An amazing true story — presented as an anthropomorphic graphic novel. “What happens behind the walls of a police station? What kind of living does a cop make? And how does a culture of racism and violence become entrenched? Valentin Gendrot went undercover in Paris to find the answers — revelations that rocked France and led to a series of investigations, including an internal affairs case on Gendrot himself. Flic is an exposé of a world never before seen by outsiders, an urgent story for our times, powerfully illustrated by the talented Thierry Chavant.” And it’s available now from Scribe Publications.

image c. 2024 Scribe Publications

Adam Woolacott of Burnaby, British Columbia, known as O'hare-ah and vivalink in furry fandom, has plead guilty to five of nine charges against him related to sexual offences involving a young teenage girl, after failing to get evidence thrown out over an incorrectly-issued warrant.

Adam - who was then 35 - made contact with the child in December 2019 on a furry Facebook group, and reportedly continued to interact sexually with her through text messages after learning that she was 12. He later met her in a park and touched her breast through clothes, before inviting her to his townhouse where they had sex and he showed her a dragon sex toy.

The girl met Adam in his hotel room at VancouFur 2022, and after further sexual touching sought sex with her again, telling her he had condoms; but she just wanted to hang out. Becoming upset, she left the room and told the event organisers, who contacted police. Adam went missing for a time after the convention, causing friends to request help to find him.

Albuquerque police seek 33-year-old Florida fur Conrad Coovert (@Rumor_Lucca, ShadowWolf DarkDragon) on a charge of child abuse after walking a local 14-year-old boy he'd previously talked with 6.5 miles overnight, planning to take a Greyhound bus to this weekend's Las Vegas Fur Con, then bring him back to Florida.

Coovert, who also went by the name GothFox, SnaggleWolf NightFangz and Fenrir Darkslayer, was reportedly carrying "furry costumes and sex bondage items" in his luggage, while the boy, who had blisters on his feet, said they "had walked all night and slept in a park in the cold".

According to KOB-TV, Coovert had previously been accused by investigators in 2015 of attempting to have sex with a 13-year-old boy after meeting him at a fur con, trading sexts, then visiting his Georgia home.

Update (Apr 5): Coovert was arrested in Florida

The comic 2-Land is one of those things where, if you read the description alone, you’d never even know it was furry. And then you see it, as in the picture below! Anyway, here’s that description: “The city of Tuland has been very active lately. There has been a spike in low level crime, political confusion as well as a looming feeling as if there is a puppet master dictating these seemingly petty crimes. On top of all of this the city has a mysterious new hero. No one has seen him. No cameras have caught him in action. And the only witnesses of his presence are the criminals. Will Tuland’s streets return to their once peaceful norm? Is there a so called ‘puppet master’ pulling the strings behind these criminal activities? Will this self-appointed savior of Tuland reveal himself to the people?” The creators, Jay the Teller and Dr. Inx, have their own web site for the comic too, which has a lot more background information.

image c. 2023 2-Land Comics

March has been quite a maddening time for the hard working staff at furry conventions. Two of the gatherings, Vancouver’s Vancoufur and Detroit’s Motor City Fur Con, both came under attack during their respective activities when a false report of threat, known as swatting, was committed and caused the need to temporarily evacuate the facilities. Toronto’s Furnal Equinox, meanwhile, had a scare in the region of the convention during the early morning hours that caused witnessing staff to recommend sheltering in place.

We will start with what occurred during Furnal Equinox as it was a different situation than the other two. Then we will go over what occurred at Vancoufur and Motor City.

Grand Island, Nebraska law enforcement report that 26 year old Aaron Zemen, who also has the alias of Tadashi Kojima and fandom name of HunterFox, was found and arrested for kidnapping a thirteen year old from the state of Utah. The juvenile was found in the car with Zemen at the a gas station.

Officers responded to a suspicious vehicle call at 3320 Langenheder Street (Git N Split). Upon arrival, officers made contact with Tadashi Kojima and a juvenile male sitting inside a white Toyota Avalon. GIEC advised officers the juvenile male was reported as an abducted child from Utah.

At this time, officers advised Tadashi to exit the vehicle. When officers advised Tadashi he was going to be placed under arrest, Tadashi tensed up and started resisting officers placing cuffs on him. Tadashi was placed under arrest for Kidnapping and Resisting Arrest.

- VITAMINR shared police report

Members of the furry community had called out Hunterfox as a suspect in accosting the 13 year old after an Amber alert was made in response to his disappearance. Fortunately, the child was found safe and can be safely returned to his family.

The Colorado Furry Community has reported that a member of the local community, Tompla, was sent to the hospital to recover from wounds during the Club Q shooting that occurred in Colorado Springs on the weekend of the 19th of November.

The Club Q shooting has made headlines as the a latest mass shooting event in the United States and left 5 patrons of the club dead in the aftermath. Given that the attack was against an LGBTQ night club and the alleged shooter being the grandson of a Republican politician, there is suspicion of the shooter’s motivations being driven by rhetoric that is hostile against LGBTQ communities.

The investigation is ongoing.

A link to an organization to donate to help the victims was provided on the Colorado Furry Community’s statement.

On July 27th, 2022 it was reported that a West Virginian man by the name of Michael Herman, known in the fandom as Cani Lupine, was arrested for making terroristic threats toward state lawmakers as they look to enact more stringent laws surrounding the termination of pregnancies. More specifically, his charges surround threats of using gun violence to affect the outcome of a legislative session. He is being held on a $30,000 bond.

Cani Lupine gathered infamy within the fandom and was known for utilizing violent rhetoric towards those within the trans* community, as well as racist language and threats against other furs.

In an Ashville, North Carolina park, two men were arrested over allegations of setting off an improvised explosive device, consisting of cardboard tubing and gunpowder, at the remains of the Vance Monument. They possessed these devices during the fourth of July celebrations occurring downtown. One of the two arrested, Chioke Fugate, is a person in the furry fandom known under the fursona name TechCoyote.

The identity can be confirmed via videos they had of themselves at the gun range matching the person photographed in the mugshots used in press reports.

Fortunately, no one was injured during this event. TechCoyote is current being held on $15,000 bond and is charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction and going armed to the terror of the people.

The Bad Guys, a DreamWorks Animation film directed by Pierre Perifel, should be a slam dunk, right?

With a voice cast of personal favorites such as Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina and Craig Robinson? Full of anthropomorphic animal characters in a kid-friendly Tarantino take-off? And there's even a furry vixen in the mix? What, is it my birthday? (Actually, that's Saturday.) [Happy Birthday! --The editors]

Featuring a criminal gang of five predatory animals, meet Mr. Wolf (Rockwell), Mr. Snake (voiced by Marc Maron), Miss Tarantula (Awkwafina), Mr. Shark (Robinson) and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos).

After a television interview with the local governor, a vixen named Diane Foxington, Mr. Wolf is goaded into carrying out a ridiculously difficult heist. Which correspondingly goes ridiculously wrong. The gang are put in the care of Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade), a guinea pig who tries to teach them how to be good guys.

The OPB reports that Benjamin Smith, known in the fandom under his fursona name “Polybun”, faces murder and attempted murder charges after he confronted protesters before opening fire into the crowd. Four were injured and one, Brandy Knightly, a sixty year old woman, lost her life in the attack.

Connections to the fandom were fished out by the local Portland community furries as images of the attacker made the rounds. One of the first to report on this to social media was Triss Winters, a furry left-wing activist out of Portland who recalled when Polybun was removed from one of his house parties a decade ago due to him brandishing a knife and threatening to stab someone who took a photo of him at the event.

Megaplex has updated its rules to ban registered sex offenders from attending their convention. This followed a publicly posted Twitter thread from a Megaplex attendee describing how they'd been assaulted by a registered sex offender at the convention, and their subsequent experience of trying to inform the staff.

Although the convention's initial response said they would ban those in the registry, the passive tone used in the opening paragraph of their announcement was not well-received:

We are saddened and sorry to hear that people felt [emphasis added] harassed or worse during the weekend. This is unacceptable and no person attending the convention should be made to feel [emphasis added] this way.

The language then shifted responsibility to victims to be more proactive in informing the con - despite having received an advance conversation before this was announced publicly. Megaplex's poor choice of wording ended up overshadowing the announcement of the ban itself.

A few weeks ago, con chairman Samuel Conway wrote a Twitter thread about how a customer was stiffed by a seller in the Dealer's Den at Anthrocon.

OK, I just deleted a long thread where I detailed how an unscrupulous fursuit maker made Anthrocon look bad in the eyes of our friends in Pittsburgh. I intended to demonstrate that the whole "well, that's just how furries do business" affects ALL of us, not just one or two.

— Uncle Kage (@Unclekage) June 18, 2021

Bad business practices have been an ongoing issue in furry fandom. Taking the money and running is not only detrimental from a financial angle; it erodes trust in our fellow fans, and embitters the dreams of getting fursuits and art commissions. Since this frustrating problem has now reached a level where it's occurring within our Dealer's Dens, it also threatens to harm the reputations of the entrepreneurs who call those marketplaces home. If the fandom wants to secure the economic integrity of its spaces, new solutions will need to be developed to protect the honest exchange of goods and services.

Today we go over the harm that these situations cause, the extent and mitigation that furry fandom has committed already, and finally present a baseline of discussion for solutions to bring a sense of security back to the furry buyer.

Since it began in 2015, yiff.party has been a source of ire for artists whose income has been affected by it. The website uses web scraping software to extract files from Patreon, including those meant to be restricted to paid subscribers only, and made them publicly available, for free.

Kotaku interviewed Kadath and other artists about it in 2018. Although DMCA notices were sent, legal action was threatened by publishers like InkedFur, and Patreon promised to go to bat for its users, the site remained unassailed. Now, it’s closed, but not due to pressure from these sources.