The Burned Furs | Know Your Furstory!

The Burned Furs

10/17/2023

The Burned Furs were a group of furries who believed that the fandom had become overly populated with individuals whose primary interests lay in sexual, pornographic, and other unconventional matters, and that the fandom's negative reputation to outsiders could be repaired if these individuals and their interests were pushed to the outer edges of the community and made irrelevant. The group arose officially in 1998. It was founded by artist Charla Trotman, also known as Squee Rat online at the time. She was supported by a close-knit circle of associates, including fellow artist Eric Blumrich, who had spoken out at conventions on the topic (Fredrik Knudsen, 2018).

One of the primary inciting events of this group's formation was apparently the state of ConFurence, one of the world's only exclusive furry conventions at the time (and the first ever exclusive furry convention). ConFurence started very small in 1990, but as it grew throughout the decade, the natural issues of a large adult-oriented event started to show; some attendees would throw intense parties, become intoxicated, show public displays of sexual behavior, and other such acts. It allegedly reached such a point that non-furries would attend the convention simply to engage in the party scene (Kline, 1997). This, and the media coverage that followed, was greatly undesirable to some furries, and thus, the Burned Furs emerged.

Concerning the title of the group, Charla Trotman wrote:

"Anyone with a firm grasp on reality would clearly feel slighted by the screamingly deviant direction the fandom has taken. Another way of looking at it is the example made of furs who have spoken up against fandom perversion and been "burned at the stake" for it."

This statement was a part of her 1998 post, "A Modest Proposal", when she first coined the name. Much of the action taken by the group's members included online debate and harassment with other furries that they disagreed with, generally avoiding in-person confrontation; in 2004, one user by the title of GoldAnthroWolf stated on the online newsgroup alt.fan.furry:

"...it was horrendously amusing the look in [Eric] Blumrich's eyes the first time I walked up to him and spoke to him [...] Amazing the difference in tune people have when you're staring at someone face to face."

Counter-groups arose around the same time; explicitly direct opposition came in the form of the Freezing Furs, founded by a furry with the alias of Jurann Foxtail in 1999. Other groups created during this time include Furry Peace and Nonaligned Furs, who both simply wished for the arguments to end. None of these groups gained quite as much traction as the Burned Furs, however, and they fizzled out as quickly as they had come; there is no distinct end point for the latter two, but it is known that the Freezing Furs ceased activity in the same year that they started (Misha B. Barkin', 2021).

Despite their infamy (or perhaps because of it), the Burned Furs, too, splintered apart around the turn of the century (Knudsen, 2018). Based on posts made on alt.fan.furry, some members left because they felt ostracized or were harassed for their religious and ideological differences with Trotman and other "core members" of the Burned Furs (Bruin, 1999) (D Wolf, 2003). Their rejection of "deviant" sexual material and the homophobic remarks made by at least one of the primary members (Schorn, 2000) led them to be associated with anti-gay aggression (despite Trotman going on to found the acclaimed Iron Circus comic press and publish queer-friendly erotica herself), further tainting their reputation amongst other members of the fandom. A post on alt.fan.furry by Eric Blumrich in October 2000 may also have contributed to the Burned Furs' downfall (though, once again, the group was already on the decline). The post was spurred by a furry erotica artist being featured on Comedy Central's Daily Show. In it, Blumrich expresses frustration and despair about the fandom's public image, stating in his closing paragraph:

"The question is staring me in the face: do I give up? Do you folks ENJOY this? Does having your work denegrated and your fandom dragged through the mud make you HAPPY? Does the knowledge that you've been made the laughing stock of fandom at large, and now, the national media, fill you with a sense of fulfillment and pride? [...] Deep down within me there are the words and memories of people Like Martin Luther King, John Rabe, and a thousand others who stood up against the inevitable, and truimphed. I don't see myself as anything like their equals- such would be hubris on a biblical scale. But their principles are something I shall always strive to emulate and champion. In the face of the hatred and bile spewed at me by a thousand knee-jerk lifestylers, and the machinations of demons like Merlino, I cannot help but march doggedly on."

(Notes: Any spelling errors are preserved from the original source. "Merlino" is in reference to Mark Merlino, one of the founding members of the fandom and the chairman of the first furry convention, Confurence. "Lifestylers" was a term used by Burned Furs that referred to furries who believe themselves to be animals in human bodies, or who otherwise take the furry hobby more seriously than most [Trotman, 1998].)

Since then, Blumrich has taken care to attempt to remove his name from the fandom entirely and move on to other hobbies, with his WikiFur page being "left blank by request". Trotman has seemingly taken similar measures, and now publishes work under the pseudonym Spike Trotman.

Also, fun fact: Jurann Foxtail, the founder of the Freezing Furs, may also coincidentally have been the first person to use a variation of the Internet term "me IRL"!

Sources:

Fredrik Knudsen. "Furries | Down The Rabbit Hole." YouTube, 8/13/2018. Online video.

Misha B. Barkin'. "Burned Furs - A Furry History Lesson." Youtube, 7/30/2021. Online video.

🔺Ed Kline. "Hello folks, This is a letter to Mark Merlino which the author has asked be forwarded to alt.fan.furry." Google Groups. Originally posted on UseNet in 1997. Online post.

🔺Charla Trotman. "Sordid Little Business." Burned Fur, 1998. Accessed through the Internet Archive. Online post.

"Eric Blumrich." WikiFur, last modified 4/29/2021. Page left blank on request. Wiki post.

Iron Circus's store page.

alt.fan.furry posts referenced in this article (pretty much all of these warrant a 🔺, viewer discretion is advised, etc.):