Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Category: Current events

August 16, 2025

Help! I’m being impersonated by someone who stole my fursona and refuses to stop.

by Patch O'Furr

Hi, I’m Sierra, a furry in Norway, and I’m experiencing harassment that might be familiar to a lot of people online.

In 2020, I created an original fursona and commissioned art for it. I put years of effort into a character that is special and personal to me. A fursona like mine is one of the things that defines what furries are, so what happened next was not just upsetting to me, I think it goes against what our community is for.

In April 2025, I discovered that a stranger was inexplicably using the fursona I created to impersonate me. Call it… imfursonation? They were stealing the identity I had been building for years, at the cost of my money, passion, friendships, and personal integrity. I did nothing to provoke this creepy wrongdoing and only found out by surprise.

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August 8, 2025

Two years of anti-zoophile community moderation: Heika’s work with Laelaps on Bluesky

by Patch O'Furr

Founder heikadog

In Greek mythology, Laelaps is a dog that never fails to catch what it is hunting.

On Bluesky, tens of thousands of users use the Laelaps anti-zoophile labeler. This volunteer-run project collects evidence of animal abusers and enablers, publishes a list, and shows a label on listed accounts so you’re informed before interacting. A labeler utilizes third-party moderation service, hooked up to Bluesky features that help you choose how to use the platform. It lets you actively curate rather than passively consume what you’re fed.

This is their second anniversary of launching a list, their first anniversary of integrating third-party labeler service, and now the public evidence is just reorganized with its sub-categories for refined use. You can support it with ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/laelapsfyi

Laelaps started with a small team of furries and now reaches people from all walks of life. It sets a standard for community moderation that any group can follow. Founder heikadog (aka Heika, they/them) was interviewed by Dogpatch Press about the mission, methods, history, and impact of the internet’s most successful project in its niche. They say furries run the internet, and here’s more proof.

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July 9, 2025

Preview The Furry Detectives docuseries, and learn how reporting emerged against backlash

by Patch O'Furr

Full series out July 17. The first 12 minutes of the first episode:

The Furry Detectives docuseries — The story they don’t want told, emerging against 7 years of backlash and interference.

Coming on AMC+: this 4-episode series introduces furries who investigated the 2018 zoosadist leaks. (More summary of the leaks.)

The leaks exposed evidence of deep-rooted, ongoing animal abuse networks in the community. They use furry as a cover, for organizing that isn’t easily dismissed with “anyone can be a furry, we can’t gatekeep it” disclaimers. Half of the truth is that abuse happens in any community — and internet tech and platforms are big factors not fully in our power — but the whole truth is that this behavior is uniquely among us in real-life organized ways seen nowhere else. It’s nobody else’s problem when our groups are run by and for us.

Making our own destiny is how fandom works at its best. However before the show releases, it’s catching some backlash for airing problems that the community didn’t properly deal with for 7 years. It’s like some people want things brushed under the rug so ignoring it can make it worse. That behavior was always holding back investigation over 7 years while publishing tens of thousands of words of reporting at Dogpatch Press.

There was a lot of generous team work as well, but some of the most counterproductive behavior was not just from incuriosity and denialism, putting optics over solutions, or random bad actors… Most alarmingly, there’s also corruption from influence at the top.

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July 5, 2025

Newsdump: Room Party art show during Anthrocon, furries on NPR, public image in the media

by Patch O'Furr

Happening now: Anthrocon and Room Party show at Bunker Projects, 5106 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh

Anthrocon has competitors for the world’s biggest furry convention, but is unsurpassed in other ways. Their street parade is a wonder of the furry world, uniquely partnered with Pittsburgh and swarmed by cheering residents on a blocked off city street.

Fursuiters make public image by flaunting millions in art at such events, but it’s also about the artists. They’re enjoying how Pittsburgh welcomes furries like nowhere else, with their own art show at a gallery apart from the con.

SEE ROOM PARTY: http://room-party.com. The show has a 6-week run with film screenings, workshops, and informal art-making gatherings. Curators include Brett Hanover (previously in furry news with his movie Rukus.) Brett sent info:

Room Party is the first-ever large-scale group exhibition of contemporary and experimental furry art, featuring over 50 artists working in drawing and painting, comics, photography, installation, video, and new media. Curated by furry artists Lane Lincecum, Brett Hanover, Cass Dickenson, and Paul Peng, Room Party takes its name from the unofficial hotel room parties held during conventions—embodied virtual realities where furries try on unimagined identities, invent new sexualities and artistic expressions, and discover alternative ways of being known. Room Party brings the love and creativity of these events to Pittsburgh’s Bunker Projects, putting furry artists in conversation with the fine art world, the broader queer community, and the contemporary moment.

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May 16, 2025

Furgeddaboutit 2025 con report: “Controlled burn” cooks up unprecedented results in New Jersey

by Dogpatch Press Staff

GUEST POST: Eberra Wolf (sounds like “a-BEAR-uh”) is an independent reporter from New York City, and focuses on the northeastern United States. He has been a furry since December 2022. Eberra is using community access to submit news as an on-the-scene correspondent – you can submit news here.

Furries playing outside in the courtyard of the Mount Laurel, N.J., DoubleTree on Saturday. (Eberra Wolf for Dogpatch Press.)

Furgeddaboutit had its inaugural convention over the weekend of May 2-4 in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Created in reaction to Garden State Fur the Weekend, another New Jersey convention, it was held on the same weekend 47 miles southwest, about 50 minutes away by car.

By the end of both cons, comparison of the respective results would make an example for the global fandom to remember.

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April 22, 2025

The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster – TV docuseries investigates the 2018 Zoosadist leaks

by Patch O'Furr

Furry True Crime is a genre

In 2024, the Fur and Loathing podcast came out with Guardian journalist Nicky Woolf and Dogpatch Press. The show investigated the Midwest Furfest 2014 chemical attack, based on previously unseen FBI documents and interviews across 4 states. Apple Podcasts gives it a 4.5 star rating, and it has 4.8 from critics, who call it “made with deep reverence and contribution from maligned, largely disenfranchised communities… I think Fur and Loathing is pretty much exactly what I want in true crime.” – Podcast Promise.

Those are results to keep in mind when expecting another Furry True Crime show on the way. They make 2 examples of this suddenly-a-genre (and there’s a third one coming later.) Other kinds of documentary may raise less eyebrows, but these examples aren’t fur-sploitation or salacious tragedy porn. Sorry, the mainstream already makes too much trashy stuff for weirdos who aren’t furries, go find it somewhere else…

Here you’ll find intensely curious investigations for smart people who care about problems and solutions. They feature experiences within the community, made with members, using pro resources to tell deeper stories than can be told without their combined forces. Socially responsible true crime media exists, and we’re already in it.

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April 14, 2025

Furgeddaboutit is New Jersey’s new furry con after the disgrace of Garden State Fur The Weekend

by Patch O'Furr

Furgeddaboutit is coming to New Jersey on May 2-4, 2025. Info: Furgeddaboutit.org. There’s also The Big One furmeet. More about this shortly…

Many New Jersey furries have been demanding more honest events while protesting Garden State Fur the Weekend, the corrupt convention with a history of favoring nazi-furries. This has new developments.

  • How often does a community create not one, but two alternative events to make up for a toxic one?
  • Ever seen a con struggle to deny a toxic reputation — while officially operating on a pro-nazi site?

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March 27, 2025

Lone Star Fur Con brings gritty and hopeful weirdness to Austin

by Dogpatch Press Staff

Collaborative guest post submitted by Ash and edited by Patch O’Furr. Ash is a bunny, propagandist, and performance artist in Austin, TX. After you read, please vote for the Ursa Major Awards for the best furry creations of last year. Please consider the Fur And Loathing podcast for Nonfiction, featuring investigation by Dogpatch Press.

Extreme times

Lone Star Fur Con picked the right place for a furry convention. Austin has always been a haven for the freaks and weirdos of Texas. The timing is a little bit less than ideal, because furries are now in the crosshairs of reactionaries in the state government.

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November 6, 2024

Someone I kept out of a furry party is charged with domestic violence murder of another furry

by Patch O'Furr

In 2018, I told Dizzy he shouldn’t come to a furry party at a club in San Francisco. I was one of the organizers who keeps an eye on who is coming. He was a soft-looking guy who acted persistently pitiful about it, so I let him know it wasn’t because of something I knew he did, or any personal issue. It was for caution and to keep things harmonious, and there were other events he could go to. If he had a bad reputation, he could change it by doing good at other ones. I just wasn’t going to be pliable to begging for pity. If you don’t respect someone’s “no”, that’s a red flag itself.

To my confidential knowledge, the caution was because of multiple people tipping me to beware of someone abusive who they were uncomfortable being around, who they said would try manipulating for sympathy.

A few years before this, some other manipulation pulled me in to being a victim of a con artist. (He was judged liable for fraud and elder abuse after I had to defend whistleblower retaliation, cross-sue and beat him to stop it, winning a $32,000 judgement. When people sue me for defamation, I don’t settle and I bankrupt them.) The con artist was a monster with a lot of power over others, who were viciously whipped up against me for reporting abuse by their then-trusted manipulator. The experience of being the only person to point at The Emperor’s New Clothes and fighting for vindication made it easy to say no to Dizzy, stay firm, and watch what happened.

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November 4, 2024

Bad leadership surrounds sex crime case with Party Animals West (PAW) owner in San Francisco

by Patch O'Furr

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.

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