Oh, that's a brilliant schtick! Any good stories from you guys suiting as the tourist dragons?

That is an awesome photograph. I really like your….scaly shinguards?

Because they value consent, responsible kinksters don't expect other people to endure the consequences of *their* fetish.

Oh, sure. I've talked to people who've told me that the fandom literally saved their life—for example, I know furries whose families literally disowned them for being LGBTQ, and the fandom allowed them to construct a healthy, caring, self-chosen family of friends.

Oh, yeah, I've heard the "litterboxes" urban myth dozens of times from both furries and non-furries all over the continent, but I've never found anything to substantiate it. (It also doesn't make a ton of sense from a logical furry standpoint, given that canines dominate the fandom in terms of popularity and…

Well, and every reasonably-sized group of people has its share of dregs, psychopaths, leeches, and losers, because welcome to the human race.

Basically, I'd say it's because embodying a character allows you to channel a deeper, hidden, more authentic, and/or idealized side of yourself, or experiment with a personality very different from your own, *and* receive some form of validation for that. It's pretty similar to why some people go into acting or…

Can't speak for everyone, but in most cases, I'd say it's like this:

…well, or that liking stories or art with talking kangaroos (or dogs, or cats, or dragons, or…) or enjoying entertaining folks in costume automatically means you're mentally ill, a violent sexual predator, a deranged sexual deviant, socially maladjusted, or that you have some ulterior agenda.

My read:

The surveys and other research of the community also would confirm that murrsuiters are indeed a minority in the community—and they're a minority *of* a minority, given that only about 25% of the fandom owns a fursuit.

Well, and "there something that just feels 'off' about X" has been used to justify unfounded bias and bigotry since the beginning of time.