I’m exhausted. Wiped. Drained. Pooped. Stick a fork in me. I have barely enough in me to write this. I’ve been partying every single weekend this summer, and it’s furry’s fault. Toronto’s furry community has popped off this summer, and I’m incredibly proud (but also eepy). It may have to do with the fact that fewer Canadians are crossing the border, and they’re looking to fill their FOMO from the big US cons that would typically fill a summer schedule and budget.
Please note that this blog covers the events I or close friends were able to attend, and is not a comprehensive list of every single furry event in Southern Ontario. This does not cover fursuit walks, or small scale furmeets, which are also hosted frequently. I can’t remember a summer this busy in my 18 years of being a part of this community. It’s been a good year to be a furry in the greater Toronto area.
News in a moment: but first, recommended background for the Epstein story.
The Epstein files represent a major coverup of crime by wealthy elites, broken open as an ongoing public scandal. It keeps exposing worse and worse associations with dead financier Jeffrey Epstein. It’s a story of rich pedophiles and their enablers, including Donald Trump. Do you feel lost about where it starts and ends? Try this episode of radio show This Is Hell for an interview with an award-winning journalist who wrote a book about the coverup. It’s packed with fresh, conversational analysis to help you catch up.
In 2019, Epstein’s alleged suicide in jail silenced him from having to testify about powerful friends. It couldn’t silence demands for the government to finally release documents of official investigation… partially and controversially so far. With over 3.5 million pages released as of March 2026 (and who knows how much more to come), you can search for any term in them and possibly get results.
What happens if you search for “furry” or “furries”? Dogpatch Press did this on February 14, before a completely separate effort by fellow furry reporter Sonious published on March 8. You should go read Sonious’ article that propels this one.
Welcome to Arrkay, a member of the Toronto furry scene (home of Furnal Equinox), and the bird who creates and produces Culturally F’d, a Youtube show that explores anthropomorphic artwork throughout history, culture and mass media. See Arrkay’s tag for previous stories. He’s sharing his story today by request of Patch who just marched with furries at San Francisco Pride. Here’s Arrkay’s on-the-scene report from Toronto Pride.
It was a terribly populated affair, with covid still ringing in the back of my head. Pride in Toronto was as busy as ever. Me and my partner just walked the street fair once, which was enough to satiate our curiosity and for me to buy some new sunglasses. It’s a strangely foreign feeling seeing this many unmasked people in one place.
Parade morning
My signs were made, and my flag was bundled up into my tricycle with water bottles, lunch, a vape pen of mint flavored cannabis and sunscreen. My outfit was a second-hand hyena agenda tank top, some compression shorts usually worn for fursuiting but with a complimentary jockstrap on top. I zip-tied a flag and protest signs to my trike. “Learn Queer History” and “Teach Queer History” with taglines “Always been here, always will be” and “No More Shit!” (a rallying cry from the 80’s bathhouse riots in Toronto).
A crowd of furries accumulated near the group check-in site. Unfortunately it was nowhere near where we were supposed to muster. Not that it ultimately mattered, we wouldn’t be marching for a couple more hours. Navigating the dense crowd with a large orange trike was difficult, but everyone was generally polite and made way for our slow moving group of animal headed queers.
One of the groups we shouldered our way past was the New Democratic Party, with leader Jagmeet Singh visible with his pink turban.
CNN’s This is Life with Lisa Ling: Furry Nation aired last Sunday. As Furries do, some loved it and some hated it. That’s not surprising. When the critically acclaimed show (built around exploring the different corners of people’s lives) tweeted their season five episodes, fandom freaked out. Furries were tweeting about how CNN would cover them in the same season with MS-13, meth, screen addiction, and gender fluidity. Or how Furries complained that Anthro Northwest was letting TV do recording at their convention. Or how this episode was either the second coming, or the dawn of the apocalypse.
Boy, that changed overnight. If it sounds like I’m salty, I am to a degree. The reactions leading up to the premiere were just tiring. Many furries painted all journalists as TMZ tabloids looking for the next juicy clickbait headline, but looking at an episode shows Lisa Ling being a thoughtful reporter who wants to show the human stories behind the topics she covers. (You can see all episodes legally with a TV subscription here.)
It’s funny to see Furries wanting to share their stories and promote the good this community can do; yet push away anyone wanting to report on it. It lets rumors continue to define us. Of course, as I’m writing this, the BBC has done a piece about the hacking of an adult furry site many haven’t heard of. It’s actually a relatively neutral story in comparison to what happened to Ashley Madison (the website devoted to helping people cheat in their relationships), but with buxom zebras and scantily clad lionesses instead of mistresses/guys on the side (or whatever). Beyond the furry aspect, it’s neither positive nor negative, it’s just there. Perhaps those rumors are losing power just from becoming old and familiar.
It’s not without merit to be skeptical about the media covering this fandom. YouTuber Quartz Husky did a video about cable news coverage:
The issue as I see it, isn’t pointing out that there are people who will use us for sensational clicks. The issue is then finding positive examples to compare and contrast for what we, as a community want. The dialogue about the media vs. the fandom is so black-and-white, that any form of coverage is seen as bad. It leaves very little room for us to showcase who we are because there are no “good” reporters.
Guest post by Arrkay from Culturally F’d, the furry youtube channel. See their tag on Dogpatch Press for more.
Furry and Punk have a lot in common, way more than you think! Arrkay discusses the parallels of the two movements, their philosophies, their work ethic and more! We’re really excited for this episode as it’s been on the list of suggestions for over a year!
This episode came together with the help of a lot of different furs! This article is going to look at some of the research we used, and a shoutout for everyone who helped.
Guest post by Arrkay from Culturally F’d, the furry youtube channel. See their tag on Dogpatch Press for more.
Finally, the YouTube channel for the furry fandom has enough videos about foxes to make a whole playlist. Our latest episode is all to do with the classic 1973 Disney film Robin Hood. This timeless classic surely set many young minds onward to furrydom. Our guest writer Tempe O’Kun has Arrkay squawking all about the stable relationship between Robin and Maid Marian.
Guest post by Arrkay from Culturally F’d, the furry youtube channel.
With all the fire and ‘furry’ in the news, I think we should take a break from the political hardship to look at some awesome positive activity that’s been going on in the fandom. So let’s see what Furry has to celebrate lately:
“Vix N dwnq” reaches 100,000 Subscribers on YouTube
A milestone for the fandom. While not the first YouTuber who is a furry to gain the “Silver Play Button”, such as “Your Movie SucksDOTorg” and others, Rika and her channel Vix N dwnq is the first fursuiting channel to gain this level of success on her own merit. She wasn’t raised to this point by collaborating with mainstream YouTuber’s or by an aggressive marketing campaign. Instead her genuine fun in fursuit videos have gotten there organically, and she’s not alone. Majira Strawberry and Kero The Wolf are quick behind her which shows that this isn’t a single one-off event but a trend of rising Furry stars on the YouTube platform. It’s a big win for the fandom, and especially those on YouTube.
