I don't know if this is the indirect origin of this parent's paranoia, but there was a case of furry fans using a litter box in their convention hotel room back around 2008 or so. I'd heard rumors, but it was hard to be sure of anything.
(Incidents like this are very difficult to verify historically - the ConFurence elevator spooge, for example. Zhora who used to post on Flayrah was one of the apparent witnesses, but doesn't seem to have discussed it anywhere that I can find. Not helped by someone else claiming there was not one, but two elevator incidents; also not helped by a member of security staff who said they heard something else; and by what looks like a deliberate effort for years afterwards to post dismissals of the story whenever it got mentioned online.)
In this case though, there's at least one credible witness from outside the fandom. Comedian and actress Selena Luna personally encountered upset hotel cleaning staff, and saw a litterbox left in the hallway, at one of the Anthrocon hotels where she was staying during the filming of My Bloody Valentine. It was the first thing she brought up when she was a guest on the Fur What It's Worth podcast. (Season 5, episode 11, from about the 9-minute mark onwards.)
I don't know if this is the indirect origin of this parent's paranoia, but there was a case of furry fans using a litter box in their convention hotel room back around 2008 or so. I'd heard rumors, but it was hard to be sure of anything.
(Incidents like this are very difficult to verify historically - the ConFurence elevator spooge, for example. Zhora who used to post on Flayrah was one of the apparent witnesses, but doesn't seem to have discussed it anywhere that I can find. Not helped by someone else claiming there was not one, but two elevator incidents; also not helped by a member of security staff who said they heard something else; and by what looks like a deliberate effort for years afterwards to post dismissals of the story whenever it got mentioned online.)
In this case though, there's at least one credible witness from outside the fandom. Comedian and actress Selena Luna personally encountered upset hotel cleaning staff, and saw a litterbox left in the hallway, at one of the Anthrocon hotels where she was staying during the filming of My Bloody Valentine. It was the first thing she brought up when she was a guest on the Fur What It's Worth podcast. (Season 5, episode 11, from about the 9-minute mark onwards.)