Dogpatch Press

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

There’s something funny about how they wrote it.

Check this out:

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

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

What’s a Steve?

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

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

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

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

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

Arrkay The Bird of Culturally F’d says:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ursa art by Foxenawolf.

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

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

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

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

The awards are run by volunteers of the ALAA. Please consider donating to support their service via [email protected].

__________________________________________

6th Annual Good Furry Awards open for nominations.

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

Nominate HERE via the updated page.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Attention all

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

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

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

Digging in

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to the start: Sowing seeds of a new con

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

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

— Leaf (@LeafDubois) November 25, 2022

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

Snakes in the Grass

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fool me once, fool me twice

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

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

The core of the story.

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

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

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

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

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

Aeveirra’s agenda

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Asking about influence on GSFTW

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

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

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

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

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

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

Behind the public statements

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

A witness complaint

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

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

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

Evidence of a festering problem. 

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

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

Astral and Norby at Anthrocon 2015

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

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

Looking at a rosy future

Shy Matsi is the new chair who represents optimism.

Attention all!

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

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

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

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

From the other staffer who responded:

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

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

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

A need for support

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UPDATE

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

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

This news is illegal in Russia.

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) December 11, 2023

The mission of FUR/HELP

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

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

YukiDeer, the founder and ambassador, explains their work:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The need for asylum and the benefit of humanitarian aid.

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

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

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

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

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

YukiDeer hopes to have asylum one day soon:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final word from YukiDeer:

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

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

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

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

Welcome to guest writer Grubbs Grizzly.

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

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

The book is not what I expected.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About the Author

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

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

Content warning for discussing animal and child abuse.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Connection to furry fandom.

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

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

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

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

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

Vanwoert’s photo from court documents and his tweet

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

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

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

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

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

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) September 26, 2023

Three problems of zoophile infiltration.

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

This leads to…

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

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

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

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

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

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) September 27, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The points are:

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

But:

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

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

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

NOTE: article topic is not to be confused with inside fandom-made documentaries. Please send confidential tips to: [email protected]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The persistent but questionable approaching now makes me ask:

Has anyone else been approached by a production company? Please tip: [email protected].

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

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

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

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

Suspicions and high alert

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

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

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

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

Which brings us to the current producer approaches.

Hollywood writer’s strike and unscripted programming

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

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

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

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

Your history

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

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

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

“Hello Patch,

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

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

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

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

Hope this is useful.

Regards,
Gamepopper”

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

Statement on Peter’s official Facebook page

The gall of these people.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My writing process

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(I spot @all_the_ears on the cover.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— OposFurvana (@Real_Opos) August 15, 2023

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

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

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

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

Years of provocation – and why the Nazi term comes up

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

Quick points about the beach event:

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

Proof of years of provocation:

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

A witness statement and the aftermath

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Editor’s opinion

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

UPDATE:

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

— Scotty (@ScottyWuff) August 17, 2023

UPDATE 2:

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

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

6 reasons to skip it

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

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

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

What a liar looks like

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Michael Paulauski (@mike10010100) September 8, 2023

He created his fursona as a Nazi

He repeatedly hung out online as that fursona

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

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

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

— Michael Paulauski (@mike10010100) September 8, 2023

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

— Isabel Cooper (@ICooperAuthor) September 8, 2023

UPDATE 3:

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

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

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

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

UPDATE: DEADLINE EXTENDED TO AUGUST 15!

Samayoukodomo (more)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) July 14, 2023

Post-Pride Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

For members who completed an RSVP

Photo: AniMajor

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

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

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

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

NOR CAL FURRIES MEMBERSHIP – RSVP for standby

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

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

TIPS FOR GETTING AROUND – Be early!

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

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

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

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

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

COSTUME AND FURSUITING – No hard bins allowed!

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

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

PHOTOS – Group photo at 11:30 a.m.

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

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

MOVING – Show your Pride and stay safe

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

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

RELAY’S PLACE – Changing/breakfast and after party 

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

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

NEED HELP ON SUNDAY? 

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

SEE YOU THERE! Art for banners by Kado Husky.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you like making friends laugh and/or wasting company time, and have been on the net for 10-15 years, then you probably know The Onion, CollegeHumor, Funny or Die – and Cracked. At one point it was the world’s most visited comedy site.

Papa Bear is a movie in development from heads of the Cracked video department at its peak. It’s about a furry in the family, and its climax will be filmed at a furry convention. Papa Bear promises to be dramatic, funny, daring, boldly LGBT-positive, and full of heart.

There’s a crowdfunding campaign for Papa Bear that ends in a few days, on June 16 – don’t wait to check it out! 

When I first heard about it, I was skeptical because I’ve seen many attempted indie movies with furries. Some past ones seem bad in a good way, like no-budget slasher-horror flicks or party-worthy science fiction fanservice. One had an A-list actor in a fursuit. One reached arthouse greatness. Many of them are DOA because of superficial writing and weak production values. Lack of inside knowledge always shows. Here’s a test… do the costumes look like post-Halloween discount junk? Or are they cool hand-crafted fandom fursuits? That implies effort to get community support.

Co-director and writer Michael Swaim reassured me that Papa Bear comes from real experience and consulting community members.

Then I read the script and loved it. It dives into furriness without wasting time on setup, but familiarizes it with awkward comedy anyone can relate to. It doesn’t fall into lame campiness, and the characters have personalities. Tense subplots come up right away. The tension comes from being put on the spot about private life, and inside views of “content warning” topics. There’s pleasing aesthetic touches, like calling for music by nervous rock bands of nerd canon (XTC, Talking Heads) and animated montages. It’s full of inside lore in a way that fits the story and makes sense even if you weren’t familiar with it.

The crowdfund incentives start with a private link to watch the movie as soon as it’s ready. That would be an amazing opportunity for a fur meet! Papa Bear would also make strong convention programming.

At time of writing, Papa Bear has over $61,000 pledged. Waiting to see it completed is almost unbearable.

UPDATE: funding reached.

oh shit pic.twitter.com/1A7azVZp7P

— Abe Epperson (@AbeTheMighty) June 13, 2023

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

Sudoku has been a fursuit maker since 2015, and was sole proprietor of Strut Your Fluff Ltd. in 2020-2022. That led to something amazing:

“I got my start in costumes in the furry fandom (stumbling across Matrices’ website in 2014!) That foundation helped me to reach my long-term goal of performing as an official mascot. I am Bruiser the Bulldog, NAIA-division, for Concordia University, NE.”

In 2019, Twenty One Pilots made a video featuring a fuzzy creature named “Ned”. As a fan, Sudoku built a mascot costume of him. It was made and worn for personal satisfaction, but as life went on, Sudoku wanted to retire as owner. Recently Twenty One Pilots accepted her gift offer of the Ned costume, so it’s becoming the official property of band members Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun.

Sometimes there is controversy about creators doing underpaid or speculative work for high-profile people; but that’s more about commissions and original creations. Ned is copyrighted to the band, so the costume shouldn’t be sold. Sudoku is happy to have her fan project appreciated and taken care of this way.

It’s nice attention too, with stories in Strife and Rock Sound music magazines, and now Dogpatch Press interested in the crossover between fandom and professional work. This reporter is more likely to go fursuiting with cult bands than huge ones, so it required learning about Ned and his new owners.

A band with theatrical roots.

Twenty One Pilots has a core duo of members from Columbus, Ohio. They might be called hybrid post-emo or alternative hip hop. They’re known for success with name producers for high concept, high charting pop songs, but got there with persistent regional touring and interaction with grassroots fandom.

“To catch the attention of unfamiliar or disinterested attendees and promoters, the band began to experiment with costumes and on-stage acrobatics… Tyler Joseph wears masks and occasionally body makeup while rapping and singing… Dun stated, ‘We thought it was kind of cool, new and different to wear masks onstage…'” (-Wikipedia)

In January 2019, they released a music video for the single “Chlorine”. It was directed by Mark Eshleman of Reel Bear Media – a Columbus based talent who has been with the band since their early days – and it made the alien-like creature “Ned” part of the band lore; he represents creativity.

Sudoku talks about #NedLives, Twenty One Pilots fans and furry fandom

Dogpatch Press asked Sudoku more about what she did with Ned:

“My intention with Ned was not to donate to a mainstream artist; the costume was a high school graduation gift to myself, and I planned on performing at nonprofit events. Twenty One Pilots created the character itself, and #NedLives was my own fan project.” (The hashtag features touring costume appearances with other fans.)

“The pandemic took away many opportunities to wear Ned in public; I am not satisfied with filming videos at home, as I believe strongly in in-person entertainment. This combined with rising material prices led me to the decision to close Strut Your Fluff, go to college, and start scouting for a new home for Ned. I searched in both the furry fandom and the Twenty One Pilots fandom for a suitable home, trying to contact the band as well to see if they would take him. The band emailed me in 2022 saying that they would be happy to have him.

What might be the intentions and future for Ned?

“No money has been exchanged for Ned, as I did not ask for any in return. The band and their employees have shown appreciation on social media. Ned is ready for retirement, and they are most likely taking him as a collectible item. I have not been told their intentions but know that if they put him into storage, he will be secure. My top concern is the integrity and safety of the costume, as it took a year to make, and is deeply personal to me.”

Did she deal with the creators behind Ned, or feel recognized as a performer?

“I am not affiliated with anyone who worked on the music video beyond initial contact asking about copyright, but I am very passionate about music, and it means a lot that I can contribute to the industry with a fursuit. I think mascots should be more prevalent in entertainment, primarily in live music endeavors.” (She’s doing it as Bruiser):

IT’S NATIONAL BULLDOG DAY!!

What better way to celebrate than a photoshoot with Bruiser and his favorite pal, Murphy!

Happy Friday, Bulldogs! pic.twitter.com/QXH4uQi5n8

— Concordia Nebraska (@CUNE) April 21, 2023

Has she seen crossover between furries, the band, and  their fans (the Skeleton Clique)?

“What means the most is how Ned has impacted both Clikkies and furries, as the support and love have been tremendous and built Ned as a character more than I ever could have anticipated.

I have not invited Twenty One Pilots to a con or asked them about furries; these would be great questions for an interview with them. The Clique is definitely more curious about this than the furry fandom, from what I have seen.”

How does she feel about this as part of her background coming out of furry fandom?

“I wanted to add that it was those formative years when I first started that gave me so much confidence! People were supportive on Fursuit LiveJournal, FurAffinity, and Facebook, and I started getting commission requests early on. I waited until 2019 to sell my first premade, and then opened for commissions in 2020. My clients are so devoted and have done more than they know with their support. I tend to have imposter syndrome about these things and they made it real. It was definitely not easy running a business but I do not regret those years. I had a lot of fun with furry and still have close furry friends to this day.

I do not regret giving Ned to Twenty One Pilots, either. I will miss him very much, but knowing that he will be safe gives me great peace of mind. I had a great 4 years bringing this character to life.

Entertainment is NOTHING without the audience. NOTHING without the people. This is why I value face-to-face performance so much. In every photo taken at the #NedLives meet and greets, I am smiling for real behind that mask. People helped write Ned’s story and make him special. People from both furry and the Clique. I am sad to see Ned’s story end, but am at peace with it because he is home.”

This incredible costume of Twenty One Pilots’ alien friend Ned is to be adopted by the band#nedlives https://t.co/yGKt4Itvwi pic.twitter.com/IE5Jf5pKX8

— Rock Sound (@rocksound) May 16, 2023

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

What does Pride mean to you?

If Pride means being authentically yourself and refusing to hide, the San Francisco Pride Parade is one of the best places in the world. It’s so real when you’re there with a group, in the moment when they say GO, then you turn the corner onto the main parade route and the crowd roars. That’s how to BE.

The Nor Cal Furries will march with a parade float on June 25. (Furry is an interest that harmonizes with LGBT members, and many other interest groups participate.) Meanwhile, some people just found out that furries exist and want to attack them; for example, anti-LGBT law has forced Megaplex to restrict attendance due to power abuse by the government. This shows ongoing history where simply existing is an undebatable political statement. But people who oppose LGBT existence and think this is new activism don’t know that furries have been award-winning Pride marchers for 21 years. And the founders of Pride knew that just being there is winning. We can look forward to another 21 years of being there… but it won’t happen by itself.

It’s up to us and YOU. Nor Cal Furries can’t go without volunteer staff, so please answer or spread the call. If you can’t volunteer, come attend and tell a friend.

CALL FOR STAFF – SIGN UP HERE > https://forms.gle/Pb8n1UXDCTLNKaW6A

Let’s meet some of the team you can join (in no special order). Dogpatch Press asked each one: What does Pride mean to you, and why make this event happen?

Zoren (Telegram: ZorenManray)

Pride means showing our uniqueness. That we are all so diverse. Pride also shows that despite our differences we still can all come together as one and celebrate our love and passions in their many different ways. I continue to lead the contingent not for personal gain or acclaim, I do this to bring together that magic we all make together and share it with the rest of the world.

Who is Zoren?

Hailing from the Sacramento metro area, Zoren has been around the furry fandom for many years. Giving back to the community, you will find him volunteering at multiple regional furry conventions and events. He’s helped out with quite a few over the years, including leading the furry contingent in the San Francisco Pride Parade since 2018.

Super Jay (Telegram: SuperJayhawk)

Growing up as a minority, Super Jayhawk chose to fight for equality and against prejudice both online and in real life. The Pride Celebration and parade means standing up and supporting equality for everyone, and SuperJay is proud to march with the NorCal Furries in the San Francisco Pride Parade and help everyone be absolutely fabulous!

Super Jayhawk has been performing, coordinating and assisting in local fursuiting events with Critters by the Bay, a local fursuit performance group, for over 20 years, including parades, amusement park, city and charity events. Fursuiting in public can be challenging, and Super Jayhawk is commited to making sure everything runs smoothly and performers are looked out for, and to make the event an awesome experience.

Didge (Telegram: DidgeDingo)

Pride to me is showing who we are and that we are here. It’s a show of force that we will not be silenced or hidden away through legislation or other’s religious/political ideology.

It’s a reminder to younger LGBTQ+ generations of where we came from and what we have fought to achieve over decades.

Painting the float for the parade

It’s kinda cliché, but pride really can boil down to showing the world that Love is Love and nothing will change that.

What really makes Pride worth it is the feeling of being on the float and that moment you turn onto Market street. You see the first part of what can be a million people lining the street and the realization that all these people support you for you, your friends for who they are and it’s unconditional – it’s truly amazing and emotional. Even after being out to various levels degrees for 20 years or more, that feeling is still unreal.

About me: Age 39 (well I’ll be 39 by pride lol), and I’ve been a furry for about 27 years. I started out as a dragon but found myself as a dingo about 10-12 years ago. Born and raised in the central valley, Ohio State grad and forever a Buckeye. I am a licensed civil engineer who works for the State. You’ll find me at various events in one of the suits I have been lucky enough to get over many years.

Disko (Telegram: Mr_Disk0)

Hey there! Names Mr. D!sk0 Dog, I’ve been in the community for almost 20 years and help with events here and there.

Pride means everything to me, for me it’s about standing up for our rights in an ever changing society that would soon forget about what we do. I wish I could say we no longer need to fight for these rights, that we live in a cohesive relationship with others working together towards greater goals. However that is not the case, there are people that want strip these rights from us. Basic rights of equality. Something I believe should not even be questioned. Yet here we are… still fighting. Progress has been made. Yet the second we relax, these rights will be removed if we let them.

This event to me means bringing us together, to stand as equals to be proud of who you are, to be proud of what we can achieve if you just apply yourselves. Back in 2019 after the parade I wanted us to focus on a new project. Instead of renting trucks why don’t we build our own? Fast-forward to today and we are still making changes and building on a platform that we can take into the future, for all sorts of events, not just Pride.

I often think of these quotes from this movie when thinking on the actions we do here and what they mean to me. To us all.

“Greed has poisoned men’s souls
Has barricaded the world with hate
Has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed
Our knowledge has made us cynical
Our cleverness, hard and unkind
We think too much and feel too little
More than machinery we need humanity
More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness
Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.”

Charlie Chaplin.
The Great Dictator.

Remember, that in all that we do… we do with Love. We do this with Pride.

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.)

Time is short, go HERE to vote now! The fifth annual Good Furry Awards are closing soon on May 5, 2023. Anyone who wants to vote can do so, with 30 nominees to choose from, including four group nominees.

This award recognizes furries who make outstanding positive contributions to the fandom. The first one in 2019 went to Tony “Dogbomb” Barrett. In 2020 the award went to Ash Coyote. In 2021, Cassidy Civet won and in 2022 it went to Soatok Dhole.

Four prizes will be awarded based on voting. Three honorable mentions will receive trophies. A first-place winner will receive a trophy and a check for $500 from sponsor Uncle Bear Publishing.

This is the second year for the Lifetime Achievement Award to recognize furries who have made long-lasting contributions. It is selected by committee and will be announced at the same time as the Good Furry Awards. Last year’s award went jointly to Mark Merlino and Rod O’Riley, co-founders of the first furry convention.

Any furry can vote, but only once (don’t try multiple votes or they’ll be tossed out!) Browse the full list of nominees to learn about the fandom’s many worthy contributors.

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

Ursa art by Foxenawolf.

Go HERE to vote, and don’t wait, the deadline is March 31! 

The furry fandom’s annual Ursa Major awards honor the best and most loved anthropomorphic creations of the past year. They put a spotlight on talent that deserves recognition, and lets fans discover and support it directly with popular voting by anyone.

Nominations for works from 2022 ended in February. Nominees are in 14 categories, and the Ursa Majors site has more details about each one. Music has a new category, but Best Fursuit isn’t active this year due to lack of nominations.

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

Best Motion Picture

• DC League of Super-Pets (Warner Bros.)
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Dreamworks, Universal)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega, Marza, Blue, Paramount)
• The Bad Guys (Dreamworks, Universal)
• Turning Red (Pixar, Disney)

Best Dramatic Short Works

• Horns (FattyDragonite)
• The Legend of Pipi (Julia Schoel, Birgit Uhlig)
• Monkey Wrench – The Ghost Egg (Zeurel)
• Tales From Scorchwater Valley – The Rhino and the Redbill (Alex Henderson)
• Tales of Zale – Flickering Lights (Sif Savery)

Best Dramatic Series

• Bluey (Ludo, ABC, BBC, Disney)
• Helluva Boss (VivziePop) (Mature audiences)
• The Owl House (Disney)
• Tuca & Bertie (Tornante, Netflix) (Mature audiences)
• Zootopia+ (Disney)

Best Novel

• A Furry Faux Paw – by Jessica Kara
• Brothers At Arms – by R.A. Meenan (The Zyearth Chronicles Book 2)
• Mouse Cage – by Malcolm F. Cross
• Scars of the Golden Dancer – by NightEyes DaySpring (Mature audiences)
• Toledot – by Madison Scott-Clary (Post-Self Cycle Book 2)

Best Short Fiction

• Bears & Bravery – by Gre7g Luterman
• Draught Horse – by Huskyteer (in ROAR: Volume 11)
• Null – by Elise Zoe Heider (Mature audiences)
• The Otter’s Wings – by Mary E. Lowd
• The Swift-Footed Darling of the Rocks (Do NOT Actually Call Me That) – by Marie Croke

Best General Literary Work

• Circles: Volume 4 – by Steve Domanski and Andrew French
• ROAR: Volume 11 – Edited by Ian Madison Keller
• Usagi Yojimbo Origins – by Stan Saki
• Usagi Yojimbo (Trade Paperback) – by Stan Sakai
• When the World Was Young: A Prehistoric Anthology – edited by Madison Scott-Clary

Best Non-Fiction Work

• Art, Furries, God – by Patricia Taxxon
• Furries & The Ethics of Cringe Culture – by Kurtis Connor
• Furry Fiction: The Squishy Edges and the Heart – by Mary E. Lowd
• Ursa Major’s Issue – Confident self-promotion vs humble passionate skill, and a voting system’s favoritism – by Sonious
• Who Runs The Internet? Furries – by Dylan Reeve

Best Graphic Story

• Slightly Damned – by Chu
• Sonic the Hedgehog – (IDW Publishing Issues 48 – 55)
• Usagi Yojimbo – by Stan Sakai
• Usagi Yojimbo: Lone Goat & Kid – by Stan Sakai
• The Whiteboard: Sherlock Holmes – by Doc N

Best Comic Strip

• Carry On – by Kathy Garrison Kellog
• Duncan & Eddie – by Chevril
• Foxes in Love
• Part Time Dragons
• The Whiteboard – by Doc N

Best Magazine

• Deep Sky Anchor, edited by Mary E. Lowd
• Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat
• Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon
• InFurNation, edited by Rod O’Riley
• Zooscape, edited by Mary E. Lowd

Best Illustration

• Dragon Party – by Ais05 (Mature audiences)
• Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary – by Caraid
• Wind Watcher – by https://jaca.to/ “>Jacato
• Space Boy – by Wildering (Mature audiences)

Best Game

• Cult of the Lamb (Massive Monster, Devolver Digital)
• Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series (Monkey Craft, Bandai Namco)
• Lookouts (ParanoidHawk, ColDoggo, Itch.io)
• Stray (BlueTwelve, Annapurna)
• Tunic (Andrew Shouldice, Finji)

Best Website

• e621, art archive (Mature audiences)
• Fluffle, reverse image search
• Fur Affinity, art and story site (Mature audiences)
• Kemono Café, webcomic hosting
• Wikifur, reference

Best Anthropomorphic Music

• Another Railway Day – by Nonnie
• Can Opener’s Notebook Fish Whisperer – by Vylet Pony
• Cute Cervid Vol. 1 – by Cute Cervid (various artists)
• idaidaida – by ida deerz
• Visiting Narcissa – by Patricia Taxxon

Best Anthropomorphic Fursuit

No Best Fursuit category this year due to lack of nominations, but it means that anyone interested in promoting a creator has a strong opportunity to get them recognized!

Have you voted for your favorites in the Ursa Major Awards yet? If so, thank you! But can you do us a favor? Promote the heck out of them on your social media! The UMA's need all the support they can get to make them as relevant as possible to the fandom. https://t.co/LlsKIxUlZw

— Ursa Major Awards (@UrsaMajorAwards) March 16, 2023

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

Mark Miner’s pre-2005 teacher photo, and screens from his more recent posts on social media.

Infiltration at VancouFur

Few places want to let a vocal pedophile feel at home, and that’s why Evil Unveiled made a page about Mark “Didaskalos” Miner and his endless quest for acceptance of pedophilia/pederasty/Boy Love. He’s been at it for decades, on places like the Boychat pedophile forum (where he posts as ScotusBaby). It gets tiny recognition like a category on a site to publicize “those who don’t demonize” pederasty.

Hopeless causes have their die-hards, and Miner is now trying to run panels at libraries and anime and fandom conventions, where he might reach supple young audiences that have their guard down. As a former teacher, he uses poetry and classic theater as a cover of legitimacy to harken back to his idea of a golden age — when men were men, boys were boys, and abuse between them wasn’t illegal yet.

Miner departs from basic definitions at the word Abuse. A core conceit of “Boy Love” is to split hairs about the folk conception of pedophiles violently raping children vs. “nicer,” less forceful coercive molesting. It’s a mental Olympics course in coy excuses. On his Boy-Love in the Classics group, Miner tells the other 2 members that he’s just for ACADEMIC DISCUSSION, and not actually pushing for acceptance… while doing exactly that for, well, himself.

For his plan to perform Boy-Love theater, Miner believes that tax-funded public spaces aren’t supposed to deny space to anyone over politics; so he counted it as a victory even if nobody came to see him at Mission Hills library in San Diego in February 2023.

His convention overtures succeeded with getting a panel in the official programming at VancouFur, on March 5, 2023. Context says it must have worked by omitting info provided by this article. The panel was late at night and marked not suitable for minors to separate it from con programming for parents and youth.

Miner’s furry con appearance stayed beneath public notice — did anyone go at all? — but it was just a start for his list of other cons he is targeting, furry and otherwise: A-Kon, Anime Boston, Anime Central, Anime Expo, Anime Los Angeles, Anime NYC, Anime Weekend Atlanta, Dragon Con, Fangaea, Isekai-Con, Metrocon, Necronomicon, Otakon, Paris Japan Expo, Ropecraft Chicago, Saboten-Con, Sakura-Con, Scottish Rite Temple, Tampa Fetish-Con, Thunder On the Mountain, and Youmacon. His furry con list started with Anthrocon, AnthrOhio, Furry Weekend Atlanta, Furlandia, Golden State Fur Con, and up to 30 cons in total. Maybe few of them would accept him, but should any host his belief that furries need to accept Boy Love to “GROW and FLOURISH”?

Scam and Threat 

Let’s emphasize that Miner isn’t part of this fandom. He’s skipping from place to place and looking for cracks to pry in.

An example of setting this up came with meager news notice in 2019 in the San Diego Reader, whose editor must have been out sick that day. Miner jumped on the bandwagon of library performing (citing Drag Queen Story Hour) to ride the coattails of harmless people who are just there to read nice stories. They’re not the same as each other, and you can tell because he keeps explaining the scamming, like someone desperate for attention.

• His “christian”, transphobe and TradCon (Traditional Conservative) stances give him strange bedfellows — even if they won’t admit it — like anti-Woke right-wingers who hate this fandom, and scandal-plagued churches that show TradCon beliefs in practice.
• Miner also admits “I have a Ph.D. in internet social engineering” (“trolling”), with a plan for schizo-posting on all sides of his intended controversy. It goes with being a vocal fan of far-right scammers like Andy Ngo and Milo Yiannopoulos. Miner compared himself to Milo as a “Performance Artist, who has been playing exactly the same game Milo is playing.” (Targeting furries was a death rattle of Milo’s deplatformed career.)
• This is the literal pedophile that the right wing accuses of targeting youth, and he isn’t a drag queen, he belongs to the right wing.

Bringing his scam to VancouFur inspired a few eagle-eyed furries to ask for help to make it news. It was a good idea to come to Dogpatch Press, because banning people or publishing warnings can have a price that other places can’t pay. The risk of frivolous litigation could involve lawsuits under the name Mark Miner.

Dogpatch Press can keep source confidentiality protected by law. Yes, even citizen bloggers are legally journalists for public interest. And unlike most conventions, Dogpatch Press has a history of winning in court against backlash for speech. Telling the truth has a high cost to defend it in court, but our money goes where our mouth is for reporting. We can report the story when conventions don’t.

Adding to this:

1) Defending against a lawsuit, even one you ultimately would win, costs money. You don’t get to just say “Well, I’ll win so I don’t have to do anything.”

/1 https://t.co/4HthwmL8x3

— Col. Boozy Badger ([email protected]) (@BoozyBadger) March 13, 2023

VancouFur’s Response

Dogpatch Press reached out to VancouFur for comments, and heard back from a spokesfurry volunteer for the British Columbia Anthropomorphic Events Association (BCAEA):

“There was no tip submitted in writing or otherwise to the BCAEA, nor to any of the Vancoufur senior staff such as the chair or vice chair, regarding this individual prior to the 2023 event.

Didaskalos submitted his panel in the same manner that all our panels are submitted. There was a form, which asked for relevant information. Panels are approved on a case-by-case basis in the order they were submitted based on: time, subject, resources required, appeal, cost, programming space availability, and assuming the panel runner is in good standing with the BCAEA.”

Will he be welcome at Vancoufur in the future?

“This is a decision which needs to be made by the BCAEA board of directors. If you wish to make a formal complaint and supply the documentation you have, you may do so here: https://vancoufur.org/reporting-an-incident/ When a complaint is made, they will discuss the matter, review the documentation, and pass any decisions relevant to the matter to 2024’s relevant staff. If it is found that the person in question violates our AUP found here: https://vancoufur.org/acceptable-use-policy/ – they will not be welcome at Vancoufur.”

What to do?

Recall how Miner believes that tax-funded public spaces aren’t supposed to reject anyone over politics; and that lawsuits can be a risk for kicking people out of private spaces. This opens up cracks that people like him look for. If controversy happens, they may revel in it while insisting on getting in because they’re not illegal, while official response has to stay quiet.

Screening for creeps may even be structurally incompatible with volunteer-based, non-corporate sponsored events. Fan cons are not permanent institutions like schools, or operating for shareholder profit year-round. They’re one-weekend charity benefit social gatherings, that don’t own the space they rent, and only secure it as a low-cost volunteer thing. Creeps can get in by taking advantage of open, temporary volunteer based support.

There’s a legal precedent* covered by a Financial Times podcast about porn business (Hot Money episode 4). Websites usually aren’t responsible for what gets posted by users… until they start screening it. A leading adult website in the 1990’s worked to take down copyrighted Playboy images, but a few got through. Because they screened, they became liable when Playboy sued them, and it bankrupted them. If they had done nothing they would have been safer. Similar goes for furry cons screening people. How do they predict future incidents when screening only shows the past, and people without records can create the liability? Don’t consider liability to come from single banned people; it’s from screening itself. *Disclaimer: this is not legal advice.

So should Vancoufur have dropped Miner’s panel? Look for QUIET selection rather than a public ban if they’d known.

Another wrinkle is for creeps on staff; even if it’s hard to screen people, there’s also quietly dropping them. But when they’re high enough on staff or board to influence those decisions, that’s even worse than not formally screening, and maybe then the con’s existence itself should be questioned. (This happened with Rocky Mountain Fur Con’s cancellation). If staff show a priority to backlash at messengers and rant about cancel culture, they’re at the heart of the problem.

Creeps at cons are a problem that won’t go away easily. Think of it like a holistic challenge for the whole fandom to deplatform them, rather than expect one-weekend events to do it for you. Solutions could put a priority on problems with staff or official programming, not just the general attendance, using non-reactive and united community organizing and reporting.

Thankfully, this case may be more of an instructive example than a risk. It says that anyone can get in, even a pathetic Boy Lover who has to eat rice and carefully budget for $3 bus fares to travel, in hopes to grab crumbs of notoriety by performing to almost nobody. The best response is to let him starve.

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