**furries**: Ok, an attempt at a balanced definition. I am NOT a furry but both sides [hear me out] before reaching for that thumbs down.
Furries are a relatively recent phenomenon which has been [catapulted] into near-mainstreamness almost solely because of the internet. It is obvious furries are very much victims of [tarring] the majority with the brush of an "unappealing" minority.
In the simplest sense furries are fans of [anthropromorphic] animals. That is, animals with human like features or tendencies ([Fox McCloud], Sonic the Hedgehog... etc) pretty much all furries will create their own character or "[fursona]" for use as an art model and roleplaying, the designs of which vary wildly dependant on the artists skill and eye for contrasting colours (You get both amazing and appalling furry artists, and a wide skill range between these two) some furries can work wonders when it comes to creating a character on second life
The above paragraph is an apt description of your standard "furry", however there is a small but VERY [vocal minority] of the "[yiff] yiff" kind of division. Even though this sort of furry probably only takes up 1/10th of the fandom this is by FAR the type you hear about most often from [anti-furry] biased sources.
Furry porn is dangerously close to bestiality. Sorry to anyone who likes it, but it is... However the ones who like it seem to be in a minority, with the ones liking the odd fetishes like "[vore]" and "macro" a very small minority indeed.
Furries get a lot of crap thrown at them on the internet in relation to the activities of the minority of their fanbase. They have a reputation to reacting to this in an over the top manner (such as comparing their treatment to the Holocaust), which realy doesn't do them many favours.
However on the whole they are just a group of people who are fans of a single concept, seem to know how to have fun, and are doing alright for themselves in terms of publicity.
