. Listener discretion is advised.

Support the show

Thanks to all our listeners and to our staff: Bearly Normal, Rayne Raccoon, Taebyn, Cheetaro, TickTock, and Ziggy the Meme Weasel.

You can send us a message on Telegram at BFFT Chat, or via email at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com

BFFT S5E18 - Live From Get Out The Float 2025

Hello Papabear,

My Aunt on my mom's side got married a couple years ago and they now have two young kids together. I want to be in their lives and be their cool uncle type of archetype. I want to lead them to the furry fandom by showing them animated movies and shows with anthropomorphic animals. Do you have any good recommendations to start them out with?

Warrior Bird

* * *

Dear Warrior Bird,

First off, abandon ye all notions of "leading" them to the furry fandom. It's okay to show them movies and TV shows and comic books etc., but don't do so with the goal of indoctrinating them. That's no better than the father who tries to force his bookish son to love football. If they like animated anthro movies and TV shows, great, but don't try to force it. I just wanted to be clear on that before continuing.

NOW then! I think a nice approach would be to combine old school and new school films and TV. I'm just going to recommend a couple of movies so as not to overwhelm. From the Old School:

1. Animalympics (1980): A furry classic that was written for TV, this feature-length cartoon has animals of all species competing in summer and winter games. It features the wonderful voice talents of Gilda Radner, Billy Crystal, Harry Shearer, and Michael Fremer, and its funny and has a lot of heart. You can watch the full movie for free on YouTube here: Animalympics
2. Disney's Robin Hood (1973): The classic that turned many young people into furries from way back, this terrific tale features the voice talents of Peter Ustinov (OMG his Prince John characterization is brilliant!), Phil Harris, Pat Butram, Terry-Thomas, and Brian Bedford (as Robin). My main complaint about the film, though, is that it was made during a period when Disney (the company) thought it could save money by redrawing scenes from earlier films. That's why, if you compare Robin Hood to 1967's The Jungle Book, you'll see many of the exact same physical motions, especially in the dance scene.

Moving ahead a bit into the 1990s, I recommend:

1. The Lion King (1994), which is basically a version of Hamlet set in the African savannah with talking animals, but it's well done and has music by Elton John.
2. A Goofy Movie (1995): I'm honestly not a big Goofy fan, but so many furries I know absolutely adore this film that I have to recommend it even though it is not to my taste.

More recent stuff:

1. Zootopia (2016): Not too many animated films — even with talking animals — are set in worlds populated only by animals. Disney's Robin Hood is one and Zootopia does it quite brilliantly. Probably a film that was conceived specifically for furries and recognizes the growing economic influence of our fandom (i.e., e.g., studio execs saw there was money to be made by appealing to furries).
2. Ratatouille (2007): A common rat with a nose for food tries to make it as a chef in Paris. What's not to love?
3. Sing (2016): This one is also set in an all-anthro world, but what really makes this film is a good story and strong characters trying to find success in a singing competition.
4. Turning Red (2022): Many furries are into transformation stories, and this is the ultimate transformation story about a little girl in Canada who inherits the family "curse" of turning into a red panda when she starts to reach adulthood. The theme is quite obvious: the pains and conflicts we all go through in our relationships with family and peers as we leave childhood behind to find who we truly are. There has been some criticism from red panda furries who didn't like the way the panda character was drawn, but I thought she was cute.
5. Cat's Don't Dance (1997): This underrated film about a cat from Indiana trying to make it in Hollywood musicals of the 1930s is just brilliant. The music is fantastic, the characters are loveable, and the theme about the injustices of prejudice are poignant.

Okay, this is OBVIOUSLY not everything, but it hits some highlights. Also, wait until they are a bit older before showing them classics like the original Watership Down--a must-see for older teens. I would like to mention that I am thrilled that I have gotten Furry Founder Rod O'Riley to write Movies for Furries: An A to Z Guide, which will be released by my publishing house, Uncle Bear Publishing, hopefully by in time for Christmas (he's on the F's at the moment). You will definitely get a lot of helpful hints from his book when it is released!

You also asked about "shows," which I take to mean TV shows, yes? There are some current popular ones in the fandom from Japan — Beastars and BNA: Brand New Animal — but these are way too mature for little kids. So are some popular furrie cartoons like Helluva Boss and, hopefully soon, Lackadaisy from the comic book by Tracy Butler. It has a pilot on YouTube LACKADAISY (Pilot) and some mini episodes, but I think money is making for a slow go. Anyway, you want something for the kids, so here's my "starter pack":

1. Bugs Bunny and the Warner Bros. cartoons of the 1940s and 1950s, especially. No furry repertoire is complete without watching these classics of the wascally wabbit, Road Runner, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn and the rest of the gang. Make sure they watch the opera satires, especially. And, yes, there are cartoons from the 1960s and into the present day, but you gotta start with these.
2. Kimba the White Lion (originally aired 1965-66): The story of a young lion who tries to find peace between humans and animals in Africa. 
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (first aired on TV 1987-1996): Conceived by comic book writers Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984, this story of turtles mutating into ninja warriors after being contaminated by polution and then being trained by an anthro rat in martial arts became a phenomenon spawning movies and merchandise. Unfortunately, some furry cartoonists and other independent artists also attribute the success to TMNT, which started as an indie comic, for destroying the indie comic industry. Nevertheless, it is a highly influential anthro cartoon that is worth watching.
4. Sonic the Hedgehog: Debuting as a videogame in 1991, it also became a Saturday morning cartoon in the early 1990s and is probably the first superior example of videogame-turned-TV-cartoon that has proven influential to the furry fandom.
5. Pokémon the Series: Another cultural phenomenon is this Japanese series that began as a trading card and videogame. The TV series debuted in 1997 and is ongoing.

More recent animated series that furries get into include:

1. Bluey (2018): From Australia, this series is very happy and optimistic, and the simple animation style should appeal to very young viewers.
2. Paw Patrol (2013-): From Canada, the story gives you a cast of talking puppies who help rescue people. Adorbs.

And, I just want to mention some puppetry stuff, including anything with Muppets (like Fraggle Rock), Bear in the Big Blue House, and of course Sesame Street.

I could go on and on about this topic, but that's enough for now. Oh, there is a helpful Web page with lots of info on movies, TV shows, comic books, and Web content that appeals to furries: Popular with Furries - TV Tropes. This is not just kid stuff, but there is a lot here that is useful to peruse.

Thanks for your question! I hope this was helpful.

Hugs,
Papabear

I had the opportunity to spend some time with a preview build of “Shuffle Tactics”, a new roguelite deckbuilding tactical RPG developed by Club Sandwich and published by The Arcade Crew, that features a sharply pixelated cast of anthropomorphic heroes and sidekicks. Starring in the demo is the anthro canine Doberknight, as well as Catalina, along with a few animal-based sidekicks to choose from in your runs. Other than the creative characters, Shuffle Tactics focuses on blending light environmental tactics with inventive deckbuilding options.

 

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. It has a peer-to-peer horizontal structure where the whole elephant is a series of bubbles that don’t see each other. The limited views go with a longstanding habit of members reacting against outside stereotypes by falling into their 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, to tell the full story warts and all and own it from inside before outsiders tell it for you; 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. Difficult, costly, critical stories are the ones that 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 on peer-to-peer level, but too little intensive research at wide-scope.

You may say the solution is showing more of the positive; but that’s not seeing the whole elephant.

It’s important to do the difficult work of telling the full range of human experience within, and maturely accept a place in society, not apart from it. The more we know, the more it empowers people to do better. This is a challenge always lagging behind the growth shown below.

The view through rose-colored glasses

Consider everything that furries say to the media about themselves in interviews and PR, where they are predisposed to tell what they constantly tell each other about good reasons for coming together.

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. It’s all about uncritical acceptance without gatekeeping.

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. Acceptance is exploitable, and there are people coming with malice too. This isn’t moral judgement on natural human behavior; it’s also analysis of structure. The problem is it’s nobody’s job to do better. You can’t expect orders from the top to enforce policy in peer-to-peer fandom, and even if it happens in limited bubbles, that makes swiss-cheese for security.

Recent revival of a very old topic.

Old-school fan values worked on small scale

Security has always been a problem with peer-to-peer structure. Fandom events are traditionally low budget, volunteer affairs. Fans and volunteers aren’t there for a career, and that doesn’t make strong security. It isn’t just in this group; it goes for any group of 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 to exploit 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. They could also solve problems more easily by talking to each other, doing community intervention, and having the social influence where members are simply more cautious about shitting where they eat.

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. All that personal influence is diluted while anonymity raises opportunity for malice. 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, not just because of who is inside, but because the more we depend on net platforms, the more problems we have by corporate 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. In furry fandom, “moving the priest” comes 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. There’s no pro-active solution, just late reactive notice if any at all.

We may say there’s no church hierarchy calling the shots; but there also isn’t accountability of having to pay billions in damages and institutionally mitigate the harm by policy, as churches can. So yes, this is comparable to church abuse scandals, with different process but 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. Apply wide-scope to natural human behavior; organized bad apples make groups for each other. Village idiots make their own villages. 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. This lets entire groups of bad actors inhabit security holes.

Any subculture can be a good cover, because it makes bigger fish in a little pond. These bad actors can 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. There’s no identity with built-in virtue — marginalized groups experience the same abuse problems as mainstream churches, schools, and Boy Scouts. Nobody’s immune. Queer and minority people can and do exploit each other, and collaborate with those who exploit them. “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 become a data asset by signing up to platforms you don’t own that profit from you being there. 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 social media use since furries used to be the 1% most nerdy on MUCKs and Usenet. This subculture likes to claim independent organic growth apart from mainstream media, but is intimately tied to corporate platforms it relies on now more than ever.

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 exotic and previously-unseen 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. An underworld for this inside furry subculture is basically powered by internet tech, but also native to furry because of the cover of unique subculture with its own traditions and vernacular and modes of relation.

Don’t make the mistake of dismissing abusers as a negligible fringe that could exist anywhere. 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. Imagine: what if Catholics reacted to priest abuse by saying “it’s only a thousand priests among a million of us” rather than addressing cause and effect?

For organized abuse native to furry, 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. The prey, predators, and bait in this group come from inside furry. Nobody is coming to stop them; wide awareness is the first solution.

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

The shallowness of online information and clout dynamics.

Wide awareness is reactive and blocked by wearing rosy glasses. Take them off and you can see chronic situations of turning a blind eye about organized abuse:

• 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 by itself – broken platforms are the cause – it’s a symptom.

Suppression starts with cliched, pre-emptive complaints about cancel culture, as if it is a moral problem among individuals. It’s often paired with deflection about oppression outside causing misinformation, instead of the structure of platforms we actively use causing a real problem. This raises denial towards critical information inside, while appealing to the Geek Social Fallacies for unity to keep the status quo.

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 by itself is saying to look at the forest, not the trees. See the whole elephant. It isn’t culture, it’s byproduct of industry. Shallow, petty drama goes with dependence on limited bubbles and unaccountability between them, by corporate 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”. The risk of saying the emperor has no clothes is to be harassed and frozen out, with clout dynamics threatening backlash on steroids. Toxic cronyism like this makes suppression culture.

If there aren’t gatekeepers on wide scale, 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.)

As if taking care of an “ordinary” cat weren’t enough trouble… what if they were more than that? Find out in Monster Cats  Volume 1, a graphic novel written and illustrated by Pandania. “Is it a banshee, a yeti, a gorgon, or… a cat? Monster Cats are a purrfect new breed of familiar furry friends crossed with freaky fun! If you think life with regular cats can get complicated, wait ’till you see what it’s like for people who live with these charming supernatural pets.” Oo, pretty scary kids! It’s available now in paperback from Square Enix Books.

image c. 2025 Square Enix Books

TigerTails Radio Season 16 Episode 04. Join the Discord Chat: https://discord.gg/SQ5QuRf Join the Telegram Chat: https://t.me/+yold2C77m0I1MmM0 Visit the website at http://www.tigertailsradio.co.uk. See website for full breakdown of any song credits, which is usually updated shortly after the show. Credits: Opening music: Magic by Hedge Haiden (Double Hedge Studios) Character art: Fitzroy Fox - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/lunara-toons / https://bsky.app/profile/fitzroyfox.bsky.social Background art: Charleston Rat - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/charlestonrat / https://bsky.app/profile/charlestonrat.bsky.social If you like what we do and wish to throw some pennies our way to support us, please consider sending a little tip our way. https://streamlabs.com/tigertailsradio/tip * Please note, tips are made to support TigerTails Radio and are assumed as made with good faith, so are therefore non-refundable. Thank you for your support and understanding.

This year the Annie Awards (the annual “Oscars for animation”, presented by ASIFA-Hollywood) were utterly dominated by two works: Arcane from Netflix in TV/streaming, and Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot in Feature Films. Both of them won the award for 2024 in each and every category they were nominated for. Obviously the more “furry” of the two, Wild Robot won for Best Character Animation, Best Character Design, Best Production Design, Best Voice Acting (Lupita Nyong’o as Roz the robot), Best FX Animation, Best Music, Best Editing, Best Direction (for Chris Sanders), and Best Feature Film. Meanwhile, Gintz Zilbalodis’ blender-animated film Flow took home Annie Awards for Best Writing (Feature) and Best Independent Feature. (More than one person commented that it’s interesting the film that won Best Writing has not one word of spoken dialogue in the entire movie…) Now the big question is whether the Oscars will follow the Annies and award The Wild Robot, or follow the Golden Globes and award Flow. In other news of interest to furry fans, Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur won Best TV for Children, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes won Best Character Animation in a Live Action Feature. Among the Special Awards categories, ASIFA gave the Windsor McCay Award (a lifetime achievement honor) to Aaron Blaise, one-half of the directing team of Disney’s Brother Bear (among many other films that he’s worked on). You can see the complete list of Annie Awards for 2024 over at Animation Magazine. (And don’t forget: Nominations are open now through the end of this month  for the 2024 Ursa Major Awards too!)

image c. 2025 Dreamworks Animation

I think of all the animals on this planet, Sharks are the ones that tend to be the most misunderstood, thanks to the many cheesy killer shark movies out there. According to a study by the Florida Museum of Natural History in 2023, in the States alone, even though there were 36 unprovoked attacks, there was only 1 fatality. In fact, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than you are to be bit by Jaws himself. Yet, that hasn’t stopped film makers from making such “classics” like Sharknado, Deep Blue Sea, 5-Headed Shark Attack, The Meg series, and Planet Of The Sharks. However, one area that this hasn’t penetrated was video games. Sure, there was Jaws on the NES and the Xbox’s Jaws: Unleashed, but, most of the time, sharks are relegated to being just either an obstacle or a random enemy to kill. Enter TripWire with their 2021 game Maneater, where you finally control a shark and do what Hollywood thinks it does best: Eat, Kill, and Destroy. While the game does those three well, it kinda falters in the other areas and has a few design choices that, I have to say, I’m not a real fan of, but it wasn’t enough to make me hate this title.

We've gone through the list of upcoming games in Steam's Couch Co-op Fest and compiled the ones we felt had a good amount of animal and/or anthropomorphic influence and have listed them below!

Lots of fun options coming up to enjoy with friends! If you find a game we don't have listed, send us an email!

Animal & Furry Games in Steam's Couch Co-op Fest 2025:

Hello, PapaBear!

I hope this question isn't too out there, but I wanted to come by and ask a question about the fandom that has been in my mind for a while.... How would you expand, or well ... introduce the concept of anthropomorphism, and the general Furry Fandom to an entirely different place that isn't as common with those themes?

Well, let's be a bit more specific.... I come from a Pakistani family (my dad's side specifically, Mom's side is Latino), and I was always curious in the future where if I go to Pakistan, or somewhere in the general South Asian region (whether it'd be Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, or India), would it be a good idea to introduce the concepts I mentioned above? If there is a slight chance of maybe, how would I introduce it? There is a chance that there are Indian Furries, or Furries from the general subcontinent, but I doubt they're that vocal about it for reasons.... And that does make me wonder, with how different the beliefs of South Asia are, Whether it'd be the British Partition, the Religious influences, or the Minefield that is Kashmir, it might not be as good as an idea... But it still remains as an idea I want to pursue.

Regardless of my ramblings, what do you think of this idea(s) I'm thinking about? I apologize in advance if this is overwhelming! I am kind of passionate about my heritage's cultures, so please excuse my ramblings!

With regards,
Riley.

* * *

Hi, Riley,

At first, I thought you wanted to sway your parents toward thinking about furries and accepting you as a furry, but it sounds more like your question is how to expand the fandom into Asia. I guess you are not aware that there are several conventions in the East, including two in China, three in Taiwan, one in Singapore, one in Malaysia, two in Vietnam, and one in the Philippines. On that side of the world, there are also three Australian furcons. Check this out for recent cons: 2024 Asian Furry Convention Calendar | FurryCons.com.

Now, it sounds like you believe that the West can foster the growth of the furry fandom in the East. I believe that is a misguided idea. While it is true that the modern fandom began in California, spread through the United States and into England, Germany, and the rest of Europe and even into Central and South America, two factors conspire against American influence in the Eastern fandom: 1) Cultural differences, and 2) growing anti-American sentiment in the world, a fire flamed by Trumpism. For these reasons, the spread of the fandom into Asia will come not from America but largely from Japan.

Actually, when you think about it, the fandom in California did not arise spontaneously. It actually was powerfully influenced by Japan. You see, back in 1977, a couple of Founding Furs--Fred Patten and Mark Merlino--started what was called the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization. This small group of early aficionados would get together and watch anime cartoons from Japan like Kimba the White Lion and The Amazing 3. The Los Angeles branch birthed a New York City chapter, and from there it spread, starting the first APA periodicals, furry art, stories, and so on.

The spread of the fandom into Southeast Asian countries comes not from America but from Japan because, I surmise, the people in areas such as Singapore and Taiwan can relate more closely to Japanese culture than Western culture (although the West certainly has an influence through the popularity of such things as Disney and Pixar animated films).

Cultures in the West and Southeast Asia are more pliable to the concept of the anthropomorphic arts than Arabic and African countries. The more religiously and culturally conservative a country, the less likely it will be receptive to a wild idea such as people dressing up as talking animals. It may happen, eventually, but in drips and drabs. I have met some furries online in places like Nigeria and Lebanon, but they are deep in hiding, telling no one of their love for the anthro arts. You can understand this in some places like Nigeria (a mostly conservative Christian country), where being discovered as gay can get you literally stoned to death. In other countries, Islam specifically prohibits the depiction of sentient beings in art. This is called aniconism, and the Sahih Bukhari is very explicit about this (even though the Quran is not). This is why Muslim art (most beautifully seen in Arabic architecture) uses geometric designs, and you do not see people or animals portrayed in it. Fursuits and furry art definitely fall into the prohibited depiction of animals, so you can see that the fandom will likely not be seen in conservative Muslim countries. (This doesn't mean it's impossible. For example, Indonesia, which is the largest Muslim country in the world in terms of population, hosts Indonesia Anthro Weekend Gathering in Kabupaten Tangerang). 

India, on the other hand, is dominated by Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians, none of which have this prohibition of animal art, but I am at this time unaware of any furcons in that subcontinent even though India being strongly influenced by the West because of its years in the British Empire and has a culture more primed to novel ideas such as furries.

The expansion of the furry fandom proceeds organically. In a world connected by the internet; the spread of media in film, television, and music; and modern-day travel, the concepts of the fandom art planted much like birds dropping plant seeds in new environments to spread non-endemic species. If the soil is not nutritive to the new plant, it won't grow; if it is rich with the loam of open mindedness, it will.

If you feel like you need to encourage the spread of the fandom to places like Pakistan or Mexico (Mexico, by the way, does have a furcon, Confuror 2024 - Home), I don't think you will be able to do it quickly. What you can do is reach out to any furries you might run into online from countries that are as yet virgin furry zones. Also, be a good example of the fandom to any newbies to our community.

I hope that answers your question.

Bear Hugs,
Papabear

TigerTails Radio Season 16 Episode 03. Join the Discord Chat: https://discord.gg/SQ5QuRf Join the Telegram Chat: https://t.me/+yold2C77m0I1MmM0 Visit the website at http://www.tigertailsradio.co.uk. See website for full breakdown of any song credits, which is usually updated shortly after the show. Credits: Opening music: Magic by Hedge Haiden (Double Hedge Studios) Character art: Fitzroy Fox - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/lunara-toons / https://bsky.app/profile/fitzroyfox.bsky.social Background art: Charleston Rat - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/charlestonrat / https://bsky.app/profile/charlestonrat.bsky.social If you like what we do and wish to throw some pennies our way to support us, please consider sending a little tip our way. https://streamlabs.com/tigertailsradio/tip * Please note, tips are made to support TigerTails Radio and are assumed as made with good faith, so are therefore non-refundable. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Welcome to "Fresh Fur!" Our weekly installment going over the newest game releases, and which ones you can expect to find anthros/furries in!

Check the list below for all the games we could find with animal/anthro influences and characters.

New Releases for the week of February 3-10, 2025:

• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (PS5, PC, XSX/S) - February 4
• Rift of the NecroDancer (PC) - February 5
• Starlight Legacy (PC) - February 5
• While Waiting (PC, Switch) - February 5
• Stray Path (PC) - February 6
• Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - February 6
• Ailuri (PC) - February 6
• Big Helmet Heroes (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PC) - February 6
• Keep Driving (PC) - February 6
• A Game About Digging A Hole (PC) - February 7
• Wild Rumble (PC) - February 7

*Bolded games have furry/animal influences/characters

Furry & Animal Steam Game Finds:

These games were found in the New Releases section of Steam this week and will be updated as more come out throughout the week!

The simple summary for Ai Shimizu’s new manga Breakfast With My Two-Tailed Cat goes like this: “A talking supernatural cat rescues a man from loneliness as they enjoy a peaceful country life and delicious food.” Okay. A little more detail, please? “Souichiro’s wife’s wanted to retire to the countryside, but soon after they achieve this dream, she dies. So he won’t be left alone, their pet cat Nii turns into a talking nekomata, a two-tailed yokai cat. Together they share a heartwarming slow life, cooking and eating delicious food surrounded by nature. Enjoy freshly baked bread, handmade jam, fluffy omelets, and seasonal vegetables with the members of this unusual household.” Better! And it’s available from Seven Seas.

image c. 2025 Seven Seas Entertainment

Is it worth it to dwell on “the good old days”? Or should we always be looking to the future?

Nuka and Roo are joined by Sotalo as they talk about the value of knowing the history of our fandom. And why it’s important to keep in mind where we’ve come from if we want to understand where we’re going!

NOW LISTEN!

SHOW NOTES Thank you!

To Sotalo for coming on the show!

To all of our listeners!

PATREON LOVE

THANK YOU to our patreons! You help us keep the show going!

A Cookie Factory – OwO

*empty*

A Pallet of Cookies

 

Barnaby Panda, Nuka, Lou Duck (Pic Pending)

A Case of Cookies

Basel the Dragon, Black Baldrik, Ichigo Ookami (Pic Pending), Lufis the Raccoon

A Jar of Cookies

 

MephistophEli, Plug, Tenax

A Box of Cookies

• Lygris

A Delicious Cookie

• Ausi K
• Christian
• Citrus Fox
• Icy Solid
• Ralley
• Sage Lightfang
• TyR
• Victor Mutt

MUSIC

• Intro: Cloud Fields (Radio Mix), USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth
• First Break: Fine Line – Geographer, Unknown. Creative Commons, 2019
• Second Break: Right Here Beside You – Spence, Creative Commons 2020
• Patreon: Inflammatus – The Tudor Consort, Creative Commons 2019
• Closing: Cloud Fields (RetroSpecterChill Remix), USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth

S11E17 – Fandom History and the Furture - Is it worth it to dwell on "the good old days"? Or should we always be looking to the future? - Nuka and Roo are joined by Sotalo as they talk about the value of knowing the history of our fandom. And why it's imp

Roo, Klik, and Charlie explore what furries are doing in the mainstream. What is the mainstream? Should we jump in or be too weird to let it happen?

This episode was originally livestreamed on YouTube. Light editing has been made for our podcast listeners. You can watch the original livestream here: Livestream

NOW LISTEN!

SHOW NOTES Thank you!

To those that joined the livestream!

To all of our listeners!

PATREON LOVE

THANK YOU to our patreons! You help us keep the show going!

A Cookie Factory – OwO

*empty*

A Pallet of Cookies

 

Barnaby Panda, Nuka, Lou Duck (Pic Pending)

A Case of Cookies

Basel the Dragon, Black Baldrik, Ichigo Ookami (Pic Pending), Lufis the Raccoon

A Jar of Cookies

 

MephistophEli, Plug, Tenax

A Box of Cookies

• Chaphogriff
• Lygris

A Delicious Cookie

• Ausi K
• Christian
• Citrus Fox
• Icy Solid
• Sage Lightfang
• TyR
• Victor Mutt

MUSIC

• Intro: Cloud Fields (Radio Mix), USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth
• First Break: Mystery Skulls – Ghost. USA: Warner Bros Records, 2011. Used with permission
• Patreon: Inflammatus – The Tudor Consort, Creative Commons 2019
• Closing: Cloud Fields (RetroSpecterChill Remix), USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth

S11E16 – Furries in the Mainstream? - Roo, Klik, and Charlie explore what furries are doing in the mainstream. What is the mainstream? Should we jump in or be too weird to let it happen? - This episode was originally livestreamed on YouTube. Light editing

Join the cast as we look to Nuka, a years worth of new data! We are going to go through with the cast and discuss all the new findings throughout the year. So come sit down, chat and learn everything crazy going on in the fandom!

This episode was originally livestreamed on YouTube. Light editing has been made for our podcast listeners. You can watch the original livestream here: Livestream

NOW LISTEN!

SHOW NOTES Thank you!

To those that joined the livestream!

To all of our listeners!

PATREON LOVE

THANK YOU to our patreons! You help us keep the show going!

A Cookie Factory – OwO

*empty*

A Pallet of Cookies

 

Barnaby Panda, Nuka, Lou Duck (Pic Pending)

A Case of Cookies

Basel the Dragon, Black Baldrik, Ichigo Ookami (Pic Pending), Lufis the Raccoon

A Jar of Cookies

 

MephistophEli, Plug, Tenax

A Box of Cookies

• Chaphogriff
• Lygris

A Delicious Cookie

• Ausi K
• Christian
• Citrus Fox
• Icy Solid
• Sage Lightfang
• TyR
• Victor Mutt

MUSIC

• Intro: Cloud Fields (Radio Mix), USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth
• Patreon: Inflammatus – The Tudor Consort, Creative Commons 2019
• Closing: Cloud Fields (Radio Mix), USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth

S11E15 – Nuka’s Data Dump 2025 - Join the cast as we look to Nuka, a years worth of new data! We are going to go through with the cast and discuss all the new findings throughout the year. So come sit down, chat and learn everything crazy going on in the

I’m not going to mince words here, but between all three Turok games? Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil is, arguably, my least favorite of the trilogy, which is funny because, back when the HD remaster first came out, I actually enjoyed this one more then the first one and said that this is what the first game should’ve been. But, time’s a cruel mistress and, over the years, my thoughts on Seeds have drastically changed and, unfortunately, not for the better.

MOOBARKFLUFF! Click here to send us a comment or message about the show!

Bearly, Taebyn, Rayne, TickTock and Cheetaro are all together for another confusing Episode of BFFT! TickTock is back from Further Confusion and gives us a recap. (It is also good to see that they are no longer banned from being in America..oh…wrong TickTock). Wallaby Socks shows up, we have a Movie Review from our Movie Chee, Math, and more. So tune in for another confusing episode of BFFT.

Moobarkfluff everyfur!

This podcast contains adult language and adult topics. It is rated M for Mature. Listener discretion is advised.

Support the show

Thanks to all our listeners and to our staff: Bearly Normal, Rayne Raccoon, Taebyn, Cheetaro, TickTock, and Ziggy the Meme Weasel.

You can send us a message on Telegram at BFFT Chat, or via email at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com

Bearly Furcasting S5E17 - Beanie Weenies in BBQ Sauce

Developed by ascendant indie studio Vea Games and published by Knight’s Peak, Nikoderiko: The Magical World was released on October 15, 2024 across multiple platforms, including Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 4, Playstation 5 and Nintendo Switch, later followed by a Steam release on December 5. A loving homage to platformer classics like Crash Bandicoot and Donkey Kong Country Returns, Nikoderiko has been a hit with critics and gamers alike. Gaming Furever’s own reviewer played it for xbox and overall had a good time with it. Now Gaming Furever is here to bring you an interview with its Game Director, Dmitry Smirnov. 

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.)