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July 2025

Newsbytes archive for June 2025

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Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, dronon, InkyCrow, Rakuen Growlithe, and Sonious.

Furry Weekend Atlanta Will Have Cheaper Tickets, For Now

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Furry Weekend Atlanta CEO Ranan announced that prices for FWA 2026 ("Nowhere Inn Between") will increase twice by the time the convention happens next May. "Despite our most fervent wishes to the contrary, FWA isn't immune to the rising costs of goods and services," Ranan wrote in a letter to prospective attendees on June 30th, 2025, citing "inflation and increased tariffs [which] have impacted us just as they've impacted many of you."

Pittsburgh art gallery Bunker Projects hosts furry exhibit until July 20th

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ArtGallery_0.pngThe art gallery Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh, located three miles from Anthrocon's events, is currently hosting a furry exhibit. Co-curated by Brett Hanover who directed the documentary film Rukus, this exhibition is called Room Party: Furry Art at the Beginning of the World in celebration of the unofficial gatherings of furries that occur during conventions, typically where art exchanges and sketching would occur.

More information on the list of artists being exhibited can be found here. While there will be special events during Anthrocon weekend, the exhibit will be available until July 20th during their normal Thursday and Sunday open gallery hours. These events are not run by Anthrocon themselves, but by Bunker Projects.

Digging up Positivity June 2025

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Welcome to a new episode of Digging Up Positivity! We are already over halfway of this year, and despite of all the [gestures] everything we still continue to try to make the world a better place. In this episode:

  • Did you know there is a fur con in Slovenia?
  • Animation news
  • Animal news
  • Furry charities from all over the world!
  • The result of the pride shirt giveaway

So let’s get started!

Dr. David "Spottacus" Benaron - furry known for work foundational to smartwatch heartrate monitors - passes away

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Spottacuss3.pngNews of the passing of Doctor David “Spottacus” Benaron on Friday Friday July 18th, 2025 was shared and confirmed on Saturday. This doctor with a cheetah fursona was well known in the fandom for their work that enabled the capacity of smart watches to monitor heart rates. PC Mag’s Will Greenwald did a piece on the doctor on his technical and furry lives in 2022. This article had become highly shared as a focal point of people holding successful careers within furry fandom spaces.

The spotted doctor did not shy away from his hobby and the influences it had in his career successes. He gave a presentation at Berkeley called Furries, Neurodivergence and STEM: Finding Your Path From Zero to One to One Billion, which can be viewed on YouTube.

He was a prolific fursuiter that had multiple suits to his name. Other characters played by the doctor included a California sabretooth by the name of Toofs, and lion named Dandy, an Ocelot named Ozzie. More information and photos of these can be found on his WikiFur page.

Mom's Cat: Short Film from Hungary Captures the Furry Angst of Rejection

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Moms Cat.jpgMom’s Cat is an intense, yet quiet, short film by Hungarian writer/director Annabella Schnabel, who produced it for her diploma project at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest (you can watch a preview here). It has already garnered several awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at the 29th Chicago Underground Film Festival, First Prize at the 19th Pannonfíling Film Festival, Best Short Film at the 8th Nefiltravane Kino Film Festival, and Best Young Director at the 13th Short to the Point International Film Festival. It was screened at several Oscar-qualifying festivals, such as the 70th Melbourne International Film Festival, 40th Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, 52nd Nashville Film Festival, and the A-listed 43rd Moscow International Film Festival, earning a spot on the 2023 Student Academy Awards long list. I had the opportunity to watch this 18-minute film, and I can say the plaudits are deserved.

Current and upcoming animated films (2025-2026)

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Promo image for Goat.What furry animated films might be coming out since our last list? (You can find some non-furry films discussed in the comments section.) As usual it's difficult to know for certain what's coming up, since a lot of films show up with unpredictable marketing, or might never reach completion, or might be a Warner Bros tax write-off.

Let's start with a little non-furry news! Ne Zha 2 (China, 2025) now holds the record for being the highest-grossing animated film ever, having earned over $2.2 billion. KPop Demon Hunters (Sony, 2025) on Netflix got over 33 million views in two weeks, and is still going strong.

The news site Cartoon Brew has a new owner and chief editor, who hopefully will be less snooty and won't accidentally create Brony fandom. Director Brad Bird is now over at SkyDance and might finally get to make Ray Gunn, a project he's wanted to do for 30 years.

Laika isn't leaking any information about Wildwood. DreamWorks' The Bad Guys 2 is just around the corner, and Zootopia 2 (Disney, 2025) is aiming at a Late November release for U.S. Thanksgiving and any cinema foolish enough to be in range of Midwest FurFest.

Payment processors MasterCard and Visa use their leverage to go after adult fictional works, including furry

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This latest round of censorship started in late June when Fansly announced that they were removing adult furry content from their services at the call of their payment processors MasterCard and Visa. But not content to just go after the fledgling services that are derived from OnlyFans, the processors also set their sights on larger targets including the gaming markets of Steam and Itch.io in late July.

In their statement, Fansly indicated that the card services equated adult furry content with "simulated beastiality”:

Policy Clarifications:
Anthropomorphic Content - Our payment processing partners classify some anthropomorphic content as simulated beastiality. As a general guideline, Kemonomimi (human-like characters with animal ears/tails) is permitted, but full fursonas, Kemono, and scalie content are prohibited in adult contexts.

-Fansly policy update

However, it should be noted that if (and only if) furries who are engaged in consensual adult acts can be referred to as simulated beastiality, then it would also be accurate to refer to MasterCard and Visa, who charge well over 20% in interest on money borrowed through their services to the often fiscally-illiterate general public, as "simulated slavery services". It's a bit harsh, and in both cases from a technically legal standpoint, inaccurate.