Certainly there were fans of My Little Pony active in the furry community prior to MLP:FIM. It's more that I think bronies like My Little Pony, and there may be as many or more of them as furries, so they can swing the vote.
Of course, this gets into the question "are bronies furries?". Nuka will be at BronyCon this weekend; perhaps he can figure it out. I suspect most bronies see themselves as fans of a particular show (similar to Gargoyles or TMNT) rather than of anthropomorphic animals in general, yet would vote on a furry award to help their group win.
Certainly there were fans of My Little Pony active in the furry community prior to MLP:FIM. It's more that I think bronies like My Little Pony, and there may be as many or more of them as furries, so they can swing the vote.
Of course, this gets into the question "are bronies furries?". Nuka will be at BronyCon this weekend; perhaps he can figure it out. I suspect most bronies see themselves as fans of a particular show (similar to Gargoyles or TMNT) rather than of anthropomorphic animals in general, yet would vote on a furry award to help their group win.
(Refs: "I never considered this a furry site" (EQD editor) - Reddit threads where bronies express concern.)