It's too bad that all of the furries we might actually want to portray in a televised documentary are smart enough to ignore the casting calls. It only leaves the suckers and deviants who can't string a coherent sentence together and it makes us all look like idiots.

I sent Asylum entertainment an e-mail today and this is what I wrote. Tell me what you think:

Hello,

I understand that you are interested in casting a few furries for your next TV Documentary. I am a 24 year old male fursuiter in Florida that is deeply involved in the furry fandom. I have been in the community for approximately 8 years now. Due to being in the fandom so long, I am quite aware of the negative media portrayal that seems to plague our group and I am always skeptical about the true intent of producers when I hear about (yet another) furry documentary casting call. As I'm sure you may know by now, furries in general do not take kindly to the media thanks to past occurances. However, there are rare occasions that the media does a good job and shows an accurate picture of what the community is like. As a long-time member of the furry fandom, I ask you kindly to re-think your stance on producing another show about us. You are not doing us any favors nor are you helping out the people you follow with your cameras. More often than not, these few furries you choose are ostracized and run out of the community shortly after the show airs due to the awful image you have manipulated them into giving to you. Sadly, I know I cannot stop you from doing this show nor can I force you to do a good job when you do produce it, but I will give you a little insight to our community. We are VERY tight knit. As a whole, everyone active in this fandom knows pretty much everyone. If you do a poor job and show us in a negative light, you will cause a ruckus and it will hurt this community even more than it already is hurting. More hatred will be spewed at innocent teens and young adults just trying to have a good time. Passing cars on the street will yell out 'faggot' at fursuiters that are just trying to bring joy to others (I've had this happen to me). Not even mentioning the lives of the few furries you just completely screwed. It will NOT be a good addition to the slew of media that doesn't truly understand who we are and why we do what we do. On the other side of things, if you do a good job and truly get to the core of what being furry is about, you will be praised and practically glorified by the community (and there are a LOT of us across most first world countries) for at /least/ a short while. After that though, things become even more amazing. When furries express themselves and open up to their friends and family, they can point to your documentary. When parents don't understand why their kid wants to buy a really expensive, 'stupid dog costume', they can be directed to your documentary. Instead of smearing the community and destroying people for a good laugh, you can be a positive force to help people understand and accept. With that said, I do not want to be included in your documentary, I do not give you the rights to use my words, image, character, or any references to me, my creations, or even this e-mail, nor do I want the show you are about to do to even air. But if it is going to anyway, please at least make it positive.

A very hopeful tiger,
~Vitai Slade

UPDATE: I received a response just the other day. It was as follows:

Thanks for your email. We have found the furry stories that we intend to follow. We have come again alot of scrutiny and we realize that the media has not been nice to the fandom in the past. When we reached out to people for the documentary we explained that this is your chance to voice exactly what you want to about being furry and show the true lifestyle. I cannot promise you that this piece will be a positive one as we are simply following the people involved so if they are not a good representation of the fandom, unfortunately we were only left with choosing people that were willing to be involved. We produced this show with integrity and have no reason to slander or tell a story of untruths. People unfortunately already have a preconceived notion of what they thing being a furry is....and unfortunately i must say it is not great. When people asked me what i was working on and I said I am looking for Furries, they immediately went to the dark side saying oh those people that dress up i animal costumes and have sex, I immediately shot that down and said absolutely not furries are individuals that relate to anthropomorphic characters and animals, they are very creative and love art work and are so much more.......there is a dark side to every subculture, it is a shame that people immediately go there when furry is mentioned. I have done everything I could to educate the narrow minded and really hoped that more people in the fandom would have been willing to step forward and be apart of this to really set the record straight and be that voice that the fandom needs.