The furry community is huge and those who identify with it and consider themselves a part of it come from all over the globe. We are a diverse bunch with all sorts of different opinions and beliefs. What ties us all together is our love for anthropomorphic art and expression.

It's to be expected that the overwhelming majority of us have a huge amount of compassion for our animal counterparts. This can be demonstrated in the enormous amounts of money we raise for animal sanctuaries, animal rescues, zoos, Humane Societies, and other charities that are typically always geared for the benefit of animals and those who help them. From 1999 – 2017 we have generated roughly $2.7 million dollars to charity just through our conventions! Midwest Furfest raised over $85,000 for C.R.I.S.P. just last year! This really is incredible.

Getting to the point, regardless of your personal opinion about taxidermy and real fur tails that people wear, we should all be able to agree that the sale of taxidermy should not be conducted in an environment with so many people it's sure to offend. Even if you're a person who has a collection of your own, surely you must realize that more people who identify as furries are going to be uncomfortable with your collection than not (and by no small margin either). It would be respectful to keep that away from those it's surely going to offend. But this isn't about any one person's choice to wear a real tail to a convention or not. That is not something that can be controlled in a reasonable fashion.

This petition is only concerned with collecting enough signatures to support the prevention to sell taxidermy and related products at MFF. As it currently stands, MFF highly discourages the sale of these items and does not allow any dealer to sell taxidermy as their only merchandise. Still, every year you see two or three vendors with real animal tails and other products selling their merchandise. The only reason they are able to do this is because there is no policy in place that prevents it provided they have other items and merchandise to sell other than taxidermy (and the related).

While the MFF staff recognizes the conflict of interest and sympathizes with those who are offended and saddened by the sight of dead animal parts being used in this manner, they are not able to completely prohibit their sale without our help. Now, Midwest Furfest is the largest furry convention in the entire world! If we can help support the MFF staff to adopt this request, many other fur cons are sure to follow suit.

I am confident that the vast majority of our community will support this petition and I implore you all to sign. Your opinion matters and together we can make our conventions better, more welcoming, and happier for all who attend.