Lame if they really were letting some in and not others. :(

Its really bad when "big cats" are turned away at the Zoo and left to wander around homeless.

Oh gosh, that really bites! Last year at our local event, we had some parents complain to zoo staff that "we supposedly" took pictures with their kids when we never did, just of us, and so as we was leaving, like 5 or 6 cop cars pulled up and they detained us for a little bit for questioning. It was really messed up.

Thats been happening more and more.. Most of the Ohio zoos have a opted simular rules

Sounds like what has been happening here too with the bowling alleys. The staff has commented they like our group cause we are polite and clean up our area, but we are still not allowed to suit because of a supposed no mask policy.

That really sucks.  brejar and I actually visited the Memphis Zoo before going to MFM and spent literally all day there (9am to 4:30pm). Never saw the "trolley" They had available, so we ended up walking the entire park.

Your fursuits were better than there's sums it up real well Zoo, there mascot costumes are lame. Went to the Tulsa Zoo in 2012 in fursuit. Didn't have a problem getting in. My daughter and her hubby went with me. Was there about 2 hours interacting with everyone. When we got ready to leave, my daughter told me that we had been followed around for the last hour and a half by security. I guess they weren't smart enough to figure out what I was in just a few minutes. I haven't been back.

Wow that's not just lame, but incredibly harsh and unfair.. I would be like.. "Seriously, if you aren't going to let us in over the fact that my costume is better then you shouldn't let anyone in.."

I know that would be not so fair to everyone else that got in but is not cool that they did that to JUST you two.. I mean.. Your suits aren't the same factory made crap they have.. They shouldn't have bullshitted like that.

In Chicago, we have about 70-80 suiters for their Boo, and as long as we don't initiate contact or say we're Zoo employees, we're fine to suit up. We do have to enter the zoo headless, but once in side, we finish suiting up.

When you have 150+ people showing up at once, its very hard to turn them down, and they are realizing that. Between parking, admission, and gift shop/food spending, we give them about 5K for the day. Once they realized this, they stopped having us ask for permission to suit for Boo.

very much lame!

I just bring my fursuit in the bag, pay admission, then ask the staff if I can change in the bathroom, and I've never had a problem. That way they see who I am and what I'm doing. The trouble is, I think, once a venue has a problem, they just fix the problem by banning and creating "policies" instead of dealing with the miscreant who practiced bad behavior. That's why we need to police ourselves. Don't know what happened at Memphis though. I guess I can understand the idea that they had already employed mascot characters and didn't want the confusion. That's essentially the same thing that Disney does. Next time, I'd ask to see what it takes to become one of those volunteer staff that has to wear those mascot characters, only bring your own.

oops that was supposed to be a reply to the entire post not you.

I did a fundraiser a few years ago for the humane society and they had others in full animal costumes there, that were part of the humane society and those other costumes were so lame, we were practically ROFL, but we were outside, no floor, LOL. But, yeah, that was a lame excuse from the zoo and should show more respect for people in animal costumes, at least.

This is the exact same issues that we had with the Disney event.. a group of us got turned away some years back.. Some opted to continue without head (they were in partials) most of the full suiters demanded money back, and left.
Some people do however still hit the turnstiles out of suit, and make quick suit ups in the park at random times, till they see security approach, then quickly de-head and move on. Easier to do with the partials for sure.

I thought about taking my head off and then putting it back on, but it was a matter of principle to me. They were letting other adults in with masks and/or full makeup. It was a pick and choose thing with the gate personnel. I saw a family (husband, wife, and a child of about six years old) go right through the gate when we turned to leave. The man had a full mask and costume, but the gate personnel never even said a word to him.

See right there, he was with his family, you guys probably seemed out of place.

i think you need to write them a very strongly worded letter. ALSO they are not allowed to extend clothing/costume bans to "Cultural garments" of which fursuits qualify. Remind them of that.

they did the same for me at the zooboo this year! >:(

Well, fursuiters went last year, there were no posted links for rules on the billboards that advertised this as a costume event. When we were leaving, we saw masked adults entering the zoo right behind us. There were no rules posted for the event anywhere at the zoo. We passed other zoo personnel on the way to the gate and were told our costumes were really great but were told nothing about masks. I was also told by a volunteer friend that there were masked adults at the zoo when I asked him about fursuiting. No, I didn't go online to see if there were any specific rules, but there was no clue that it would be necessary in a public venue.

If you have to pay to get in, I wouldn't call it a public venue necessarily? I've gotten turned down to suit in places before, you just move on.

Well, it actually is a public venue as it is owned by the city of Memphis and is funded by the city and revenue from gate admittance and benefactors. There are days where (by law) it is open for free to the public because it is a publicly owned property. Zoo Boo is a special event, but it is still held by the Zoo and not a private enterprise. I am sometimes called in the by city council as a consultant on proposed animal ordinances and will contact some people downtown and ask them about this. I do know that mask ordinances are normally reserved for non public places and are only enforced upon the request of the owner (like a mall). I didn't just run down there half cocked looking for a confrontation. It wasn't so much being turned away for wearing a full costume but that they were letting others in that did have full costumes.

I went to the link. All it said was this:

Zoo visitors please note: Zoo Boo is a family-friendly event. All costumes must be appropriate for all ages. Did you have a different link?

Apparently they sent out a blanket reply to everyone who complained about this because Draconis and I each got this email. From what I was seeing at the zoo, they were discriminating against "furry" type costumes. I look upon this as a victory for Furries.

I'm surprised you guys didn't know better, and just showed up unannounced? With that many little kids around, 2 men show up in costumes, without their own kids in tow... How did they know you weren't two pedofiles? They have to play it safe! Parents are SUPER paranoid anymore. They didn't know who you were, couldn't see your faces, they had every right to turn you down.

Tycho gave some VERY good advice. I really don't think it was a matter of your costumes being better than theirs, it was more of a liability thing. They know who is in their costumes, they have NO fucking clue who you were.

To the general public, it would be like if you two showed up in full clown costumes/makeup, unannounced. With no kids or handlers in tow, I can guarantee you would be turned away too.

See my post above.

It was for your own safety both you cats are old and they didn't want one of the keepers to have to put you down. lol. Seriously though that sucks, the bad apples get all the attention and give us all a bad name.

wow

I've noticed that places tend to switch their policies on the fly depending on who's working that day. We've been turned away from supposedly "fursuit friendly" gathering places before here too, and many of our local fursuiters have resorted to suiting on the streets when they want to go out.

It could be that you are men - i have gone to places that didn't allow masks but when they saw I was girl and my suit was cute I was let in.. I have found that there is a gender prejudice when it comes to mask and suits

As I said above, even if there were rules in place precluding masks (although this is a public venue, owned by the city of Memphis), they were picking and choosing who could come in with masks and who couldn't. Had they asked us to remove our heads for identification, I would have gladly done so. We were flat out told that we would be competing with the zoo mascots and they didn't want people thinking that we worked there.

that sucks.

Woah, that's literally the last place I would expect to see suiters turned away...

Actually, I had thought that wearing a "big cat" costume might upset some of the animals and had thought they might turn us away for that. Being told that we would be competing with the zoo mascot people was totally lame.

Ah, yeah you know I hadn't even thought about that. Still sorry it didn't work out, their loss really.

I know this feeling. I am sorry you do, too.

Gosh, I hope we don't run into that issue at our boo at the zoo event. We're going to Kansas City Boo at the zoo and we were going to pay to get in and all. I'll talk to my friend and ask her if she's called ahead. We furries have done it every year, so far, though without issue, so they know we come. That's a load of lammo crap. I guess, to test the waters, you could bring a younger child girl or boy or a teenager. For all they know ,you're his/her uncle and his/her dad. :/ Make sure to play out dialogue by the time you get up to the gate.

"Dad, Uncle Keefur is going to steal my socks and give them to the dog tomorrow when I'm not home. Tell him he can't do that." Or "Uncle Keefur, Dad said he wanted to ask you about that car you sold a while back. He said he was thinking about getting one just like it so you guys could work on it together. I mean, you know, give them the whole shebang, so without a doubt, if they turn you away at that point, you know they were being prejiduced. I know people are paranoid, now, but c'mon you had a little girl with you and she called you uncle and dad for goodness sakes. I would put on the full show.

This totally made me laugh. Thanks.

Lol, no problem :P

that is pretty lame, I tried doing fursuit bowling in my city a few years ago, however the bowling alley wouldn't even let us do it.

*facepaws* It don't make no sense! >.<

No fun when that happens