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TigerTails Radio Season 15 Episode 52. Join the Discord Chat: https://discord.gg/SQ5QuRf For a full preview of events and for previous episodes, please visit http://www.tigertailsradio.co.uk. See website for full breakdown of song credits, which is usually updated shortly after the show. If you like what we do and wish to throw some pennies our way to support us, please consider sending a little tip our way. https://streamlabs.com/tigertailsradio/tip * Please note, tips are made to support TigerTails Radio and are assumed as made with good faith, so are therefore non-refundable. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Here comes a new hardcover graphic novel for young readers called Birtle and the Purple Turtles. “Everyone is a turtle in Turtletown. So Teeny thinks she must be a turtle, too. But when Teeny sprouts feathers, she begins to wonder… is there a teeny possibility she’s a… Birtle? Tootie loves tag, but the other turtles in Turtletown don’t like to play. That is, until Tootie meets Teeny. Teeny loves tag. They have tons in common! Except one big thing: Teeny may not be a turtle at all. This adorable graphic novel is about being true to yourself, friendship, and most of all, celebrating differences.” It’s written and illustrated by Tara J. Hannon, and it’s available now from Andrews McMeel.

image c. 2024 Andrews McMeel

Two arrested during preparation for a big party

On 9/26/2024, a popular furry event organizer (Frisky Hyena) and another group leader were arrested together for child sex crimes. They have been in jail without bond since then. Both had furry scene influence in the San Francisco Bay area, after Frisky relocated there from Las Vegas. This report features Steven “Frisky” Darling as the owner of Party Animals West (PAW), with an LLC registered in Nevada.

Frisky’s organization used a team of helpers to throw parties around the year, sometimes with rooms at conventions, or partnered with other furry brands or DJ’s. PAW also hosted a chat group of 1000 followers who would mobilize support across furry spaces. Their larger events would attract hundreds of paying attendees, using venues with professional light and sound, like a barcade chain with locations in several big cities. Many gave support without knowing Frisky’s secrets, but after he was jailed, his partner Scoop stepped in to play one of his surrogates for actions that are very controversial now.

For the last weekend of September, supporters were looking forward to a huge occasion in San Francisco. Folsom Street Fair would draw hundreds of thousands for kink-themed activities, including many furries to the PAW barcade party on 9/29/2024. As it approached, on 9/27/2024, Frisky’s surrogate Scoop decided to tell the PAW chat group that Frisky’s phone was broken and he couldn’t answer. His accounts were allegedly accessed for impersonation messages to tell close contacts he was taking a break.

Frisky has a slew of serious charges with a long history

Frisky’s surrogates knew, and weren’t telling, that he was jailed the day before on charges of:

• Sodomy with person under 16
• Oral copulation with person under 16
• Lewd Act Upon A Child
• Penetration By Foreign Object: (V) Under 16
• Contribute To The Delinquency Of A Minor
• Arranging a Meeting with a Child for Lewd Purposes
• Attempting to Contact Minor w/Intent to Commit Offense
• Distribution or Exhibition of Lewd Material to a Minor (with Prior)

After keeping people in the dark to take support for Frisky’s event, over the next month, the arrest news started to circulate. It shocked many, but others were upset that it was being reported at all (neglecting aid for victims to come forward). If that isn’t messy enough, hindsight and connecting dots finds a history of red flags, where sources report complaints were suppressed in Las Vegas for a long time until history repeated in San Francisco.

Since 2017, complaints went without action even from the police

In Las Vegas, Frisky had built a reputation of unreliability and failing to pay debts, until relocating to California to resume parties there. Around 2017, an apartment sharing debacle led to discovering illegal media on devices Frisky kept there. He was known for preying on minors, but reports to police in Las Vegas had no results. Allegations have come out about furry groups enabling this situation by favoring cliquish friends.

More recently in the SF Bay Area, details of the arrests match a situation of risky people being allowed in groups, putting all members at risk while certain organizers shift blame and act like others should do their job for their meets. The problem started with letting risky people in at all especially after being warned and overruling it. These negligents have a chronic history of sympathy for offenders, rejecting responsibility and overlooking problems until police intervene, if ever. This reporter has been experiencing that behavior since 2018 while negligents turn their backs on protecting their groups.

Party promo – lives were ruined.

Suppression surrounded Frisky’s arrest for a month to keep his PAW organization operating, instead of accepting that it’s fatal to things under his name. Some people did work against the in-group pressure. Las Vegas Fur Con (LVFC), other events, performers, and associates ended their relationships. Finally, there was a grudging statement about dissolving PAW from operators like Scoop whose credibility was lost.

How soon could this have been stopped? Abuse might have been prevented if complaints were heard and leaders took responsibility. It could have been easier to prevent at the gate instead of trying to fix it after. We don’t yet know the extent of the problem, with multiple offenders and ties to other suspicious people. The whole situation has legal action pending, with sensitivity about it being undermined on behalf of offenders and helping them to escape consequences again. Therefore some information is protected for security and this report is edited to be a general summary.

Furry space can be for predators to access victims, and leaders to prioritize selfish fun over ruined lives, with negligence about red flags. Or…

You can take action

If you have any information about abuse in the community, or enabling by organizers, and are reluctant to come forward without confidentiality — Dogpatch Press has an established role of working with whistleblowers, making legal privilege from being compelled to disclose private information. That gives ability to report what others can’t. Even if police aren’t helpful, solutions may start with carefully documenting what’s suppressed. (Be careful, because even people who slept with Frisky didn’t know about problems made worse by leaders suppressing things.)

Police don’t manage your community. YOU DO. Protecting it doesn’t have to wait for years of processing while suppression makes things worse, and there is no entitlement to invitation into its spaces. It can be run with care instead of making it so open that anything can crawl in.

To understand harmful management patterns, also check the recent article about Garden State Fur the Weekend and what it welcomed in.

Some sources

PAW chat group: now closed (a full export is on file.)

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/BEg4f

https://archive.ph/Mrd1n

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

After 15 years, its finally come down to this... ROADS AHEAD // Furry YouTube Series, "The Raccoon's Den" presents a cinematic 2-part special featuring the group faced with an obstacle that may split them apart as a team. STARRING: Bandit / Byrdz / BcB / Abbey / Static GUEST APPEARANCES: Sashimy / Flash PREMIERES Nov. 23rd, 2024! Editing: @BanditTheRaccoon Fursona Artwork: Com (dr11white via Telegram) Series Logo: Fifth Forager See more at: http://www.TheRaccoonsDen.com FACEBOOK: http://www.Facebook.com/TheRaccoonsDen TWITTER: http://www.Twitter.com/TheRaccoonsDen FURAFFINITY: http://www.FurAffinity.net/user/TheRaccoonsDen INSTAGRAM: http://www.Instagram.com/TheRaccoonsDen TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@theraccoonsden #TheRaccoonsDen #TRDs9 #FurryFandom

MOOBARKFLUFF! Click here to send us a comment or message about the show!

The gang is all here this week: Bearly, Taebyn, Rayne, TickTock and Cheetaro!  Taebyn creates a new workspace for all the Meta folks.  We get zen with Raccoon Furmations. All the regular bits are here, and Taebyn goes off the rails several times.  So tune in for a great visit with all your BFFT friends.  It will be time you will never get back, but it will be well, spent.  Moobarkfluff everyfur!

This podcast contains adult language and adult topics. It is rated M for Mature. Listener discretion is advised.

Support the show

Thanks to all our listeners and to our staff: Bearly Normal, Rayne Raccoon, Taebyn, Cheetaro, TickTock, and Ziggy the Meme Weasel.

You can send us a message on Telegram at BFFT Chat, or via email at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com

Bearly Furcasting S5E10 - Fluffy Furry Crazy Days

Look, sometimes we can’t explain things, we can only tell you that things exist. Things like the Acid Chimp vs. Business Dog one-shot from Ahoy Comics. “Business Dog controls the wealth of nations! Acid Chimp has been abducted by crooks who want him to kill the canine trillionaire with corrosive acid! And why wouldn’t he? Splashing acid is the only thing that Acid Chimp enjoys!” Okay, we’ll try to fill you in about what’s going on here… Business Dog is a character from a popular indie comic called Billionaire Island, while Acid Chimp is from a popular indie comic called My Bad. The creators of each met up and decided it would be fun to set their two weird characters against each other. And so writers Mark Russell and Bryce Ingman enlisted the help of artists Peter Krause and Steve Pugh, and here’s what we get. Major Spoilers has a review that helps it all make more sense… maybe. We can’t make promises.

image c. 2024 Ahoy Comics

Did we die?

Why No Pod?

Furry Book Month has drawn to a close for another year. Hopefully everyone who wanted a copy of the 2024 book bundle had a chance to download it.

For those of us who participated in the first Furry Novel Jam, congratulations! Even if you only wrote a handful of words in October, those were words you hadn’t written before. I didn’t finish my novella, but I wrote over 15,000 words total and feel really good about my progress. The Furry Novel Jam doesn’t have to end if you don’t want it to end!

Awards season is coming up fast, so if there are recently-published books on your to-read pile, this is a good time to bump them to the top. If you have recently-published works, this is also a good time to send in updates for your guild member profile and the suggested reading lists. If you have a book coming out soon, let us know so we can list it in future posts. Make it easy for potential readers to find what you’ve written!

Here are the current open markets for your short stories:
Paw Anthology: Volume 2 – Deadline November 21st 2024
Spirit of the Wolf – Deadline March 31st 2025
The Second Hayven Celestia Anthology – Deadline July 15, 2025
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full

Please also check out the latest releases from our members:

Shadow Sun, by Jess E. Owen. Released August 30th
Legend of Ahya: Broken Empires, by Matthew Colvath. Released October 2nd 2024.

Happy writing!

Kate Shaw

What do you do when you’re in need of inspiration for your writing? Why, you take a much needed break and visit the creepiest abbey in town. This is the premise of Mercury Abbey. Players step into the paws of Harrod, a character based on a gray wolf who’s a struggling writer. At the start of the story, Harrod is working on his latest novel and feeling pretty pessimistic about it. Sales have been lackluster since an influx of competition from similar works have flooded the market including a cyberpunk style adventure featuring a cat as a protagonist. Harrod isn’t given any peace to work or stew as he receives a call from his sister, who tells him that she's dropping off his nephew Willie with him. It’s at this point, the game finally starts. 

It’s the most spooky time of year! Enjoy these fun and spoopy stories which may, or may not, include cookies and foxes.

NOW LISTEN!

SHOW NOTES Thank you!

To Eli, Geo Holms, Iago, and Tenax Raccoon for your stories!

To all our listeners and the continued support!

PATREON LOVE

THANK YOU to our patreons! You help us keep the show going!

A Cookie Factory – OwO

Anthallo

A Pallet of Cookies

 

Barnaby Panda, Nuka

A Case of Cookies

Basel the Dragon, Black Baldrik, Lufis the Raccoon

A Jar of Cookies

 

MephistophEli, Plug, Tenax

A Box of Cookies

• Chaphogriff
• Lygris

A Delicious Cookie

• Christian
• Citrus Fox
• Ichigo Ookami
• Icy Solid
• Sage Lightfang
• TyR
• Victor Mutt

S11E11 – Halloween Special - It's the most spooky time of year! Enjoy these fun and spoopy stories which may, or may not, include cookies and foxes. - NOW LISTEN! SHOW NOTES Thank you! To Eli, Geo Holms, Iago, and Tenax Raccoon for your stories! -

This year at the annual Lightbox Expo we met the artist Naomi VanDoren. Recently they’ve been branching out as an author, and after successful Kickstarter campaign they’ve released their first illustrated book, called Naiya and the Foxdragon. “Naiya is a young teen who has been hiding from her past and her unkind uncle most of her life until she befriends a foxdragon named Aru. When the last of the magic orbs that once powered their city is depleted, she faces her fears and embarks on an unexpected journey into the heart of the jungle to save her home. Along the way, Naiya discovers her own self-worth as she and her foxdragon friend navigate the treacherous jungle and learn about her own relationship with the world’s magic.” Visit their web site to see more.

image c. 2024 by Naomi VanDoren

TigerTails Radio Season 15 Episode 51. Join the Discord Chat: https://discord.gg/SQ5QuRf For a full preview of events and for previous episodes, please visit http://www.tigertailsradio.co.uk. See website for full breakdown of song credits, which is usually updated shortly after the show. If you like what we do and wish to throw some pennies our way to support us, please consider sending a little tip our way. https://streamlabs.com/tigertailsradio/tip * Please note, tips are made to support TigerTails Radio and are assumed as made with good faith, so are therefore non-refundable. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Dear Papabear,

I've been in the furry fandom for over a year, and I've been enjoying my time here. I've made so many friends and even met the love of my life. But there are times where I develop imposter syndrome. Like I feel like I don't deserve the friends and the awesome memories I made in the fandom. People tell me otherwise, but I feel like I genuinely have a hard time proving myself that I belong sometimes. Especially for the fact I don't own a fursuit or that I'm not an artist. Yet I still have people who love me, even outside the fandom too. I was wondering if this feeling is normal in the furry fandom and what are some good ways to remind myself that I do matter. Thank you.

Sincerely,
An anonymous Saint Bernard

P.S. I love your fursona and fursuit so much. It's so awesome and adorable. Genuinely wanna give ya a hug.

* * *

Dear Saint Bernard,

Thank you for your letter and the compliment :-3

First off, it must be emphasized that you do not need to have a fursuit to be an active and beloved member of the fandom; nor do you need to be an artist or a gamer or a writer or even have a fursona. The baseline here is simple: Do you love the anthro arts? This includes movies, TV shows, comic books, novels, furry RPGs, and so on. If you answered "yes," then you're a furry fan. The confusion is common. You see, there are really two types of furries: hobbyists and lifestylers. Hobbyists are those who enjoy the anthro arts but do not get into the self-identity side of it, which involves everything from having furriness engulf everything in your life (i.e., e.g. you have furry art and plushies and fursuit stuff all over your home (sometimes called being "furry trash"), furry stickers plaster your car, you often wear a tail or ears in public places, etc.) to actually feeling like you have an animal spirit or that your fursona is in some way really who you are (the far spectrum of this bleeds into the therian and otherkin communities). The hobbyist is much more caszh about the fandom. They like to go to cons or meets, sure, and they may have a fursona for playing games with their friends, but they fully identify as human and spend the majority of their time as such among their normie friends. I, personally (not that you asked), am somewhere in between. You can find furry art hanging in my office, I will be suiting for normie trick or treaters this week, and I do feel I have a spiritual connection to bears, but for the most part I seem pretty normie when I'm not at a furcon.

Given the above, you are not an imposter. So, why do you feel like one? It might surprise you that the majority of young Americans (70% by one study) say that they have experienced imposter syndrome at least once in their lives. I have often experienced it too, and the result is usually my berating myself as insufficient in some way, and sometimes people misinterpret my anxiety to false modesty. For example, people sometimes compliment my intelligence, but then I say to myself I really am not that bright; I just have a bachelor's degree; I only speak one language fluently; I have never won an important award or grant or recognition yadda yadda. The result is that my negative feelings about myself are roadblocks to my moving ahead with my life at times. This kind of lack of self-esteem can usually be traced back to our childhoods, especially to those who had either very controlling or very protective and permissive parents. If you have been bullied or socially ostracized as a young person, this can certainly contribute to imposter syndrome when you later achieve great things in your life but a voice in the back of your head keeps telling you that you don't deserve it.

My furiend, everyone deserves friendships and respect and love and happiness. And when it comes to the furry family, well, you have landed in a community to which many people who feel like social outcasts are drawn. I think you will (or have already) found people much like yourself who are shy, lack self-confidence or self-esteem, or just feel attracted to the fandom and are blown away by some of the popular furries in it and don't feel like they themselves measure up. Again, I do this too. When I first started getting active in the fandom around 15 years ago, and I saw some awesome artists and writers and musicians and fursuiters (and community leaders like Uncle Kage), I was like, "Okay ... um.... I'll just sit in the corner here and watch and not try to annoy anyone." But the more people I interacted with and the more friends I made, the more I felt like everything was cool here and I began to relax and really enjoy the community.

To sum up: 1) no fursuit or artistic skills needed; 2) yes, it is quite normal at first, especially, to feel like you are an imposter; 3) with time, that feeling will ease as you make friends, find your crew, and have more fun being furry. 

Some techniques to assuage your feelings? 1) don't compare yourself to other furries; there will always be furries who seem more accomplished or whatever; who cares, just do you; 2) try to catch yourself when you say things that put yourself down; when you feel yourself saying things like "I'm not good enough to ... " just stop, pause, and replace that thought with something positive about yourself (e.g., I'm a good friend; I am good company to hang out with; I'm a giving person; I am helpful, etc.); 3) socialize socialize socialize, and by this I mean talk about your feelings with others (you'll find you share much in common) and be supportive of them; find people to lean on and let them lean right back on you; 4) and a great way to feel you contribute is by volunteering at a furcon or getting involved in some furcon charity activity such as the ALS Foundation fundraiser in which many furries have become involved (I can get you in touch with people if this interests you).

I'd also like to share a very excellent article from VeryWellMind that talks all about this stuff in detail. It's like a 5-minute read.

And don't worry! You're doing great! You've already found a support network, and I know that the more you get involved with furries the more comfortable you will become in the community. Don't forget to have fun! That's what it's supposed to be all about!!!

Big Bear Hugs,
Papabear

While at a local vegan festival, your ever-loving ed-otter met up with author Bill Muir, also known as Sgt. Vegan. During his time in the U.S. military, Sgt. Muir served ably while maintaining a plant-based diet, which is no mean feat in itself. Since then he has become well known as a vegan body builder and nutrition expert. But one little side project bears discussion here: He wrote a children’s book, The Adventures of Sergeant Piggy, which was illustrated by Hayden Fowler. The book details Sergeant Piggy’s travels around the world to meet a variety of animals, while also teaching young readers the value of a plant-based diet and green living. And now it’s available on Amazon too!

image c. 2024 Sgt Vegan Press

Turns out the re-invention of Disney properties continued this year with the new Lilo & Stitch comic from Dynamite — the first continuing comic for them in English, actually. “Life seems to have calmed down for Experiment 626 and his new family on Earth – at least until evil aliens come hunting for everyone’s favorite blue-furred troublemaker. The kicker? They’re using giant robots that are powered by Stitch’s own DNA! Will Lilo’s beloved pet be able to take on these villains and lead them away from his adopted planet and loved ones? And even if he succeeds, will he be able to find his way back home?” It’s written by Greg Pak, illustrated by Giulia Giacomino, and issues are still on the shelves.

image c. 2024 Dynamite Comics

Hello, Papabear,

Hey there! I’ve been looking for an answer to my question and wanted to hear your opinion. Due to mental issues, I struggled for a while to design a fursona I was happy with.


However, recently I did just that! (A goat fursona) But I recently came across another fursona whose design looks similar to mine. I’m talking about similar markings, color palette and same species. Goat, brown and tans for main body color and markings, and different shades of blue for horns, eyes, and hoofs. My fursona isn't an exact replica, but still… Due to the person being rather popular, I fear I shouldn’t keep my fursona or commission a fursuit of them when I have enough money. I’m scared of people bashing me for this or being compared, when in reality I had no idea this fursona existed till after I made mine. Do you have any advice?

Anonymous

* * *

Dear Furiend,

Thank you for your letter, which brings up an important topic in the fandom. Several points can be made here. The first one is that there is quite a bit of overlap in the fursona world. For example, the single most popular type of fursona is a wolf and/or husky (or similar dog breed) with simple color variations and other minor details. Now, goats are a bit more unique than canids, but a quick look on Furtrack brings up these results for goats with brown or tan markings:

Alexcapranor (📸 @nauta)
Gideon klaus (📸 @oracle_sage)
Baltic berlin (📸 @bluegold1026)
Kurobatte (📸 @hexyc)
Thomasin (📸 @troy_grudin)
Bashfulbeeps (📸 @alleythewoof)
Dirtt goat (📸 @vencrypt)
Mckinley (📸 @linglingfennec)
Meelo (📸 @adelair)
Chamsz (chamois goat-antelope) (📸 @andromedus)
Cedar goat (📸 @thunder_orca)

... and that is just a very cursory, down-and-dirty, incomprehensive search. I'm sure I could find many more, but I think you get the point.

There is a difference between just having the same species with some similar colors and really looking the same. Just by having your fursona drawn by a different artist or having a different maker for a fursuit, you are pretty much guaranteed to have a different look for your particular OC. Truly, you would only get in dangerous waters if your fursona had the same name or you pretended to be the other person (such as hacking into or spoofing their account).

Another issue would be if your fursona was based on a regulated, closed (or semi-closed) species (e.g. Dutch Angel Dragons), which is a unique species said to be an original concept owned by its creator. Closed species have definitive anatomical and physiological attributes and usually their own lore (back story). A semi-closed species has certain required aspects to it but provides more leeway for adding your own spin. In both cases, you are supposed to get permission from the creator to use the closed species (or the aspects of the semi-closed species). Violating such guidelines and avoiding permission approval will likely get you on a blacklist. But, here's the thing: as far as I know, the concept of a closed species is not a legal thing. That is, they more than likely are not copyrighted or have a registered trademark. THAT said, some of the more famous one (returning to DADs) are copyrighted. Deanna Biesemeyer, who created the Dutch Angel Dragon, did in fact go to the trouble of copyrighting their creation, so you do, in fact, need their permission if you want to be a DAD. Protogens and primagens, to give another popular example, used to be closed species, I believe, and they have definite characteristics and lores, but both are now open species (I think primagens might always have been such but protogens did not become open until 2017). 

Sorry for the digression, but it is important. And I note the above because having a brown and tan goat is definitely not an example of a closed or even semi-closed species.

Given all of the above, I would not worry if I were you that there are some similarities between your OC and that of another furry. I would mildly suggest, though, that you take at least a little time to add some of your own unique, personal touches. Not so much for worry about being repetitive but more for the satisfaction and fun of it. This includes lore. For example, Grubbs Grizzly was born somewhere on the Aleutian Islands, but he got a little tired of the cold weather and decided one day to go south, ending up in California. He decided he liked it here, so he moved into the Sierras permanently, built a little cabin, and now spends his days fishing and foraging for food and just being a low-key bear. 

Bottom line: Have fun with it! So many furries fret about stuff like this and forget that being a furry is supposed to be fun. Y'all are fine. And I hope that answers your question.

Bear Hugs,
​Papabear

TigerTails Radio Season 15 Episode 50. Join the Discord Chat: https://discord.gg/SQ5QuRf For a full preview of events and for previous episodes, please visit http://www.tigertailsradio.co.uk. See website for full breakdown of song credits, which is usually updated shortly after the show. If you like what we do and wish to throw some pennies our way to support us, please consider sending a little tip our way. https://streamlabs.com/tigertailsradio/tip * Please note, tips are made to support TigerTails Radio and are assumed as made with good faith, so are therefore non-refundable. Thank you for your support and understanding.

After a mismanagement crisis was excused with PR statements, New Jersey furries are sick of more deception from the same broken leadership. 

Garden State Fur The Weekend was set to have their first convention in May 2024, but in January, their organization was rocked by a staff revolt. It leaked out with a Dogpatch Press report — Grassroots action: Leadership changes and weeding out hate at Garden State Fur The Weekend. The inside story can now be told in more depth, because cautious community members who stayed quiet before have come forward to ask for new reporting. GSFTW’s own PR person quit and reports being lied to. Numerous sources with deep involvement spoke to Dogpatch Press about how a chronic problem was “fixed” by moving it higher:

Many sources spoke on condition of whistleblower privacy.

Trouble before launch

The mismanagement was insufferable, especially by the con Chair, Dashing Fox. Dashing and his sympathetic board were enabling nazi-furries who infested GSFTW chat groups, like the Furry Raiders, with their child-preying leader Foxler in Colorado. The infestation got nothing but excuses. Who were these assholes coming in from outside and making themselves at home, like they had permission to make the place their doormat or were secretly in charge?

It was like that from the beginning. GSFTW was registered in February 2020. In April 2020, Dashing tried to put Foxler’s right-hand man Aeveirra on staff. Dashing was warned of their toxic nature by a vigilant staffer who understood the security risk. A month later, he still went on the Furry Raiders podcast to promote the con, as if he was bent on making a shit magnet for the worst of the community. The podcast blatantly named him a friend of Aeveirra.

Warned in April, ignored in May during con startup. The corruption was baked in since 2020 and persisted for 4 years with numerous instances of ignoring it.

The problem wasn’t drama over petty differences or “politics”. These nazifurs are a security threat to anything they touch, with a long history of sabotage and crime at cons. January’s report linked evidence of their malice like this:

• Had a secret plot to bring Proud Boys street violence to Midwest Furfest 2019, forcing MFF to head it off with bans.
• Ardently defended sex-offending friends, causing multiple arrests with conviction for witness intimidation and retaliation at this reporter.
• Publicly embarrassed Anthrocon with political hate symbols in the fursuit parade, forcing AC to make new policies to prevent repeats.
• Funded Free Fur All, the nazifur convention, which fell apart due to competing factions having to put up with each other’s insufferable trolling.
• Free Fur All’s mission was to host “canceled” people like the Confederate Fursuiter; main suspect in the chemical attack on MFF that hospitalized 19.
• Schemed for control of regular furry groups and cons, and abused power when they got it, driving away the real community.

This threat pattern was openly documented since at least 2017. Dashing’s enabling for it irritated the community for years about meets he hosted, but it didn’t boil over until GSFTW launch was near. The pattern predicted future disaster, unless it was forced to change against resistance at the top.

The entire board is the problem

Who else stood in the way of change? Inside GSFTW, Dashing’s loyal board knew and enabled problems for years. Then they treated the Aeveirra incident as old news from 2020, while nazifurs kept making themselves at home under their watch.

This raised scrutiny on who some of the board members were; not New Jersey furries, but transplants from Megaplex in Florida, allegedly motivated against COVID masking after a board rift there.

COVID badly delayed many cons in 2020, so the Aeveirra incident wasn’t actually that distant. Isn’t that interesting timing to grab opportunity to start a con? It also wasn’t the only red flag about problematic people getting on staff; and there was more mismanagement concern than that.

Staff faced problems about money with budget numbers hidden, unlike at other cons run by the same staff. Money questions are extra shady when Dashing’s friend Aeveirra funded the Free Fur All nazifur con, a “spitecon” started after the founders failed bid to run an Oklahoma convention in 2020.

The purpose of GSFTW came with strangely competitive talk about taking the place of other furry groups and events, against the nature of nonprofit, volunteer-based fandom. (Below, Furrydelphia’s management talks about hostility by GSFTW.) But let’s return to January…

“The inaction of the board is deafening” — a staff ultimatum, walkout, and removal of Dashing.

Rifts about nazifurs grew with GSFTW management as staff attempted to get them to see reason, without success. This led to a January 10 staff ultimatum to remove Dashing and problem people. On January 11, the pressure forced the con to make a statement against nazifur activity. Evidently words weren’t backed by action. With the ultimatum ignored, on January 12, the Dealer’s Den team, Registration Dept. and others walked out. Here’s before and after messages from then by Hospitality lead Osiris Adustus:

At least 15 staff joined the revolt. One whistleblower says:

“Over the course of those few days, various people tied to the con and its leadership continued to tell on themselves, essentially handing us the evidence of who they really are. Given how GSFTW was able to somehow bounce back from that in such a short time frame… it gives the appearance they had people on standby or secretly had people on the downlow already and misled staff on who was who.”

The next day, January 13, the con was forced to act again, with registrations and money at stake. Now Dashing would step down as Chair, and be replaced by new chair Shy Matsi. Finally some nazi-furs were removed from chat groups (but not banned from the con). Dashing excused himself as being uninformed about them, and blamed sickness for resigning a day after a staff revolt.

Later in May, Dashing also blamed his Furry Raiders podcast appearance on “poor research”, which omits how it called him Aeveirra’s friend, and the warning he ignored about it from his own staff.

Dogpatch Press made many requests for comment after the revolt, and got a little PR and a lot of stonewalling. Dashing blew deadlines to respond. Despite serious misgivings, the January report put a charitable spin on the forced action, and did hard work to avoid harming the con and engage anyone willing to do better. GSFTW got back to business, as if benefit of the doubt is deserved for people who just learned that nazis are bad… (and need to keep learning, again and again)… Meanwhile, Dashing’s sickness excuse stayed the only official removal reason, at least until the coast was clear.

A month before launch, GSFTW changes from a nonprofit to a for-profit LLC — owned by Dashing — without comment. 

Why didn’t the con really fix things? In April, the step to “remove” Dashing was walked right back.

From April 2024, ownership makes Dashing the responsible public face in the open government record naming him.

What’s the point of switching to a for-profit LLC, besides making Dashing’s removal a revolving door for his ownership? Did anyone even catch on to it becoming the toy of someone who misused the community so badly? The switch was so close to launch in May, that hotel and travel plans would be done for many goers, so was this timed to suppress awareness and let them believe it was nonprofit, while diverting support to Dashing’s private benefit? We could ask, but GSFTW and Dashing have already been evasive.

The greasy gambit worked. In May, the launch proceeded. You may be thinking… did the con make some people happy? The average con-goer doesn’t scrutinize leadership when there’s fun to be had; but that low standard and PR about “new” leadership hides how a chronic problem continued with Dashing’s replacement Chair, Shy Matsi.

Evidently, Shy Matsi just played Dashing’s right hand. After Dashing had blown off questions and used the sickness excuse, he wasn’t too sick to be spotted in Con Ops, run main stage events, and be front and center at the closing ceremony.

Tweet by Zero, a deeply involved community organizer and con staffer.

Dashing publicly and openly resigned as Chair while citing his health as the reason, but remained as the CEO, contract holder, and de facto leader. Shy Matsi played a figurehead, a cardboard cutout for Dashing to stand behind while remaining in charge and protecting all of his problematic friends. They think they can take community support for granted by fooling you with a title switch!

Excuses from the puppet Chair: nazifurs can be LBGTQ too, so let them in?!

Shy Matsi does more ass-covering than just for Dashing. After a staff revolt and forced statements — after the con was over and it wasn’t even crucial time for PR — he proceeded to deflect responsibility, pile up excuses, and beg tolerance for alt-right trolls as if hateful malice just makes different opinions equal to the targets. It made the con PR about zero tolerance mean “except when they’re our friends, or use their identity to excuse their toxic beliefs and behavior”.

January 11, 2024: Official PR by con during staff revolt

May 8, 2024: Shy Matsi excuses alt-right hate by prevaricating.

Zero Jackal collected a Google doc of chat logs of trying to reason with Shy Matsi right after the con. (Full log images.) The chat was in a group of friends including community mods and con staffers who had worked with or known him for a very long time, but distanced over time as problems grew.

Several whistleblowers have discussed the long history of enabling before GSFTW existed:

“Shy Matsi has harbored nazis, far right extremists, and all sorts of other unsavory folks in this really fucked up mentality of “giving a home to everyone”. This insistence on ignoring issues and “just being nice” doesn’t work. Shy is wholly incapable of ever telling bad actors to go away. He’s repeatedly made excuses for awful people, or allowed people banned from local chats into furmeets, as to not be “mean”. I used to respect the guy but he enables this stuff. Locals who have known him for literally 2+ DECADES are cutting ties with him as he refuses to explain why.” — More logs collected from the mod chat:

Shy Matsi is of POC and LGBT identity. This raises eyebrows in the community in light of the enabling for threats towards POC and LGBT people, like the crimes and definition of “collaborator” in the January reporting.

Critics of the enabling include the targeted identities; and to underscore the incongruity of Shy’s collaboration, Dashing made conflict with other furry groups for being in support of Black Lives Matter, while spreading partisan political narratives against it. (Circa 2021):

Shy Matsi was even more than just an enabling friend of Dashing. They roomed together with another cause of complaints, an alt-right troll named W0nderdawg, a fellow meet host, making very personal corruption in handling of the problem.

The nazifurs they let in… who used GSFTW to put politics on Fox News.

After GSFTW did damage-control in January about removing nazifurs, security sent messages to several: W0nderdawg, Astral (a NY-based Furry Raider who waved a hate flag in Anthrocon’s parade), and Astral’s friend Peter. They were banned from the con chat, but not the con.

Astral and Peter were then photographed at the con. Not just attending, but being interviewed on Fox News. The Fox demographic has one relationship with furries: mocking them for anti-LGBT propaganda, including hoaxes about litter boxes to dehumanize them in “joke” form. Letting Fox use GSFTW for their entertainment would be like slamming yourself in a locker when you see a bully coming.

Below: Astral, his friend Peter, and a clip from a Fox News Jesse Watters show, where Peter declares: “Trump 2024 baby!”

A whistlebower claims “The Watters crew WAS tipped off about the con from an insider, but I’m told they just showed up and started filming with no press pass.” At least, that’s what staff would think when hit by surprise… but what if the GSFTW board secretly colluded with Fox?

The Fox News clip of Peter also shows Shy Matsi, the Chair, on his left near the con ballroom. Clearly the cameras weren’t hiding, press pass or not. They got comfortable to hang out. We know because Peter went on the notorious alt-right Kiwifarms hate forum to boast about how they interviewed him longer.

Besides helping Fox News push politics on the fandom, Peter says he brought many friends and did A/V work for GSFTW, and there he is with camera.

More problematic staff

Here’s a few staff who had been officially listed. Turbulent staff turnover, as you will see below, may or may not apply now — it’s hard to trust the con’s PR — the point is this was the quality of who was trusted to run this con at some point.

• Arctico, IT lead, spread inflammatory MAGA sentiments. GSFTW claimed Arctico didn’t show up for the job after this drew public criticism.
• Zade, DJ coordinator, who follows numerous nazifurs. A tipper says “I have no idea how this man has been allowed to remain socially in the fandom for as long as he has, despite being an overt racist and nazi apologist. His twitter is a cesspool.”

“We were lied to”: PR lead Pawsouls quit GSFTW, wished the work was for a “more deserving boss”

Pawsouls was PR staff in January, when contacted for comment by Dogpatch Press without much result while GSFTW did damage control. Whistleblowers had their own criticism: “Pawsouls constantly defends Dashing’s actions, attempting to sweep it under the rug, instead of addressing it. They were asked, had their chance to explain and didn’t…”

After the con, Pawsouls had a change of heart, and quit GSFTW with statements that shed light now:

May post-con tweets: (1) (2)

October tweet

This shows how staff goodwill would be misused by a non-transparent Board. Pawsouls followed up with gracious replies for this report:

“PR was told Dashing would be stepping away from a front-facing and leadership position, as he was recovering from mental and physical stressors and being in the hospital. Only for that to be twisted into him stepping back on stage, without confirmation from anyone that such a thing would be happening, which was then left for PR to handle blindly. And that’s not including having Fox News at con without PR Dept. approval or oversight. I know registration also wasn’t aware.

The sudden wave of changes a day or two before the con, and then during the con, was insane and we found disrespectful. I got into an argument with Dashing during the con, and the Board, about how it seems everything seemed to just done without following the con’s own CoC (which a fellow member of the PR team helped in writing). It was met with Dashing just stating excuses and throwing blame on me and my team.

At that point, my focus shifted into making sure my friends were safe during the con overall. A lot of staff were local furs I know and friends of mine. Which why when I left, a lot of staff left. I believe it’s almost all new people on staff now.”

It’s murky how Fox News even knew about a small, local, first-year con, and succeeded in filming there without a pass. Pawsouls says:

“In terms of approving them, that was left with the board. They seemed to know what was going on and didn’t notify anyone on staff.”

Who quit after the con in May, making a new staff collapse?

“To my knowledge, all of PR left, head of Reg, head of Dealer Den, original head of the gaming room, head of Security, multiple floating volunteers, and I believe one or two board members.”

Pawsouls was used by Dashing for diligent service, while under fire without quitting for personal interest so the con could happen with safety for friends. Some involved were critical of not getting support before, but Pawsouls didn’t have to come forward now about being misled, and do the same diligence in speaking for public interest. The candor is valued.

Budget and finance sketchiness raises questions

Lack of transparency has been a common whistleblower complaint. For example, staff requests for budgets were stonewalled, with instructions to provide Amazon wishlists for the board to pick what to approve, when every item was needed.

Some leaked discussion with Kiba, the GSFTW treasurer at the time:

Whistleblowers questioned the finances and official attendance, before and after con:

(Before) “If their first year is anything like similar cons, they’re looking at at least a $30,000 hotel contract, plus service charge and tax. Plus their AV needs, equipment, etc, they’re going to need at minimum 60k to get their event off the ground. Their reg is $65. That means they need almost a thousand people to make it happen. I don’t really see them getting that many folks. Same exact thing that happened to CCFC. That’s the problem with a lot of new cons. Eyes are bigger than their stomachs so to speak.”

(After) “Their numbers ain’t adding up. Nearly 1k attendees (but sure didn’t have that in person). They had to have had outside benefactors artificially boosting their reg numbers on paper and secretly funding the con so it wouldn’t go belly up. U said it yourself, Aevierra and Foxler are no strangers to propping cons up financially like Freefurall.”

Official attendance was 957, but there were claims about the con being empty, including the Saturday rave at peak of con. Is 957 accurate, and not inflated with Reg Dept turnover making it hard to detect? Claims of sparseness may not be easy to verify, but would make it murky if the budget was covered, what it was, and from what source. Can you trust what they say? Even their own PR person came out to say they lied.

The bottom line: This is how hate finds a home, unless the community says no.

Incompetence at the top risked the first con’s ruin by causing a staff revolt, but it wasn’t enough to get better care inside. Note Pawsoul’s complaint of what it was like to run PR after January PR apologies. It puts red flags on any future cons.

Even with an appearance of a nice regular con, the idea of growth for GSFTW is tainted with reports of spite and competition towards nonprofit community, and harboring staff that other cons dropped for good reason.

Tweet by the Chair of Furrydelphia.

Dashing, Shy, W0nderdawg and others in this report continue to inhabit local organizer chats and grasp influence. Those who came forward are fed up and would like the public to give no more chances. “Why not let it die, and make a new con with a better team, instead of the one that let nazis fester?”

Afterthought: A pattern where Shy Matsi’s site was so insecure, it leaked revenge-porn.

Here’s a story that was left out of January’s report to avoid bias, showing HOW CHARITABLE the reporting was.

Around 2017, I had personal adult images made with a partner for fun, kept privacy-locked on Furries Xtreme, a hookup site owned by Shy Matsi. They were leaked as revenge porn to retaliate at Dogpatch Press reporting. A Furries Xtreme admin would have access to locked profiles, and one was in Nazifur groups who targeted enemies that way. Put 2 and 2 together.

When told, Shy Matsi did nothing. Zero Jackal says: “This tracks. I have receipts of multiple people in his chats (most of whom myself or other mods have kicked for GOOD reason, like sending us death threats), have notified him to do something about it, and he’s refused / outright ignored us.”

Imagine if you were harassed with revenge-porn leaked under Shy Matsi’s watch… and still gave him neutrality about becoming chair of GSFTW, with responsibility for the con’s trust and safety. The owners had so much leeway to improve after Shy was talked to in January, and Dashing blew off questions. This reporter is still doing the job, after harassers thought they could run off reporting for public service. Now that includes a personal opinion:

If you expect cons to be trustworthy and safe, and you were thinking of going to GSFTW in 2025, don’t. Save your money and tell your friends to Beware.

UPDATE: more cronyism, and insight about shady finances and the greasy LLC switch

Showing their true colors:

In a new hilarious turn of events, since apparently he has nothing to say for himself, Shy has now adminned Dashing on the NJ Events Chat (bottom). At this point I'm calling it, and he's 100 percent in bed with the nazifurs. Seriously mental behavior. pic.twitter.com/3v6D2U7J4v

— Zero Jackal (@Zero_Jackal) October 25, 2024

If the con’s official attendance number was inflated up to the break-even point for estimated cost of this con, when allegedly many less people attended… Who paid for the hotel deposit? And how can the attendance be verified?

Notice that no official fursuit photo has been seen. This is a point of pride for legitimate cons. Proportionally, a con of around 1000 furries would have 200 fursuiters.

A tipper supplied more visual clues of sparse numbers:

Next, an explanation for the greasy LLC switch. There’s one logical, reasonable, sensible reason why anybody would turn their event from a 501 nonprofit to an LLC, changing the entire organization structure just a month before the event. Tip:

“I was talking with some very high up people who work in the convention scene, and in this conversation we put two and two together.

As a 501 organization you’re only allowed to accept a certain amount of monetary donations from a singular source. I believe it cannot be any amount over $5,000 or more than 20% of the overall revenue generated from an event.

However an LLC is allowed to take in as many donations from any source that they want, as long as they are put on their books as taxable income.

So what I think happened is they were getting very close to the convention and they did not have nearly the amount of money required to fulfill the deposit necessary on the hotel reservation. So they get in touch with some of their right wing friends to bankroll the event… but one problem, they can’t accept the money as a 501. So they as fast as possible switch to an LLC, which allows them to take in as much dirty money as they need to in order to fund the event.

In other words they never had the attendance required to fund the event, so they had to have external funding in order to make it run. There was never a thousand people there or registered for the convention.

There is a pitfall to being an LLC which in their shortsightedness I think they fail to understand. As an LLC you are an official business and everyone who works for you is an employee that requires payment. You are not allowed to have any type of volunteers or non-paid staff as an LLC. This also means that if they were in LLC during the time of the convention, then they essentially had people working illegally for them as unpaid employees.

This can be easily verified through a quick Google search of the IRS website.”

GSFTW is now a for-profit business, and by mismanaging it, they are now taking gambles with all of the community’s support and payment. Remember whose decisions brought it to this point while watching what happens next.

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Super-heroes and kitties come together in the Marvel Meow collection from earlier this year. “The cats of the Marvel mythos will claw their way to comic shops… Marvel Meow #1 collects Nao Fuji’s hit Marvel Unlimited Infinity Comic and features brand-new covers and an exclusive new Marvel Meow story. The series spotlights adorable interactions between the cats of the Marvel Universe and your favorite heroes and villains. These delightful adventures are perfect for all ages and are sure to delight Marvel fans, cat lovers, and everyone in between! Marvel’s most fearsome – and furriest – heroes are here to save the day and beg for treats in the process! Follow Chewie, Liho, Alpine and the rest of the Avengers’ feline friends as they cause a few cat-tastrophes…and maybe vanquish some villains in the process! Whether it’s crashing Captain Marvel’s apartment or defeating Doc Ock, you can always count on these cats for some cute chaos!” And you can find them here, with a variety of covers of course.

image c. 2024 Marvel Comics

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