Categories: Media, Oh God my eyes

Friday the 13th, BBC News Magazine set out to explain what furries are.

Fursuiter Marshall Woods, former furry con organiser Mark Merlino, FurteanTimes.com writer Ian Wolf, anthrozoologist Kathy Gerbas and furry artist TaniDaReal all give their take on furry fandom. Notably, ms. Gerbas coins the term species identity disorder for those furries who claim to actually be part animal.

All in all it’s a fair and balanced article, which nevertheless receives some odd complaints in the comments section (most baffling is the one from “Reader", who claims that furry fandom is nothing but a “sub genre” [sic] of cosplay).

Alan Berlin, a legislative aide to Pennsylvania State Senator Jane Orie, was arrested May 28th and charged with trying to lure a 15-year-old boy over the internet into having sex with him. According to Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, “Berlin, using the screen name Alan Panda Bear, allegedly suggested dressing up in animal costumes and engaging in various sex acts with the boy.”

A video report from KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh identifies Berlin as “something called a furry - a person who likes to dress up as an animal", and goes on to tell that “furries hold an annual convention here in Pittsburgh and call it a harmless activity.”

According to The Pittsburgh Channel, investigators from Corbett’s office found two fursuits (pictured above) in Berlin’s home.

Alan Panda Bear’s Pounced ad (Google cache).

“Grandville” is British comic creator Bryan Talbot’s current work-in-progress; an anthropomorphic steampunk graphic novel inspired by the work of 19th century French illustrator J.J. Grandville.

Preview

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

A half-dozen heads are spiked on a rack in the middle of a freezing-cold room.

A man in a bear costume is propped up against a row of chairs as a fan cools his uncovered face.

Another man in a purple dragon suit lies on his back. His hair is wet. He’s sweating.

“It gets very hot inside here,” Matthew Ledgerwood, 34, of Ontario, Canada, said from the floor of the Headless Lounge, a place where costumed attendees of Anthrocon 2008 can get hydrated and cool off. “The more you move around, the hotter you get. Without rooms like these, it would be almost impossible.”

Anthrocon, the annual convention of anthromorphists, known as “Furries,” is where people like Ledgerwood can come together to celebrate the humanization of animals, especially in cartoons and comics.

This is the third year Pittsburgh has hosted the event at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown, where it was moved from Philadelphia to accommodate its growing fans.

Nearly 3,000 Furries are expected in Pittsburgh this weekend, Anthrocon spokesman Karl Jorgensen said.

“Every year we get bigger,” he said. “People come from all over the world to attend.”

Full article

Michael Cogliantry has released three sitcom-type shorts based on his “Furry Kama Sutra".

Furry Kama Sutra: Episode Two
Furry Kama Sutra: Episode Three