Furries are Important to Us
Heya everyfur. Just to outline what this article is going to be, I will say up front that I have a pretty blatant set of objectives here for what I want this piece of writing to communicate. I want to make ONE really practical, constructive point about why furries intersecting with zoosexuals is incredibly noteworthy to me and why it's important that we not ignore furries as zoos. I'm going to go on about that for a while here, and try to cover lots of the reasons why it matters to zoos that we keep furries in mind. And then, after all of that, I want to make one OTHER point that is less practical but just, an obervation about the furry/zoo intersection that I find fascinating and that I think about all the time, because it casts furries in such a bad light compared to zoosexuals, and I have *never* in my entire life seen a single counter-example to it, it is something that *only* makes zoos look better than furries.
I am a furry by the way, so, I'll now and then touch on how my actual thoughts as a furry relate to these things, but, most of this could be said even if I was a scheming scientist just trying to evil-ly cast a direct light on all of the facts and truths.
Happy with that? Cool, so, furries are no longer an obscure sub-culture that nobody has heard of, they're *really* popular which means that by targeting messages at furries I can talk to a lot of people at once. Gay furries, trans furries, nonbinary furries, and animal-attracted furries are all incredibly common to see within the furry community, and these groups are often prone to feeling like the world at large hates them, and I want to help them see that SO, SOOOO MUCH of the world a) does not care and b) would stand up for you WITH A SWORD if some asshole was trying to kill you with a stick for being gay or trans or nonbinary or attracted to animals.
Got it? To state it a little more clearly, my main point here is that furries should not be ignored, because there are lots of the fuzzy guys :3 And if there are lots and lots and lots and lots of a certain kind of guy around, then eventually it reaches a point where you would be acting silly if you tried to act like they *weren't* there. Like, if I have a secret that I want to spoil to as many people as possible ("zoosexuality is based as fuck") then what is my best strategy going to be? Stand alone in the depths of a dark cave where I'm sure no one else can hear me, and whisper my secret there, and only there? OR should I go to the town square of DogsKissingIsHot-opolis and shout the secret with a megaphone? Do you think that MIGHT get more ears to hear it?
Furries are a culture centered around art of animalistic characters. This can take LOTS of forms, from digital paintings to animated cartoons to my sexy feral fics on ourry, but the underlying point, the ENTIRE point, is that this is a culture based around animal traits, AND, it's a culture that does not mind getting these animal characters to do sexy things.
NOW... do you think someone who's attracted to animals... in the age of the internet... is NOT going to stumble upon furries?
I think we don't need a very elaborate series of steps to get from "I have funny feelings about dogs and also can Google things on the phone in my pocket" to "my phone is showing me pictures of cartoon dog men kissing, and now memes about these cartoon kissing dog men make me really happy."
So, furry is a thing that I think a lot of zoosexuals have had some contact with. And, since I want to talk to zoos to help them feel empowered and propped up by allies, but zoos are all hide-y and secret-sy because actually having sex with animals irl is illegal, furries are a really effective group to talk to by proxy, so that by talking to the furries I also just coincidentally talk to a lot of the zoos among them who don't talk out loud about the zoo part.
urries are important to zoos in a way that's half amplifier, half camouflage, ALL to the benefit of the listener AND to the speaker. It's a win-win, nobody loses.
A zoo advocacy helpline that didn't acknowledge furries would be doing it wrong. It would be like a lighthouse without the light; a magnet that didn't actually have an iota of magnetic charge.
So *because* the team here is furries, we're really lucky to be able to reach a *lot* more people, *help* a lot more people, than if we were trying to do zoo outreach by way of left handed bass players, or something like that.
Or, psibly, the entire team here is furries because when we started a zoo project, furries are who heard about it, because the overlap is that strong. Who knows.
I have to say, again, the point: I want the most zoos possible to know that being zoo can be healthily integrated into a good family life, social life, love life, personal life--being a zoo does not have to negatively impact your life. And, as I've said in other articles before, the reason I feel it's so important to say that kind of thing out loud is because I didn't always realize it; I spent a LOT of time assuming that everyone would hate me for being interested in the fact that horses have penises that can be touched by humans; and, turns out, lots of people are like, "Yeah, AND? Do it, don't do it, I don't care, I'm gonna go play Halo, let me know if you wanna be Player 2 if you're done touching horse staff, please do wash your hands if you come straight here from that but otherwise I don't care."
Zoos aren't exactly a "subset" of furries. Like, there are lots and lots of zoos who are *only* zoos, and they are not furry+zoo. But, if we're doing a zoo magazine that does advocacy online? Rare would be zoo who could find us while missing fanmade Nick Wilde drawings, y'know?
So, it may sound kinda basic, but, I think it's undeniable: furries are important to zoos.
(spins my swivel chair around and turns on the red lighting-)
What's amazing is that furries do not care about animals.
It's like, "Wow furries and zoos are so similar that by talking to the furry community, you can talk to the zoo community. And gee, it's because of their shared interest in animal characteristics!" And yet, that does not make furries and zoos the same.
I have never known a single vegetarian furry.
I have never known a single furry who had anything other than the most normie opinions about animal agriculture, from farming to breeding.
At least... I've never known a single furry who cared more than average about animal rights, who wasn't also a zoo.
Furries are the big part of the target: zoos are the bull's eye.
Article written by Alissa Dogchurch (August 2025)
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