There's a lot of hate aimed at furries, and it's completely unjustified. Most people don't even know what a furry is, so let's start there.

What is a furry?

A furry is someone who likes anthropomorphized animals. This really just means they like humans with animal parts other than ape features (humans are great apes). Typically the furry depiction remains bipedal (humanoid) and sapient, but with fur/scales/feathers/etc. and various other non-ape features like ears on top of the head, a snout/muzzle, tail, and foot paws.

Are there other kinds of furries?

As with anything that draws people, you can't lump everyone together as the same. You've got people who simply enjoy the art, which is just about all furries, so that's a solid baseline. From there you've got people who enjoy dressing up in what is called a fursuit, which is basically a customized, more detailed, and more human-looking mascot suit (as seen in the top photo). Fursuiters aren't so common, hindered by the fact fursuits are extremely expensive, with a full, custom-made one easily costing 2 grand and more.

Then you've got therians, people who identify as non-human and typically some kind of animal. If they own a fursuit it is usually far more animal-like instead of furry-like. They will sometimes even behave like an animal in real life running on all fours and things like that. Similar behavior online where they pretend to be an animal in one fashion or another. Therians are an extremely small minority of furries.

Aren't furries attracted to animals aka zoophiles?

No! This is a common attack and is unfair to the vast majority of furries. Zoophiles can be found everywhere in society, and there are even many zoophiles who aren't furries at all. While it is true there is a higher amount of zoophiles among furries compared to elsewhere, you can't judge the whole furry fandom for the gross kinks of a few.

Furries tend to platonically love animals more than most people. In fact I've not heard of a single animal abuser who was a furry.

I also would like to illustrate the difference between an animal and a furry visually.

This Looks NOTHING like this or this

Note how the mouse on the left is a quadruped with a distinctly non-human face, and lacks sapience. Compared to the mice on the right who are essentially human but with certain mouse parts added and formed to fit the larger human figure.

Is the furry fandom sexual?

It is for many but not all. Most furries have some kind of sexual attraction to a furry (not an animal). But there are plenty of SFW artists who have no interest in nudity or lewdness. What often comes up are claims that furry conventions (where fursuiters and regular furries go to hang out, like anime conventions) are nothing but sex orgies. This is false. While I'm sure there is some hanky-panky going on, same as any convention, that's not the purpose of furry conventions. Sometimes there are bad people who ruin it for everyone. Out of the many dozens of conventions that have been done, this has happened only once or twice, and furry haters will try to cite these events as if it's the norm or represents furries as a whole. This is not true.

How is being a furry an evolutionary advantage?

Domesticated dogs didn't actually evolve from wolves; instead modern wolves and dogs have a common ancestor from between 15,000 to 40,000 years ago. The prevailing hypothesis is that humans tamed these wolf ancestors which would then become dogs, and the ones we didn't tame became the much more wild wolves.

We probably tamed them because we noticed they made valuable hunting partners and watchdogs. We most likely stole pups from dens and kept the more tame ones, allowing them to interbreed with others so we would have own domesticated animal (these were actually the first, before cattle).

The oldest form of hunting is called persistence hunting. This is where you get an animal to separate from its pack and then chase it. Humans, when in top physical condition, have the greatest long distance endurance of any land animal. As an aside, we gained that advantage when we lost our body hair from our ape-like ancestors which allowed us to sweat and cool off faster and easier. Furthermore bipedal movement is far more efficient energy-wise compared to four-legged knucklewalking. Thus we can chase after an animal at a light jog and eventually catch up to it (by tracking it of course). The animal seeing us again, would get frightened and run off once more. But due to its fur it is unable to get rid of body heat as easily, and so it can't run away as far this time. Before long the human, unperturbed, catches up again. And again. Eventually the animal is so exhausted it cannot physically run away anymore making for an easy kill.

Canines are the only creatures able to come close to matching a human in long distance traveling. I believe this contributed to our relationship with them. They would also be able to aid in tracking the pursued animal through the brush.

What does all this have to do with furries?

Ancient humans working closely with these canines would have an advantage making them more likely to eat, survive, and thus breed. Those who were repulsed by these animals, like most are of bugs, would lack the advantage and be less likely to breed. This means it is not unreasonable to expect a natural platonic attraction to the shape of canines. And because their shape isn't so different from many other furred mammals like cats, is it any wonder that almost everyone likes the look of dogs and cats? Even babies love being around dogs! It's clear we evolved to be attracted to the looks and demeanor of these animals, just as they were bred to do the same for humans.

How is being a furry a sign of advancement and humanity?

Since liking furred animals is practically in our genes, is it any wonder that furries exist who want to take the attraction farther and incorporate the look of non-ape animals into the human figure? Following along from the process of taming canines, one could argue the next step of evolution in that regard is the furry. Not as crazy as you think, since all the way back to cave drawings people have done drawings of half human half animal people. Bastet, my favorite Egyptian goddess, is a woman with the head of a cat.

So furries have always existed, but thanks to more modern artistry we've been able to really refine what they look like.

If you hate furries, can you really claim to be human?

!furry