Just before turning in last night I heard the news that one of the senior members of the furry fandom, a certian Mitch Beiro had passed on due to various health problems. Normally I'd feel sad at his passing at losing such a talented artist but not so with Beiro.

Don't bother rereading that. I'll explain.

Beiro was one of the senior members of the fandom, being a member since the latter 80s. In fact it could be argued that he was one of the founding fathers. He was a genial man with a huge love of food and a wicked and wacky sense of humor (his "marrying" the cartoon character Minerva Mink at a past furry convention was proof of this). He was also an extremely talented artist that had his artwork in several publications over the years.

Yet there are lines that must NEVER be crossed, and Beiro crossed one of them. In 2013 Beiro was arrested on charges of harboring and trading child porn and sentenced to a 10 year prison term (personally when I first heard of his incarceration I was wondering if he'd last the entire 10 year stretch as convicts, shall we say, have their own ideas of serving justice on child porn people) and was paroled the year before last.

He'd paid his debt, but as I saw it he would never stop paying. I'm sure he had a hard time finding a job or a place to live with such a record. Moreover by dealing in child porn he had turned into a fandom pariah, as I'm sure there were very few people wanting to associate with him and surely he was persona non grata at any furry convention you'd care to name due to liablity concerns. In short, his life was over.

With that in mind, I don't know what to think. He was a friendly and talented man but as the carnies say "he spun th' wheel an' took his chances". He made his choice and now he'll have to live with it for all eternity (if that is there is an afterlife).