Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Unearthing a cool fossil — A 1980’s letter shows furry fandom before the net.

by Patch O'Furr

Ursa Major Awards voting is open through March, vote now for the best creators.

News tips from non-furries are often worthy. They won’t suck you into fandom-gossip, and they’re more likely to use the Dogpatch Press Facebook page than Telegram or Twitter. That’s how I heard from a New Jersey estate liquidator (someone contracted to sell off goods when someone dies or can’t do it themselves). They had binders of furry art, and I had experience in brokerage (my other fursona is a pack rat.) Was there worth in them?

They didn’t smell like money, but I knew they might have at least curiosity value for a handful of sources like Confurence.com, so I broadcast it and tagged them.

Indeed it was just sentimental-value stuff — not even original art, just photocopies — but Jerry Collins tied this to old guard furry fandom. I thought about how scrapbooks of gay culture from pre-1960’s had high curatorial value, and was reminded of a contact with an archive for 8mm home movies that were picked up this way and sometimes licensed for documentaries. I smelled news!

I asked about reaching the family to find out more about the collector, or make sure it was OK to share:

The house had Manga stuff and role play games. Owner was in his 50’s. Unfortunately the estate was handled by an attorney who had no personal knowledge. I do not see any issue with sharing the binder contents. Enjoy.

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Third arrest tied to Furry Raiders and Foxler/ Lee Miller.

by Patch O'Furr

Lee Miller, a Colorado furry fan and internet troll who goes by Foxler, is heading to trial for child sex offenses. His April 2019 arrest followed years of allegations of grooming and “neo-nazi-cult-like” activity in his group the Furry Raiders. Miller’s trial is set for May 26, 2020.

In February 2020, the investigation brought new charges for Miller. This followed a December 2019 arrest for his associate Jacob Kovar (known as Sneps or Flare). Kovar was a Furry Raiders admin with a felony record. He got arrested for alleged witness tampering in Miller’s case that was uncovered by Dogpatch Press. Kovar hid that activity as “Dodger”, Head of Security at a Wyoming furry convention that dropped him when the “batshit story” came out.

Third arrest on 3/6/2020

A new arrest puts a third name on public record. (Original source.) It’s a 23 year old man charged with “16-19-103 DENVER: TAMP W. EVID”.

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VOTE! For the Ursa Major Awards for best furry works of 2019.

by Patch O'Furr

Have you heard? Rumors are flying around about some kind of contest for votes in the USA. It has a Birdie and a Bi-Den. That sounds furry, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s for the Ursa Major awards for the year’s best in furry movies, art, books, news magazines, and more.

You can vote HERE during all of March 2020, but don’t wait until it’s too late! VOTE NOW! 

Non-fiction and fursuits aren’t up for awards due to not enough nominations. (You CAN still nominate for the Good Furry Award.) Remember, armies of furry soldiers fought for your freedom to vote without getting told “yiff in hell”. So please do support those who are nominated, whether it’s for art, fiction or news from some fabulously erudite news hound!

Since 2001, these awards have been run with long hours of work by volunteers. They would appreciate any support you can give to defray costs for a website, making and mailing awards, and more.

NOMINEES FOR BEST OF 2019

Best Motion Picture
Live-action or animated feature-length movies.

• Avengers: Endgame (Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo; April 26)
• Frozen 2 (Directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck; November 22)
• Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Directed by Rob Letterman; May 3)
• Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling (Directed by Joe Murray and Cosmo Serguson; August 9)
• Toy Story 4 (Directed by Josh Cooley; June 21)

Best Dramatic Series or Short Work
TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.

• Aggretsuko, Season 2 (Directed by Rarecho)
• Amphibia (Directed by Bert Youn and Derek Kirk Kim)
• Beastars (Directed by Shinichi Matsumi) Episode 1, October 8, 2019 (Japan)
• Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart (Written and Storyboarded by Phil Ahn, Allison Craig, Nathanael H. Jones, Griffith Kimmins, Alexandria Kwan, Nora Meek, Michael Moloney, Emily Oetzell, Parker Simmons, and Chris Ybarra)
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Season 9 (Directed by Denny Lu, Mike Myhre, and Gillian Comerford)

Best Novel
Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.

• Darwin-sensei, Kemono Musume-tachi ga Gakuen de Omochi desu!, by Daisaburo Nonoue
• Fair Trade, by Gre7g Luterman
• Nexus Nine, by Mary E. Lowd
• Off The Mark, by Bernard Doove and Jeff Hartt
• Red Skies, by GS Cole and NC Shapero

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Furries For Bernie talk about their support for the US presidential candidate.

by Patch O'Furr

Join Bernie Sander’s Furs on Telegram.

How we got covered by KQED in A Secret Weapon of the Progressive Left: Furries by Nastia Voynovskaya.

There was no time for breakfast. It would take a miracle to find parking for the Bernie Sanders rally in Richmond CA. We were nearby and already together after a dance party the night before. Now we could see him speak with 11,000 supporters.

Candy, BerryPecanTart and Lux rode with me. Wild Child and Zahi were there, and Apollo Wolfdog, who we didn’t know, made contact from seeing us in the crowd. We were a litter worth of furries in the blocks long line to get in while Bernie’s motorcade passed 10 feet away. The blazing sun and fursuit photos weren’t as big as a wave from the man himself.

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FBI Ties Nazifurs to Atomwaffen Division — Attacks Targeted US Gov Official, Journalists

by Patch O'Furr

New FBI arrests are putting the heat on Atomwaffen Division. They’re a group with a dream: White supremacy through violent terrorism.

This is the “but not that!” clause you always get from free-speech defenders. Supposedly, neo-nazis just hold opinions you should tolerate, but you never get a good reason why. In truth, if you leave them alone they WILL hurt people. This group is tied to 5 murders.

Now add hundreds of swatting incidents, as announced by the FBI. “Swatting” is a terror tactic of falsely reporting a crisis to send a SWAT team crashing through a victim’s door. It gets people shot by mistake. Their international conspiracy targeted a US Cabinet official under Secret Service protection, journalists who reported about hate groups, and a vape shop. They did it for power, revenge, and a day off from school. (Really).

Doing terrorism to avoid homework sounds like the plot of a whole comedy movie about racist boneheads. For now, laugh at the dopes with me, a cartoon dog.

They’re more evil than geniuses, but they know furries reject nazis. They know tough guys fear being yiffed into oblivion with a Furry Apocalypse. They’re the type raised on easily-abused tech platforms with a mix of moldy old bigotry, ironic memes, and anime. Of course they know nazifurs. FBI evidence confirms it.

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The Worst Year Ever gives the best look ever at furry antifascists; Furries rally for Bernie

by Patch O'Furr

The 2020 American election year has a high-stakes power struggle. But The Worst Year Ever podcast isn’t just staying in the studio to report about it. They’re going out in real life to visit as many different groups as possible and show solidarity. They even got up close and personal with furries!

This must-hear podcast comes from Robert, Katy, and Cody (who also do Some More News, Behind The Bastards and more, with over 340,000 Twitter followers lumped together.) They make top quality media backed by research, wit, and dedication to truth. That’s how the fandom was introduced here.

Until now, outsiders have seen glimpses of a furry fandom struggle with far-right groups. It ties to happenings around the country. But few have gone all the way down our rabbithole to learn unique background that no mainstream media has covered. I had never heard some of this.

How The Furries Fought The Nazis and Won — by The Worst Year Ever

  • Part 1 — A look at the background of nazifurs and the Midwest Furfest 2014 chemical attack. (47 minutes)
  • Part 2 — Fandom responses, a big shoutout to Dogpatch Press at 4:00, and a visit to MFF 2019. (36 minutes)

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Fundraisers open for Pride events with furries in San Diego, LA, and San Francisco

by Patch O'Furr

Furries return to San Francisco Pride – June 28, 2020 

Back in 2012, the weekend celebration of SF Pride didn’t have any activities with anthropomorphic animals. Maybe they would just stay in their dog houses, or sit on eggs and wait for their terns, or whatever they do alone. That seemed like a loss when the SF Bay Area had the worlds most dense population of furries.

Why shouldn’t they go to Pride? Companies, schools, and all kinds of interest groups do. Pride is a statement about love that any group can support. But they didn’t seem to have any activity since a parade contingent around 2002-2005. (It’s not well documented, but the original organizers told me about overcoming some of the most friction for it from other fans, in fear of fear itself.)

Whose job is it to make it happen? Everyone’s. That’s why in 2020, I can report 8 years of starting and helping to organize award-winning floats in the parade, with partners like @Zoren, @StevenTigeron and hundreds of supporters and members. They’re coming back with a newly purchased trailer to have for the future. Generous donations last year covered it, but now they need to build a float on it and give everyone an experience to remember.

You can help on GoFundMe. Donations are matched by Spottacus.

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Animal Farm: a furry fetish party at the Citadel in San Francisco, February 22.

by Patch O'Furr

Art by Alterkitten (Furaffinity / Twitter)

There’s so much news about politics lately. What kind of liberation will the next election bring? Does it make your mind wander?

At Animal Farm (formerly Wild Things), you can get liberated as heck. Get in that headspace where you’re a pup and let your paws wander on a furry friend. Consenting adults only of course. Come explore kink at a safe licensed club, with super cute furries, pet-players, trainers, and opportunity to go ALL the way.

In San Francisco, this is one of the only openly advertised, public-access furry fetish parties in the world. Shy newcomers are welcome! Dungeon monitors are there to help. Any curious visitor can get a healthy nonjudgemental sample, or go whole hog. Bring a partner into trying a new kink. Come find a new partner in the lounge where there’s just chatting, a counter full of snacks, and temptation beckoning you to the dungeon for a frisky good time.

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Meet the artists behind the site banners: Meteor05 and Azure Paragon

by Patch O'Furr

Dogpatch Press is commissioning regular new banner art — check out a gallery from past months. Each artist gets an article, with a goal to promote ones outside the USA. Last artist was Glasses Gator from Mexico. It’s a little behind schedule, so here’s catchup with both Azure Paragon (December) and Meteor05 (January.)

Hi Meteor, so you’re in Mexico and have a wolf fursona — why wolf? And you teach — ever teach cartoon art?

I choose a wolf as my fursona because something funny happened to me as kid, when I entered primary school. I was kind of a hyperactive/playful kid, so, in my first class, instead of doing stuff for class, I just wanted to play with the other kids, I started to shout “hey, there’s a wolf at the window!” and ran around, but none of the other kids wanted to play and later they started to call me “Wolf”, something that I hated at the time (and hated for years LOL). I eventually started to accept it, and even liked it, until it became part of myself.

About my work as a teacher, I really don’t teach anything relative to cartoons or art (that would be really nice though). I’m an elementary/primary school teacher, I work at the computer lab from the school, teaching kids how to use the computer (basic stuff of course). But even though my job is not fully related to art, I use it sometimes on school stuff, like the cover of my class planning book.

Can you say a little about fandom activity where you are? Do you go to meets or cons?

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Nominations now open for the 2019 Ursa Major Awards!

by Patch O'Furr

Sent in by a host of the Ursa Major awards, and co-founder of the first furry convention and oldest fan house in Southern California (the Prancing Skiltaire):

It’s that time of year again! The Furry community will honor the best of Anthropomorphic animation, art and literature, and everyone is invited to help choose the best for 2019! You make the nominations, and vote for the winners. Nominations are now open, until February 15, 2020. There is even a recommended list to help you make your choices, but you may submit anything your feel deserves the award. To nominate in any or all categories, go to https://ursamajorawards.org

Sylys Sable

Nominations for the 2019 Awards are now open and will close at midnight on February 15th, 2020.

To nominate online, go ENROLL FOR ONLINE NOMINATIONS or LOGIN if you have already enrolled.
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