How furries became the most misunderstood fandom in the UK (2025)

Tim Stoddard was 14 or 15 when he first became aware of the furry fandom. Back then, he was heavily into Sonic the Hedgehog, and would scroll forums dedicated to the video game character. It didn’t take long for a school friend –also video game obsessed, and into artwork – to suggest they attend ConFuzzled, a huge furry convention in Manchester, which they did. There was no looking back after that. “A lot of people there had the same interests as me,” he says now. “They were fun to be around, and were very open. It was a lot different from school.”

Since then, Stoddard has spent over a decade immersed in the UK furry scene, attending countless fur meets and conventions. His “fursona”– the personal avatar adopted by furries –is a cheeky-looking lynx in a vigilante mask, mask and cape (“At the time I was a fan of Studio Ghibli films, so I based my lynx on the film The Cat Returns,” he says). But it was only after reading the book Furry Nation (2017) by Joe Strike that he realised that, while the American history of furries had been explored in great detail, no one seemed to mention the UK scene. So he started doing some research, which ultimately resulted in his book, Furtannia: The History of the Furry Fandom in the United Kingdom.

Furtannia is an expansive and meticulously exploratory insight into everything furry – from the scene’s early emergence in 1970s California, to its rise in the UK in the mid-1980s and the dedicated online worlds it occupies today. Following the book’s release, I spoke to Stoddard on Zoom about all things furry, from early chatrooms to how fursuits made their way to Britain.

Hey Tim. What is your definition of a furry?

Tim Stoddard: Someone who has a fanatical interest in anthropomorphic animals –so essentially animals who have human characteristics. And often those within popular media: animated films, video games, TV shows and comic books. Over time it’s expanded to include content created by furries and original artwork.

So the furry fandom began in the late 1970s, California, before trickling to the UK. But now it’s a very online world. What were some of the first online spaces in which the fandom gathered? You mentioned Yiffnet in the book.

Tim Stoddard: Yiffnet was the first IRC network –so essentially it was online chat rooms. But before then, there were a handful, most notably bulletin board systems, like The Tiger’s Den, and a newsgroup called Alt.fan.furry, which basically operated like a forum before forums were a thing. There were also online game systems called Muck, which were text-based games where you could explore worlds and chat with other users. So Furry Muck, which started in 1990, allowed users to go into virtual worlds and walk around and chat with furries around the world.

1990 is such a long time ago for these spaces to be around! Considering the fact that most people only had computers in the early 2000s, there must have been some really dedicated furries back then.

Tim Stoddard: Yeah, one common thing about furries is that if we’re not artistically gifted, we’re technically gifted. One joke that has an element of truth to it is that there are a small handful of furries that run the internet, and if the internet goes down, it’ll need a furry to go back online.

Why are so many furries into tech?

Tim Stoddard: It’s largely because the fandom grew as a result of this need to communicate with each other from great distances in very quick succession. When the furry fandom started, they’d send letters to each other or write comments in fanzines, which is a very slow form of communication. But furries wanted to get their news fast, so they had that motivation to find the most efficient technology.

You mentioned in the book that in the 1990s fur suits were incredibly rare in the UK. How do you get hold of one today? When did they become more readily available?

Tim Stoddard: In the 1990s and 2000s, there weren’t that many fursuit makers. Most of them were US-based, so you’d have to travel or pay a lot for shipping. That’s why in the early London fur meets it was popular to wear face paints and prosthetics and maybe a tail and some ears. It wasn’t until the mid-2000s, when YouTube kicked off, that it became easier for furries to share how to build fursuits. So you started seeing furries make their own fur suits and then in the later 2000s, some people started to get really good at it and build businesses. Now, there are loads of fursuit makers.

Nice to get a lovely mention in this terrific book about the British furry fandom by @gamepopper Really enjoyed it. Available on Amazon and Uncle Bear Publishing https://t.co/TYyyNqXMb7#FursuitFridaypic.twitter.com/R0YXc3ei3S

— Tom Broadbent (@Broadbentius) November 10, 2023

And now they can wear virtual reality suits as well.

Tim Stoddard: Yeah! In the early days furries were very big on Second Life. There was a furry scene on VR Chat from when it started because furries caught onto the idea of making a 3D model that you could walk around in. Once lockdowns cancelled fur meets, VR chat became really popular. There are virtual reality conventions as well – Furality is the biggest one, with over 15,000 people.

What’s the biggest misconception that people have about furries?

Tim Stoddard: People seem surprised when I tell them that the fandom has been around for over 30 years. And a lot of people think it’s just about fursuits. But most people just wear a t-shirt. And we only really wear the tails and ears when we go to fur meets and conventions. There’s a misconception that we don’t identify as humans, when most of us know we’re human, we just like to let our hair down and pretend to be an animal for a few hours on a weekend.

Thanks Tim. Great speaking to you.

Furtannia: The History of the Furry Fandom is out now

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