CHLORINE GAS SICKENS 19 AT FURRIES CONVENTION

[onehandle]

Source: AP



ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) -- Chlorine gas sickened several people and forced the evacuation of thousands of guests from a suburban Chicago hotel early Sunday, including many dressed in cartoonish animal costumes for an annual furries convention who were ushered across the street to a convention center hosting a dog show.

Nineteen people who became nauseous or dizzy were treated at local hospitals, and at least 18 were released shortly thereafter. Within hours, emergency workers decontaminated the Hyatt Regency O'Hare and allowed people back inside. Six-foot-tall rabbits, foxes and dragons poured into the lobby, chatting and giving each other high paws.

"I think we'll recover from this," said Kit McCreedy, a 28-year-old from Madison, Wisconsin, his fox tail swinging behind him as he headed back inside for the last day of the Midwest FurFest. "People are tired but they're still full of energy."

The source of the gas was apparently chlorine powder left in a ninth-floor stairwell at the hotel, according to the Rosemont Public Safety Department. Investigators believe the gas was created intentionally and are treating it as a criminal matter.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HOTEL_EVACUATION_CHLORINE_LEAK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-12-07-11-14-55

[TexasTowelie]

1. I was running about a minute behind you

so I self-deleted my OP.

[onehandle]

5. I'm glad I'm not the only one concerned about furries rights.

Where is their MLK!!??

[Major Nikon]

11. Who else?

[onehandle]

12. Finally!

'Furry at last, Furry at last, Thank Henson almighty we are furry at last.'

[Major Nikon]

13. Me has a dream!

[Orrex]

2. Why would this not be considered a terrorist attack?

[pasto76]

4. because there is no motive yet

trying to get some kind of political outcome or policy through violence is the meaning of terrorism.

[Orrex]

6. I'm aware of people being charged with "making terroristic threats"

Threatening to gas a building certainly qualifies, with or without a stated political motive. The threshold, it seems, is whether the perpetrator intends to inspire terror.

And if the threat of a gas attack is a terrorist threat, then why wouldn't an actual gas attack be an actual terrorist act?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. Here ya go....

[MADem]

20. OK, what in HELL is the context of that photo?

It's a combination of and (while still being a bit, well, horrified, mind you).

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. Amazing what Google Image comes up with when you add "Nazi"....

Like "My Little Pony".

[Leopolds Ghost]

24. Don't confuse bronies with furries... or nazi ponies with nazi furries.

Last edited Mon Dec 8, 2014, 09:11 AM - Edit history (2)

My Little Pony nazi crossover tends to be deliberately to get a rise out of people, although this "Aryanne" thing disturbs me.

<-- Aryanne, the mascot for neo-nazi ponies.

Gas mask pic omitted in the interests of not wanting to offend furries. Or, um, other people.

But yeah, that's the same sort of people that would gas a furry convention...

It's unfortunate that there's nothing that can be done to come after them.

[MADem]

49. Ok, now I'm ready to go borrow a cane to wave ineffectually, sit in my rocking chair, and bellow

"The world is going to hell in a handbasket!!!!

[Leopolds Ghost]

57. Something about this whole thing smells fishy.

If there is such a thing as fishies.

[MADem]

60. OMG, life has certainly passed me by on some fronts!!!!!!

[Leopolds Ghost]

61. I'm glad I had the good sense not to post

Last edited Mon Dec 8, 2014, 09:42 PM - Edit history (3)

that gas-mask pony. I found a picture of a pony waving a cane angrily, but it doesn't sufficiently express how I feel...

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. One fascist on another forum I post on got laughed off when his 'furry' activities were revealed

'Section Leader' was full of calls for British youth to organise and follow in the footsteps of Oswald Mosley and similar, but after his hobby came out, replies to him tended to be like this:

Section Leader: I suspect the people of Birmingham won't want to see my mug again since the last time I was there...
Carteronian: What did you do...?
Potemkin: I'm guessing it was something involving swastikas, a fox costume and the word 'yiff'.
http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=143377

No-one, pro- or anti-fascist, could take him seriously after that.

[Xyzse]

40. OMG! Is that a Catholic School Girl Skirt being used as a window blind drapery?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

42. Must be a trophy room.

[Xyzse]

43. Probably... Furries hunting Nazis and School Girls?

That is a whole new Inglorious Basterds movie right there.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

44. At least until someone uses a flamethrower.

[Xyzse]

46. Very true..

They are a wee bit more flammable than the average bear.

[Posteritatis]

62. The targetted group's unpopular and the assailant probably passes the colour test

If something like this was directed at a conference of English professors it'd consume the news cycle for days, but when even here the language often has heavy undertones of "they sorta had it coming a bit" you can't count for much from anyone else..

[Orrex]

66. It's sad, but that's probably a good assessment

"We don't understand Furries, so an attack on their convention is no big deal to us."

[Posteritatis]

68. That's the vibe I've been getting in reactions elsewhere, yeah. (nt)

[Leopolds Ghost]

70. There are a whole bunch of misunderstood groups of people on DU who generally get picked upon.

[Posteritatis]

72. Here and elsewhere, yeah

To be fair to DU, the reactions are vastly nastier in, well, most other places I've seen discussing this.

(News actually local to the whole fiasco seems rather more respectful though. It's like regular exposure to a group humanizes them or something - I know! Madness!)

[Leopolds Ghost]

77. Hmm, well, I don't know about how it is for furries, but...

I imagine they get a lot of negative attention. But I have it on good authority that furries > juggalos, if the spectacle of bronies chasing juggalos off a message board is anything to go on.

There's not many places I can talk about more than one or two subjects of interest to me without being hated on. Being a brony doesn't help. I consider it more of a counterculture, but just like in the hippie community there are a lot of assholes who see it quite the opposite, as a chance to isolate themselves and validate their pre-existing beliefs. Politics? Religion? Good luck.

[undergroundpanther]

82. i am furry

My furryness is as real as my transgender identity.
maybe someday non furry people will just give up on telling others who they are. I am Panther for a reason.

[exboyfil]

3. A convention for everything

What kind of sick person would intentionally poison other individuals. I hope they catch and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

[pa28]

8. Real life is the best comedy.

Poor furries.

[snooper2]

29. Well, at least - "ushered across the street to a convention center hosting a dog show"

there were other animals they could take refuge with LOL

[Archae]

30. Well...

(Furry pinup art fan here)

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

63. Since you posted Krystal there...

Here is another


Once you admit it, life gets so much more furry...I mean fun.

(I'm an artwork fan. At some point I hope to get back into drawing and then I could add one or two of my own to the vast collections on-line)

[Leopolds Ghost]

69. Not really, no...

For one thing, she's british. Also, the body hair.

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

73. No problem, everyone is different

some just can't get past the fur, but damn it can look good. Personally, I would love a furry tail and ears. I just can't imagine them looking as good if they weren't furry.

(I'm going to use this as an excuse to post two more pics! )
I love her markings. I don't drink (bad migraines), but I would have one with her anyway


These colors are more fantasy, but I think they're cute.

[Archae]

78. Just as long as you don't post a Doug Winger...

[Leopolds Ghost]

86. It's ok to be different n/t

[undergroundpanther]

83. i got a thing for rainbow dash

[Leopolds Ghost]

85. um....

I think it's time for me to go to bed.


[font face="arial" size="1"]I'M A FILLY AND WHAT IS THIS[/font]

[Action_Patrol]

9. This is horrible.

Glad there doesn't seem to be any serious injuries.

Every time I see something regarding Furries, I just think of how special of a bond you would have to maintain with your Dry Cleaner to maintain that lifestyle.

[MADem]

50. Maybe they have those drycleaner kits, and do it at home....

Or maybe their costumes are all polyester, like those fake fur "throws" that look like mink or leopard or some other animal print--amazing how well that stuff washes and dries in the regular laundry! We've got a ton of 'em and we wash them all the time with no ill effects....

[tomm2thumbs]

10. I suspect Stinky the Skunk, with a chlorine tablet in the stairwell.

Oh this is a really bizarre game of Clue!

[Calista241]

15. I can deal with a lot of stuff, and support anyone's rights to do whatever they want to do in bed,

but this furry fetish creeps me out.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

16. wait... this shit is sexual?

How does that even work? Are they rubbing costume anatomy against one another?

[GreyLight]

17. Holy shit...this again...

No it's not sexual in nature and core, it's actually a VERY artistic subculture, from drawing, writing, and composing songs, to crafting suits and other forms of crafting and creating art (and not only porn! Porn in the furry fandom is the same as hentai in the anime fandom. Is part of it, makes tons of money with it, but it's a small part of it, even if it's really easy to find it)

Yes, there are furry porn in the same way you can find porn of EVERYTHING EVER MADE BY MEN (welcome to internet rule 34), but porn using the suits is very, very rare and uncommon (seriously, some of the suits can cost around 2 thousand dollars, and if you cut it for this kind of use, you lose your warrant and free repair done by the artisans that create those suits, and they're really hot to use for a long time, making then really impractical for doing something like sex) done only by a very few creeps that you can find in every fandom and subculture.

So please, PLEASE, stop with the "dur hur hur, furry is fucking using an animal costume!". There's a minority of furries who even have a suit (as I said, they're expensive) an even diminutive number who actually have sex with them, and the media (CSI, MTV,...), internet trolls and idiots that keep this idiocy about having sex with it.


And about the attack, I really hope they find the culprit and give him/her the punish s/he deserve as a terrorist.

[Hekate]

18. Thank you for the informative post. I know very little about this subculture....

My brother is a Ren Faire merchant on weekends, and our sister and her friends used to be active in BosCon sci-fi fandom, and my daughter's ex goes to ComicCon in San Diego and likes to wear his pirate costume a lot, but afaik those are the only costumed subcultures I'm related to. Hmmm, I guess that's quite a few, on reflection.

Let's just say I'm in the habit of keeping an open mind, and am glad to learn about furries.

[Feral Child]

22. Props

Your assessment and description is accurate. It's a harmless and expressive hobby for some people, a spin-off of the Cosplay (Costume Play)
culture; itself broad, artistic and significant.

There's no more sex amongst Furries than any other group, and, like most people, they get naked for it.

For those involved it's a way of meeting and enjoying the company of (and sometimes hooking up with) like-minded folk.

In my opinion, it's lots cooler than (and safer) than trying to make friends in bars.

As to the headline, it's click-bait. There's no indication from the article that Furries were targetted specifically; Furries were only singled out in the headline to bait Straights into reading it due to the prurient focus most humans have.

Any group or individual might have been the target, or there might be no specific target. Terrorists aim to instill terror; the political focus of this attack might just be to instill random fear and the government's lack of ability to protect people from random violence.

[6000eliot]

32. Who cares if they do have sex?

If they are consenting adults, I don't care how they have fun. Isn't that supposed to be the "liberal" attitude about sex? Trying to poison people for no good reason is the REAL "sick" and "creepy" thing.

[Feral Child]

36. I certainly don't care about their inclinations.

I'm extremely open-minded about sex. About the only thing I consider weird is vanilla, straight-up missionary with the lights off conducted mechanically when the required female component is ovulating, and even that's none of my business.

The only time I feel I need to be concerned is if it isn't consensual, or if consent is clearly coerced.

If the Furries were targeted, it's because more people will notice the attack, since people in general want to read dirty stuff about other people in order to excuse their own.

Note the focus even in this discussion conducted by progressives.

I sense you're as surprised by the responses in this thread as I am. Even if Furry culture was all about "kinky" sex, it isn't anyone's business but those folks getting it on. It makes you wonder how they actually feel about any stuff I might get up to, or what you're into. Are they confused about whats' progressively important, or are they worried someone else might consider them freaky if they don't mock others?

And I'll say again, these are mostly young people interacting with others in a friendly, playful atmosphere, not "degenerates" defying Truth, Justice, and the American way by their Bohemian lifestyle.

I think it's a shame you and I even need to discuss this.

[6000eliot]

56. Exactly. It's exasperating, isn't it?

[Feral Child]

74. Indeed.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

26. What about Bronies and clopping?

That's some real sick shit!

[Leopolds Ghost]

37. Bronies =/= cloppers... I am pretty tired of cloppers

Do you know how hard it is to find pony stuff while filtering out stuff with squicky, lesbian, or furry overtones? The furry stuff usually isn't as big a deal to me.

On the other hand, last I heard, the furry community is increasingly fetish oriented. The same will probably happen to MLP when the show is done.

Bronies are about 20% furries and similar percentage cloppers according to the brony psychology study. They're 80% male, mostly heterosexual (female bronies are more likely to be non-heterosexual) and 4% asexual (ahem). For that matter, most cloppers are into pinup art depicting humanized characters.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

38. The whole thing freaks me out - My son told me about this stuff - I didn't believe him at first

[Leopolds Ghost]

39. Bronies are cool. Just avoid the clopper stuff.

Last edited Mon Dec 8, 2014, 07:20 PM - Edit history (1)

And lest you think that is a slight against furries, most of whom admit it's a fetish of sorts -- cloppers basically = self-hating furries. They don't get along.

MLP fandom very much started out as anything but a fetish for most people. However, there has always been a crossover with furries. Along with Dr. Who fandom, electronic music fandom, gaming fandom, and everything else. Basically, if it exists, there is a pony version of it... no exceptions.



A friend of mine is currently working on a retelling of the Silmarillion as a 5,000 year ancient history of My Little Pony.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

41. I just worry about the little girls googling "My Little Pony" if their browsers aren't restricted.

Some of the images could fuck them up for life!

[Leopolds Ghost]

47. Yeah, that is a problem.

If it makes you feel any better, a substantial subset of bronies are tired of all the fetish material and are simply fans of the show or music, etc.

Of course you have stuff that is just odd, like this. But then, there's some stuff in the show, or the official comics, that's pretty dark.

[6000eliot]

81. Oooh. It's scary people who don't behave just like I do.

They must be FREAKS!

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

88. Everyone is a freak in their own unique way(s).

[Orrex]

34. I have known several dozen Furries in my life. For ALL of them, it was also a kink thing.

I accept that it's a fun, artistic avocation for a great many Furries (perhaps a large majority of them), but to pretend that Furry Porn is something foisted upon the culture by men from the outside is simply incorrect.

FWIW, I agree with you that this should be seen as a terrorist act.



And welcome to DU.

[undergroundpanther]

84. not a kink for Me

Its an identity issue

[Leopolds Ghost]

87. Most of the non-male...

Most of the non-male bronies I know are non-heterosexual... so I guess that gets to an identity issue.

[longship]

19. There are some awfully sick fucks out there.

I leave it to others to decide which are which. However, I really do not think that furries hurt many people. I think they do
what they do just for fun. I cannot think of a better rationale, no matter what.

[Feral Child]

23. Click-bait.

Greylight's assessment and description in post #17 is accurate. It's a harmless and expressive hobby for some people, a spin-off of the Cosplay (Costume Play) culture; itself broad, artistic and significant.
There's no more sex amongst Furries than any other group, and, like most people, they get naked for it.

For those involved it's a way of meeting and enjoying the company of (and sometimes hooking up with) like-minded folk.

In my opinion, it's lots cooler than (and safer) than trying to make friends in bars.

As to the headline, it's click-bait. There's no indication from the article that Furries were targetted specifically; Furries were only singled out in the headline to bait Straights into reading it due to the prurient focus most humans have.

Any group or individual might have been the target, or there might be no specific target. Terrorists aim to instill terror; the political focus of this attack might just be to instill random fear and the government's lack of ability to protect people from random violence.

[Sunlei]

45. I thought it was a Costume Convention. No matter, clorine gas can be deadly.

Good thing 'the group' who put on the convention is required to have insurance to use that venue.

[Leopolds Ghost]

25. "who were ushered across the street to a convention center hosting a dog show."

Are you sure this isn't a made-up headline? I want to see what Reddit has to say about this.

[eggplant]

27. OFFS.

Let's try to keep focus here.

Staging a chlorine gas attack: Bad.
Adults doing benign things with like minded folks: Perfectly fine.

If this had been a Pokémon convention (or Nascar, or the Rose Bowl, or...) , would we be getting all of the "WTF" comments? Get over it. A good friend of mine is one of the organizers for this event (and is luckily ok) -- 19 people went to the hospital because of some asshole.

Ugh.

[StandingInLeftField]

31. I agree, eggplant.

It's very telling which posters find this deplorable situation amusing.

[Posteritatis]

58. Seriously. The flippancy about this is appalling.

And that's before getting into the people saying "we can't be sure these guys were targeted, despite the fact that the cops said they were targeted by a fortunately-partially-botched chlorine bomb emplaced in the middle of the convention on its busiest night."

That's before getting into the nastier "Well, I'm not saying they entirely deserved this, but they clearly sorta did" language that people are dancing around all over the place when discussing this.

Things like this really do inspire some people to launch all their "I guess I am an ass" flares, since I doubt they'd be reacting the same way to a comics convention, academic conference, trade show, etc.

[Blue_Tires]

59. +1

[Leopolds Ghost]

64. Not sure about the flippancy. It's pretty disgusting (the incident)

And a hate crime. I suppose one could argue shit like this happens all the time, but...

...to tell you the truth, I can't think of the last time someone did something like this. I hope it's not a trend.

It's a good thing nobody was hurt.

The flippancy on the other hand... people are pretty flippant about violence to a lot of groups here on DU. Sad but true...

[Posteritatis]

65. It feels like a difference; whether of degree or of kind I'm not sure.

It does feel like whoever's responsible brought something new to the table with this stunt, though.

God knows the last few months have provided enough other object lessons in people justifying all sorts of appalling behaviour to folks whose main offense is being something they dislike.

Past angry strings of obscenities (and disgust at people who see this mainly as its own punchline - a ridiculous number of people in this thread think attacking people with chlorine gas is funny), I'm not sure what exactly to make of it yet.

[Leopolds Ghost]

67. I freely admit to not taking it as seriously as it probably should be

Upon reading the article and noticing the disturbing escalation in technique here, I have to wonder if people were in serious danger this could have been a very big deal. It could well be that on first reading one assumes that this was a disturbing "prank" but on reflection, the perps couldn't have thought so. Chlorine gas doesn't sicken, it kills. Dark humor doesn't help much when people are being singled out for hate crime or harassment. Although I probably would have reacted the same if it had been a brony convention.

[uppityperson]

28. I hope the find who did this, what an awful thing to do

[Sunlei]

35. "Investigators believe the gas was created intentionally"

When they catch this person or people they need to be charged as if the outcome of their actions caused a 'worse case' scenario.

[valerief]

48. I think the furry fetish only adds to the infantilization of western culture, but, hell,

no one deserves to get sick just for being a weirdo.

[AtomicKitten]

51. The crossover of fetishes has produced

.... some, um, interesting results. The pics in this thread are priceless. *snort"

Glad everyone is okay.

[woodsprite]

52. Sounds like someone trying to compete w/ CSI episode 406 - Fur and Loathing. n/t

[daligirl519]

53. This is obviously a sign of the. . .

APAWCALYPSE!!!!!

[Mojo Electro]

54. Reports are that the person dressed as a canary was the first to notice the gas.

Luckily any sick furries were taken to the vet and cared for.

Okay, that's all I got.

Seriously, who would do this? It's my understanding that furries are known to be very nice people.

[steve2470]

55. three points

1- I hope they catch the perps of this crime.

2- I hope everyone is ok now.

3- I'm extraordinarily proud of myself for not indulging my inner idiot about this.


Carry on!

[MrMickeysMom]

71. ditto...

All 3, though I DID learn some things today, as always on DU…

[VScott]

75. Obviously we need background checks, licensing and limtations...

on the purchase and possession of chlorine.

[daleanime]

79. After all...

thousands have been attacked this way in the US.

[Leopolds Ghost]

80. I thought your post was going to be about fursuits.

OK, time for me to go to bed.



Although the discussion on a number of other major news items would tend to suggest blaming the victim here.

[Initech]

76. I bet that was a very interesting sight to see.