The average person has probably never heard of animal “furries,” which in this context refers to people, including children, who identify as cats, dogs, and other animals. Some reportedly believe, at least to an extent, that they actually are the animals they portray, wearing the requisite costumes and adopting the animal’s behaviors.

In April 2022 on his online show, Dr. Duke Pesta discussed the topic of furries in Wisconsin schools with conservative radio host Vicki McKenna, who assured listeners: “This is real. This is happening. Kids can identify themselves as ‘furries,’ — as an identity — and their behavior is protected.” The furries’ behavior can include biting, scratching, pouncing, crawling or scooting on all fours, barking, meowing, growling, licking, hissing, rubbing up against other students’ legs, and more. (Unfortunately, this episode has been taken down, but is referenced in the May 2, 2024 Dr. Duke show; link is included later in this article — Ed.)

McKenna described a time when she stumbled upon an adult furries convention and assumed it was all in fun; people dressing up as anthropomorphic animal and comic book characters, but said she discovered “it’s much more than that. It’s something of a sexual fetish; in [their] video games and comics, sexual themes are present; for some there is sexual activity with other furries known as ‘yiffing.’”

Pesta said the problem “is way broader than one would think,” in reference to the fact that students identifying as furries are being accommodated at some schools as if their fantasies are real. He showed a video clip of a substitute teacher describing a day in her classroom when one of the students “meowed” at her. She related:

• I’m looking at the seating chart as I’m going up and down the rows and marking who’s here and who’s not. I get to the third row and I hear this “meow.” I said “excuse me,” and continued to take roll. When I heard it again, I said “okay, what’s up with that and who’s doing it? This little girl in the very front row said “you have to meow back at him. He identifies as a cat.”

The teacher was subsequently informed by the administration that she wouldn’t be invited back as a substitute because “she couldn’t identify with all the students in her classroom.”

Alex Newman also reported on the furries phenomenon in 2022, noting that “estimates suggest there are already hundreds of thousands across America.” As for furries in the schools, he stated:

• Concerns about the practice first gained national prominence among adults outside the government-school insane asylums after a Michigan mom complained at a school-board meeting about “litter boxes” being put in bathrooms. The superintendent claimed it was not true—a denial that left-wing establishment bootlickers parroted mindlessly to allay fears of upset parents and taxpayers.

Indeed, virtually all the mainstream naysayers piped up to debunk reports about schools in Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado, and other states establishing protocols and making accommodations for furries, including litter boxes for those who identify as cats. “Fact checkers” came out of the woodwork to label the reports “false.” The Associated Press (AP) called them “unfounded,” Snopes debunked the notion, and Education Week called the allegations “a disruptive and demeaning hoax.” Even Wikipedia chimed in against the “rumors.” Some of these outlets blamed Republicans, presumably for the common-sense laws enacted in many red states to protect innocent children from transgender activists.

But are all reports about furries unfounded? Newman, Pesta, McKenna, and others recognize the obvious correlation that if children are told they can “switch genders and then declare themselves boys if they’re girls or vice versa,” they should logically also be able to identify as a cat, dog, or another animal. If the schools must respect students who identify as the opposite gender or one of the many invented genders, the next logical step is that they must also respect those who identify and dress up as animals.

Recently, Education Reporter received a first-hand report of furries in at least one Pierce County, Washington elementary school. The mother of an 11-year-old daughter, who asked to remain anonymous, removed her child from the school and began homeschooling her after she found out there were litter boxes in the girls’ bathrooms. “Some of the girls identify as cats,” the mother said, “and they use the litter boxes.”

Uproar in Utah

In April 2024, middle school students in Utah’s Nebo School District walked out in protest of the furries’ behavior during the school day. On his May 2nd show, Pesta played a video clip of the protesting students who said they were “standing against what the furries are [doing] wrong.” During the show’s opening, a gleeful McKenna said: “To all of the people who are monitoring this show, we told you so.... You accused us of lying about this; we want an apology.”

Among the actions the student protestors described in the video: “They bite us, so we just kick them and we get in trouble. They attack us, they bite us, they scratch us, they pounce on us, and we get in trouble. We can’t look at them or talk to them but they can attack us. And there are litter boxes in the girls’ bathrooms.” When the interviewer objected that the litter boxes were just a rumor, the kids shouted “No!” and assured him they had seen them.

A Fox News report on the protest noted: “About 75 parents and students protested the ‘furries,’ chanting during a walkout, ‘We the people, not the animals,’ and ‘Compelled speech is not free speech,’ and ‘Stop brainwashing us!’”

USA Today reported that a Change.org petition was created to convince the Nebo School District “to enforce its dress code, which would prohibit students from wearing furry costumes.” The petition, which references the district’s dress code policy, gained “over 2,700 signatures” at the time of the newspaper’s April 22 story.

Per the petition, the dress code reads: “Jewelry, accessories, tattoos, hair, facial hair, and other elements of a student’s appearance that draw undo [sic] attention, distract, disrupt, or otherwise interfere with the learning atmosphere at school or at school activities and events, or that create a health, safety or welfare issue are prohibited.” This would presumably include the costumes, masks, and headwear of furries.

Deny, deny, deny

Despite the publicity arising from the Utah student walkout, the school claimed that “misinformation had been circulated online” in a statement it issued to Fox News Digital:

• We want to assure you that rumors circulating online about student behavior are completely untrue.... These are 11 and 12-year-old students, and while sometimes these children may come to school with a headband that has ears, sometimes with giant bows, and sometimes dressed as their favorite athlete, there have been no students attending school wearing masks, animal costumes, or acting like animals.

The school district further claimed that accounts of the students’ animal-mimicking actions were also false. According to the district, the allegations are “unfounded” and not occurring in district schools.

As some critics surmise, the vehemence with which school districts in various states have pooh-poohed reports about furries in classrooms perhaps has more to do with the sheer absurdity of the concept, and the embarrassment and backlash that would likely result if their administrative support of the lunacy were widely known.

In an April 19 Townhall.com op ed, senior editor Matt Vespa wrote: “There are school walkouts happening over furries. Please shoot me into the sun.... I thought this was satire—it’s not. A school in Utah is coming under fire for allowing ‘furries’ to infiltrate their campus, reportedly licking and biting students. What the fresh hell is this nonsense?”

Vespa further commented on a local Utah news station’s interview with “Strudel,” a furrie who he said tried to make a sensible point about the controversy, “but the costume—I can’t take it seriously.... Furries in schools—allegedly. Please pass the hemlock.”. (“Strudel” was interviewed by the local ABC News 4 affiliate in full costume. She appeared to be a very “furry” dog. —Ed )

While the furries are sometimes accused by transgender activists of sabotaging their cause, the phenomenon appears to some pro-family activists to be part of the same cultural sickness. Parents should be aware of this phenomenon, which appears to be spreading and could be coming to their children’s school, if not already there.

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