Over at a furry forum I frequent, there was this post:
Yet another furry was recently arrested for putting videos of himself r***** a dog on line.
What has happened to us, why are their furries committing these terrible acts to animals. They should not even be furries they give us all a bad image. Its the stupid people and the ones that sleep with animals that make us look terrible to the world. (Not to say the ones who sleep with animals are not stupid) Its them that make people afraid of the furry fandom or look at it with disgust. Its just plain wrong.
This post was made back in January, and, once again, with predictable results. The damn thread just will not die. As you might guess, this brought out a highly defensive Zoo. Page after page of one side saying that Mr. Zoo is a "sicko", and Mr. Zoo's insistence that all Furs who think so are "losers" and "white trash". Like one side will ever convince the other.
I would think having realtions with a different species would pretty much be bottom of the barrel.
"Again, I actually happen to be one of the zoophiles that you pricks are bashing on and calling "sickoes."
Because you are. Like it or not you obviously have an issue mentaly healthy or stable people do not want to have sexual relations with their pets or other species irl. I mean yeah people may bash on gays or bi's or tri's or what ever else they have now days but at least they are shootin on target. You guys have completly missed the target and are shoot off in the woods somewhere.
-- A Self-Righteous Fur
<sarcasm>That'll show Mr. Zoo the error of his ways and he'll quit fucking animals, all the while wondering how he was led so far astray.</sarcasm>
To all of you, I am not the reason that furries catch flack from the general public. The reason people look down on you is that you are losers who have wasted your lives playing video games. You idiots seldom ever pull your heads out of fantasy land long enough to absorb any material that is relevant to the real world. I look in your chats, and I see nothing but ignorant, shallow chatter about useless blood & gore video games.
If you don't want people to see you as losers, try taking up a hobby or learning a new skill. Try learning to play an instrument: I didn't start learning the keyboard until I was in my late twenties, and I can assure you that it's never too late to learn. Try doing some organic gardening, and share the produce with members of your community. Try setting up a charity. Do you think that people would go on hating furries for long if furries went around in fursuits giving out food and building housing for the hungry and homeless? If you were to just get out in the world and do something productive, people would eventually start appreciating you for it.
But no, instead, you sit there entranced by your useless, mind-draining video games or second-life or whatever useless, stupid nonsense you kids are into now. You don't bathe. You never learn even the most basic social skills. You are addicted to pornography...although porn is nice, looking at it all day long and thinking about nothing else causes people to think that you are a LOSER.
I find it appalling that you morons, here, are trying to throw off on zoophiles for your own problems. Most zoophiles are extremely circumspect about what they do with their animals. That is as it should be. Maybe you people should spend more time trying to solve your own problems and less time looking for someone to blame, like zoophiles.
-- A Really Pissed Off Zoo
<sarcasm>Yep, that'll teach non-Zoo Furries to be more open, tolerant, and accepting!</sarcasm>
Bullshit like this serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever. Neither side here is doing anything productive for their respective positions. Neither side is winning friends and influencing people here. Neither side is willing to simply agree to disagree over an issue where it is obvious that there will be no resolution. And it's been going on since January!
Shit like this is far more detrimental to the fandom than either the defensive Zoo or the self-righteous Furs.
The original post asks the wrong question. "What happened to us, why are there furries committing terrible acts to animals?" Nothing has "happened to us", other than we are a microcosm of the public at large. If it exists outside the fandom, it will find its way inside the fandom sooner (usually sooner) or later. The same holds for every other fandom, association, organization. You will meet folks you'd rather not have to deal with. There is nothing unique to Furry in that regard. You can not control the behaviors of others, but you can control the company you keep. There will be times when you have no choice other than to walk away from an uncomfortable situation.
"Its them that make people afraid of the furry fandom or look at it with disgust". This, too, is incorrect. Yes, the fandom is animal centered, and, yes, Zoos have their own interests in animals. There is a definite intersection there. Any Zoo is entitled to call himself a Fur if he shares a common interest in anthropomorphic animal characters. It is not OK to use the fandom to conceal the true nature of your art, to recruit, to gain access to other peoples' pets, to try to fly under the radar under false pretenses. If that's what you're doing, then kindly get the hell out of our fandom.
Most of the people who associate Furry with zoophilia are not being malicious. It's often their only point of reference for understanding what they're seeing. From the very earliest days of the fandom, before CSI: "Fur and Loathing", before ER: "Fear of Commitment", before MTV's Sex 2K: "Plushies and Furries", before any number of scurrilous articles from journalistically suspect newspapers and magazines, before the first furcon even, when Merlino was setting up his furry get-togethers at Baycon, someone defaced the fliers and posters, crossing out the word "Furry", and substituting an epithet that lives on to this very day: "Skunkfuckers". Someone was pissed off that Merlino and his Furries were taking over "their" con, and that's what he thought of. That was very shortly after the first appearance of the name: Furry Fandom. That was way before there was ever a single Zoo in it. You can not blame the Zoos for that. Blaming Zoos for the fandom's problems, real or imaginary, accomplishes absolutely nothing.
The best you can do is inform the uninformed. As for Zoos in the fandom, you can politely -- emphasis on politely -- remind them that not all Furs are into that, and not all Furs are comfortable with it. You can send Mr. Zoo an e-mail, or use a forum's private messaging. There is little else you can do. Public naming and shaming is counter productive, and only invites retaliation and flame wars. You'd do better by not mentioning it at all, as all that will accomplish is to call even more unwanted attention to the issue.
As for Internet assholes, even if you somehow managed to drive out every last Zoo, you still won't win any gold stars from the trolls. They'll simply find something else to use to bash you. Simply don't feed the damn things, and they'll go away.
There is a more fundamental issue here: no one, NO ONE, needs to know what you did in the privacy of your bedroom last night. I don't need to know, the fandom doesn't need to know, and I'd just as soon not see or read all about it, thank you so very much.
Regardless of whether you are a Furry or not, uploading videos of yourself boinking Fido is a singularly stupid thing to do.
There is still room for discretion and decorum despite living in an age where everyone "thinks" they have to let it all hang out all the time. A little common sense goes a long way. Use it!