The defining characteristic of the furry fandom is a fascination with anthropomorphic (= walks on two legs and can talk) animals, whether in a sexual context or not. The sexual side of the fandom is the side that gets the most attention (and, admittedly, it is pretty big), but it is by no means the only side. The appeal is in creating a character that represents you to the wider world without revealing anything about your real life identity beyond your aesthetic choices, and along with it a persona that you can adopt for a while that has none of the responsibilities of being a human and a cool animal tail to boot. Dogs don’t have jobs. They don’t worry about bills. They just run around and play and be dumb and boop each other’s noses. And sometimes, after a long day as a software engineer, vaccine researcher, or brain surgeon, that’s exactly what you need.
With regard to the sexual side, every individual furry has different places where they draw the line with regard to resemblance to actual animals. Some stay away from sexualizing anthropomorphic characters altogether, most draw the line when a creature stops walking on two legs, some are okay with characters that look like actual wolves and cheetahs as long as they talk and think like humans, a few only draw the line when it stops being fictional, but the one thing they all have in common is a strong condemnation for actual, real-life bestiality. Zoophilia is not tolerated, anywhere. Most furries view it as morally equivalent to pedophilia.
Not really.
The defining characteristic of the furry fandom is a fascination with anthropomorphic (= walks on two legs and can talk) animals, whether in a sexual context or not. The sexual side of the fandom is the side that gets the most attention (and, admittedly, it is pretty big), but it is by no means the only side. The appeal is in creating a character that represents you to the wider world without revealing anything about your real life identity beyond your aesthetic choices, and along with it a persona that you can adopt for a while that has none of the responsibilities of being a human and a cool animal tail to boot. Dogs don’t have jobs. They don’t worry about bills. They just run around and play and be dumb and boop each other’s noses. And sometimes, after a long day as a software engineer, vaccine researcher, or brain surgeon, that’s exactly what you need.
With regard to the sexual side, every individual furry has different places where they draw the line with regard to resemblance to actual animals. Some stay away from sexualizing anthropomorphic characters altogether, most draw the line when a creature stops walking on two legs, some are okay with characters that look like actual wolves and cheetahs as long as they talk and think like humans, a few only draw the line when it stops being fictional, but the one thing they all have in common is a strong condemnation for actual, real-life bestiality. Zoophilia is not tolerated, anywhere. Most furries view it as morally equivalent to pedophilia.