Burned Furs

The Burned Furs were a group of furries against other types of furries and furry art. The movement's exact goals differed from individual to individual, but complaints against "perverts" and other "weird" furries were common. This included zoophilia and plushophilia (the attraction to stuffed animals), but also much more innocuous things such as porn, fetishes, and murrsuiting (using fursuits for sex). The movement was known to be anti-kink, sex-negative, and homophobic, make full use of conservative dogwhistles, and was overall rooted in right-wing rhetoric.
They felt that removing certain types of fans or artwork would improve the fandom's reputation and artistic value. Burned Fur offered itself as an "alternative" to the broad furry community, and allowed furries to distance themselves from sexual furries by using the Burned Fur label. They have been accused of expressing threats or violent desires against furries they opposed (see Threats of Violence)
Urban Dictionary includes a definition of a Burned Fur from 2004, quoted below.
 
Today, references to the Burned Furs are common in furry circles when discourse happens. They're heavily disliked among the wider furry community, especially in retrospect, and are frequently referred to as a hate group.
==History==
Burned Fur was created in response to the negative attention furries had begun to attract, especially during the earlier days. This included "negative press coverage," with "articles in which furry convention attendees discussed these and other sexual practices with reporters." Furries had also attracted the insult "skunk-fucker," and many outside the fandom believes that they were zoophiles, a misconception that still persists to this day.Burned Furs, WikiFur. (Accessed 10/8/2020) (Archived 6/3/2021)
The original Burned Fur movement was started in 1998 by Squee Rat and Eric Blumrich, among others, and ran till 2001. However, the Burned fur wiki only lists Squee Rat as the creator. It sprang up again in 2005 under the same name, though was considered a separate group from the first as it had new members. This second wave was run by Tom Zarycki, alias "The Reverend" Ash Maurice Cairo. Then, it changed its name to the Improved Anthropomorphics. According to WikiFur much of Burned Fur's mission statements and beliefs were already well known before its creation as a group. Though Squee Rat was credited with starting the movement, they did not have any formal leadership.Furry History | The Burned Furs, YouTube. Sept 7, 2019. (Accessed 10/24/2020) (Archived 6/4/2021)
==Beliefs==
The Burned Fur manifesto lists the following as being against their beliefs: zoophilia, plushophilia, fursuit sex, things seen as "wrong" by non-fandom individuals, lycanthropy, shamanism, and veganism. Reportedly, some individual members (including a founder called Hangdog) were also against homosexuality, Christianity, obscure fetishes, and erotic artwork. However, in the manifesto Squee Rat claims that these things are okay when practiced in private.
Burned Fur has its own wiki, which is mainly comprised of outdated entries mainly from 2006. It's front page declares that they are "Furry Fans Standing Up for a Better Fandom." Front Page, Burned Fur Wiki]. (Accessed 10/13/2020) (Archived 6/3/2021) The wiki says that they stand for "common sense" in the fandom, which appears to be a specific set of rules in the movement. However, the pages on "common sense" have been removed from the wiki, though in the FAQ "common sense" is said to have been a document.The New FAQ, Burned Fur Wiki. Circa 2006. (Accessed 10/13/2020) (Archived 6/3/2021)
==Criticism and Controversies==
Burned Fur, being so vocal (and arguably aggressive in their beliefs), had decent opposition. Freezing Furs was created by Jurann Foxtail in 1999 in response, and labeled Burned Fur as a hate group. Their own manifesto went directly against Burned Fur's: "To put a stop to the Burned Fur line of thinking by starting a large support group. To open a "real avenue of healing and image improvement" for the furry fandom." They believed the Burned Furs wanted to "put a bullet" in the heads of those they disapproved of.Freezing Furs, WikiFur. (Accessed 10/24/2020) (Archived 6/3/2021) Other groups were also formed in opposition to the group, such as Nonaligned Furs and Furry Peace. Burned Fur members also boycotted ConFurence, which likely did not help gain favor with anyone. Later, a member of Burned Fur named Darrel Exline, took over ConFurence in 1999, and this resulted in a decline in attendance members. ConFurence closed on April 27, 2003.
Criticism can be made concerning the way in which Burned Fur lumped practices together. For example, lumping zoophilia with a stuffed animal fetish, vegans with sexual acts, and calling those with alternate religious beliefs "crackpots."
Burned Fur may have been accused of causing flamewars on alt.fan.furry, based on one of the "historical" pages archived on their wiki. At the top of the page it says: "Two accusations - both of them untrue - have been made against Burned Fur: 1) "The Burned Furs are causing bad publicity for furry fandom by talking so much about its problems! 2) "The Burned Furs are causing the flamewars in alt.fan.furry!"Who Dealt This Mess, Burned Fur Wiki. Circa 2006 (Accessed 10/13/2020) (Archived 6/3/2021)
===Threats of Violence===
The host for the main homepage of Burned Fur, Clint Forrester, threatened Xydexx (the "inflatable unicorn")Xydexx, Xydexx website (Accessed 10/8/2020) (Archived 6/3/2021) in an 1998 flamewar that he would "put his fucking head through a wall" if he ever met him at a convention. Another member named GothTiger also stated he would "like nothing better in the world than to watch mister too-many-consonants get what's coming to him." Hangdog later tried to dispute the claims that Xydexx was threatened by posting the full conversation on alt.fan.furry.Xydexx rec's "Threat of Violence?" Judge for yourself, 1999 April 28 post by Hangdog on alt.fan.furry. (Accessed 10/8/2020) (Archived 6/3/2021) In the conversation, Hangdog said that violence would make a bad name for Burned Fur and make Xydexx a martyr, then Forrester apologized to Hangdog for making Burned Fur look bad, and said he didn't intend to actually cause physical harm to anyone. Xydexx called for Burned Fur to increase the moderation of its members. Dr. Cat (the creator of Furcadia) said "You know, if everyone in the newsgroup would ignore BOTH sides of this argument, the Burned Fur detractors AND the rude Burned Furs, it would get a lot more peaceful around here for a while."
Hangdog said of Eric Blumrich (one of the founders whose beliefs helped the movement): "The next time I see you I will kill you with my bare hands."Eric Blumrich, Wikifur talk page, circa 2005. (Accessed 10/8/2020) (Archived 6/3/2021)
According to "Furry History | The Burned Furs", they were also accused of attempting to sabotage conventions, though outside of boycotting them they did not do anything substantial.
Outside of these threats, there have been no confirmed cases of Burned Fur members engaging in violence.
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==References==
Category:Furry Fandom Glossary‎
Category:1998 Events
Category:1990s Events
Category:2000s Events