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Utah kids find clever way to skip school: protesting furries

Your rating: None Average: 4 (4 votes)

Anthrocon 2007 7chan protestors What started as a cafeteria food fling in Payson, Utah became yet another fracas over the allegations of ‘furry behavior’ in schools. This ultimately led to online rumors and frustrations about alleged attacks committed by the ‘furries’ on students. Bolstered by frustrations on social media, a handful of students and their parents performed a walk out of their school on April 17.

An older furry by the name of Stroodle was interviewed by ABC4 [EU/UK folk: try this], and said that expression is important, but sometimes studies should come first.

It’s crazy that it’s escalated to this point that these kids are being so distracting to their peers that their peers want to stage a walkout [...] So to have the next generation muddy our name and not represent us very well, it’s kind of disappointing.

Continue doing things you like, continue dressing up, continue making art. But maybe let’s keep it out of school hours?

Music cut from 2023 Ursa Major Awards after 'squabbling'

Your rating: None Average: 4.8 (5 votes)

Ursa Major Awards banner by EosFoxx Voting opened March 1 for the 2023 Ursa Major Awards - but the event intended to identify and celebrate the best works featuring non-human beings given human attributes has been marred by drama, well before the close of voting on its popularly-selected nominees on March 24.

Update (Apr 9): The winners have been announced.

Initially, there were fifteen award categories, but the Music category was removed five days after nominees were announced:

The organization posted an additional explanation on its front page:

It's important to remember that the Ursa Major Awards (like so many other awards) are designed to celebrate and recognize great works, not to judge the character or personality of creators. Unfortunately, the personal squabbling, attacks, and counter-attacks have reached a fever pitch in the Best Music Category this year. The staff of the ALAA have made the unfortunate observation that the category has been compromised, and so we have made the difficult decision to cancel the Best Music category for works from last year (2023). We fully intend to attempt the award in that category again next year (for works from 2024), hopefully with some better controls in place. We apologize to all the music creators out there, and we thank all of our nominators and voters for their patience.

Furry YouTuber appears to violate David Guetta copyright while publishing false copyright claim troll videos

Your rating: None Average: 3.6 (5 votes)

There is an old saying that those who live in a house of glass should not throw stones. This can be seen as true for one furry who has been making a wave in the furry YouTube community for all the wrong reasons. In a video she posted, she shows herself filing copyright takedown requests of furry videos frivolously.

Copyfraud is the false claim of ownership over a work, it is something that the claim site on YouTube warns against doing due to the legal issues that can come with falsely claiming the work of someone as your own. In the mostly automated digital world it has become a common action to utilize false strikes to attack content creators.

But the greater irony was that in this video of the self-admitting copy-fraudster flagging these videos is that there is a grating and sped up music of some description in the background. A closer listen to the first song of the video at the eleven second mark, and slowing it down to half speed and lowering the pitch a bit, reveals it to be a copyrighted song: David Guetta - Turn Me On ft. Nicki Minaj

'Huggy Wuggy' triggers police warning to horrified parents

Your rating: None Average: 4.3 (4 votes)

Dorset police are warning of the impact on young children of videos related to Huggy Wuggy, an anthropomorphic antagonist in the independently-developed horror game Poppy Playtime, released last year. The game itself is reminiscent of Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach and has been rated 12+ by Common Sense Media. An official plush toy with Velcro paws was released mid-March.

Media featuring the character is proliferating, including a depiction of Huggy's reassembly on TikTok and 'Free Hugs', a multi-verse song from the monster's point of view. Reports indicate that the friendly nature of the character's name seems to be allowing their content to bypass filtering that would usually defend young viewers from such disturbing content, similar to issues before YouTube's COPPA implementation.

Turbulence in Tulsa as ousted Tails and Tornadoes president starts new convention in same hotel

Your rating: None Average: 2.8 (22 votes)

Free Fur All convention logoIn Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tails and Tornadoes is a young convention that's been running in the Central U.S. state since 2019. Its premiere year was reviewed here on Flayrah by one-time contributor Koori Kitty. Like the weather system it was named after, the con has subsequently found itself in a whirlwind that's rattled its organization.

The first shakeup was one that affected most gatherings, in that its second year was unable to be held in 2020 due to COVID-19 closures. But on top of this, the same year brought in political fallout from the final year of Trump's presidency. Riots in the American Midwest soon spurred worldwide protests following the murder of George Floyd by a law enforcement officer, where the unarmed black man was strangled by a knee to his neck that was held there for over eight minutes. The entire duration of the strangulation was recorded on a smartphone and shared over the Internet.

The United States government, under the leadership it held, decided to go against the advisability of de-escalation in these matters and instead responded with hostile rhetoric. Given the shutdown of many non-essential jobs due to the pandemic, this created a perfect storm of vocal protests and rioting towards an unsympathetic system, sentiments that spread far beyond the Midwest where the murder took place.

Update: Correction made about staffing shifts from 2020 to 2021 in Tails and Tornados per Koori.

Update: AWOO has released a statement in their Telegram group that the hotel has withdrawn from their contract.

Don't Hug Cacti sends cease and desist to furry; alleges defamation

Your rating: None Average: 3.5 (15 votes)

Disclaimer: This article will not take a side in this matter and is merely a publication of the events leading to the public conflict in question, thus falling under “Neutral Report Privilege”. People’s comments below are their own, and do not contribute to Flayrah’s position on any pending legal matter.

In the first week of February, furry twitter lit up as a furry fan by the name of Qutens posted a GoFundMe page to raise money for a legal defense against the fursuit creating business of Don’t Hug Cacti LLC. The LLC sent a cease and desist to Qutens that stems from the publication of witness testimony of alleged sexual misconduct behaviors of the business’s founder Lucky Coyote that was published in September of 2020 on the below tweet:


Review: 'Rukus'

Your rating: None Average: 3.9 (10 votes)

The 2000s were not an easy time for those who were furry or gay. The mainstream media was still hyper-focused on the sexual aspects of fandom expression in a freak-show style of coverage, instead of the overall complexity of the community. The ability to marry individuals of the same sex was still not federally recognized in the United States and wouldn’t be until the early 2010s. It was in that era that one furry artist named Rukus took their own life at the end of 2008.

Now, just over a decade later, someone who knew this artist on a personal level has finished a documentary covering the life of their lost friend and their interlude with fandom. That director, Brett Hanover, contacted me and gave me the opportunity to view a screening of the film.

The show releases on Vimeo and their own website today and can be viewed there. You can choose to watch before I go over the details and review below. Though the review may help understand some of the nuances of the film.
Rukus

Shoe ad drops - gets furries to "converse" about marketing and fandom

Your rating: None Average: 4.6 (9 votes)

In Brazil in March 2019, a furry bowling event had gathered under the name Furboliche. In attendance was Crash Azarel, a popular fursuit performer who had been guest of honor at Brasil FurFest the previous year. At the bowling event there was also another group in attendance to take photos of the fursuiters, to show them wearing sneakers for an advertising campaign for Converse (a brand bought by Nike in 2003). These adverts have been recently released on their Argentinian and Australian sites. Crash shared the news of the marketing launch on his Twitter feed.

Afterwards, some furs began to be critical of the collaboration, concerned about using one's fursona for the profit of another, and fears of corporate culture and marketing infiltrating the fandom. True to its brand name, the shoe being worn by the furs of Brazil were starting a conversation on outside marketing within the fandom.

Update 7/27: Brasil FurFest has announced a sponsorship by Converse since this article was published.

Indycision: Programming plan for IndyFurCon's 10th year causes backpedal

Your rating: None Average: 3.9 (9 votes)

Being a con's programming director may sound easy on paper. You take a bunch of panel submissions, and assign them to rooms. However, there are a bunch of logistics involved. Like the conflicting interests of the panelists, who want to attend other events themselves, or making sure there are no schedule overlaps by knowing which rooms are available, and when.

And now to that list of concerns we can add: Making sure that inviting a particular headliner won't cause interpersonal issues with other performing talent who'll be attending.

IndyFurCon, a furry convention that takes place in Indianapolis with a Hawaiian theme this year, found itself in the midst of a gnarly programming snafu last week when it began to announce its guests for this year's gathering.

In order to celebrate their tenth anniversary, there was a decision to try and bring back the special guests they'd honored in all their prior years of operation. Things have changed in that decade though, and one of the returning alumni, 2 Gryphon, was seen as being too controversial. This led not only to Internet outrage, but other performers to back out of their planned attendance.

Why Keemstar and YouTubers like him are a bigger threat to gamers than furrys

Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (16 votes)

YouTuber Keemstar of the channel Drama-Alert, with approximately 4.5 million subscribers and covers topics of controversy on the platform, found himself in one of his own involving the furry fandom this week. On his twitter account he made a quote of saying that furries “must be deleted” and that he wished to make a video game in which you hunt and kill furries.

Roo v 2: The Furry Fracas (No one asked for)

Your rating: None Average: 2.6 (25 votes)

Two furry Youtubers, 2 the Ranting Gryphon and Tantroo McNally, find themselves in a poignant brouhaha. It all started in mid-February when an infamous furry comedian made a statement on hate crime statistics, and would lead to a long winded discussion of righteous condemnation that left audiences in awe at how two angry old men could find literally nothing better to do with their time.

"The Squirrels"; world premiere of a new play

Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (15 votes)

The La Jolla Playhouse, in La Jolla, California, a suburb of San Diego, will present the world premiere of a new play, “The Squirrels”, during its 2018-2019 season. The dates and casting have not been set yet.

“The Squirrels” by Robert Askins, directed by Christopher Ashley.

Winter is on its way, and the squirrels are restless. Mistrust is growing between the Grey Squirrels, who enjoy a rich cache of nuts, and the outcast, hungry Fox Squirrels. When a wily outsider ignites a savage war, the consequences are catastrophic. This epic play reveals the animal instincts driving us all.

The choice of species is fitting for the local given the squirrels in Southern California are primarily fox squirrels and gray squirrels.

An article on November 8 in the San Diego Union-Tribune says that Director Ashely calls the new work "playful and super-funny and unexpected in every possible way," and says that as with good sci-fi, the fantastical setup allows the piece "to explore our society with just enough remove that you can make bold, interesting statements. It’s squirrels in a tree, but you would recognize lots of things in this cultural moment."

Ashley noted that the costumes were not going to look like 'Disneyland', but they will convey an essential ‘squirrel-ness,’ to coin a term.

Tickets to the Playhouse’s 2018-2019 season are available only via subscription at the moment: (858) 550-1010 or lajollaplayhouse.org.

Keep tuned in as more news will be added here when it is available. It will be interesting to see how much the play’s costuming looks like fursuits.

Anthro Northwest premier forgets history of Furlandia's rough first year

Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (25 votes)

Washington state has had a rough time with furry conventions in recent history. Rainfurrest had to shut down after they gained a sour reputation with hosting hotels due to reports of vandalism. So local furries were elated to hear of a new organization starting up by the name of Anthro Northwest. This convention, while a bit more stringent on their rules (particularly around adult material), was a welcome possible restart in relations with hotels in the region with furries.

But as activities started word leaked onto the internet of on camera release forms being deseminated for a show called "This is Life with Lisa Ling", a property of the channel CNN. Instantly locals had recollections of another incident that had occurred at another pilot convention one state south, Furlandia.

Update 11/15/17: Attendance has been announced and Anthro Northwest has been noted as being the largest attendance for a first year furry convention at 809, article updated to reflect this.

August has seen a lot of drama, but what drama was the most dramatic?

Fur Affinity forum and site mod resignations
50% (10 votes)
Probable inspiration of the "ConFurence ad" story revealed
15% (3 votes)
Furry drama site Furry Drama 2 succumbs to its own drama
10% (2 votes)
Furry HIV chain posted to multiple furry sites
25% (5 votes)
Votes: 20

Are we scaring away potential furry fans? Google says yes.

Your rating: None Average: 3.1 (17 votes)

Google suggestions: Furries are ... sick, weird and creepyI detest unnecessary wordiness, but keeping it short just doesn't work.

Before I begin, I would like to present an apology of sorts to Patch Packrat. I very much dislike to be misunderstood, but also cannot stand to be the source of said misunderstanding. I guess I should have been more clear with my choice of words.

Now, with that out of the way, today's topic.

Throughout the years, I have been around the various reaches of the web, and met a ton of really good artists. Many really liked to draw humanized animals (for fun and profit). For some, the subject made up most of their galleries; some drew furries exclusively. As we conversed, the topic of furries inevitably arose. Aside from the occasional "yep, I'm a furry", most replies went something like this:

  1. I like drawing talking animals, but I don't have a fursona/fursuit, so I'm not a furry.
  2. I like drawing talking animals, but to me it's not a "lifestyle", so I'm not a furry.
  3. Furries are creepy, and I don't want to be associated with them.

Answer #3 was the most prevalent.