Califur 2017



Califur 2017 was the fourteenth iteration of the Califur convention. It was held over May 19-21, 2017, moving into May to avoid clashing with Biggest Little Fur Con 2017 and to make use of cooler temperatures. The venue was again the Fairplex Sheraton in Pomona, California.

The theme for Califur 2017 was "Horror".

The convention saw 1,393 attendees.

Staff
The staff of Califur 2017 were:
 * Chairwoman: TigerEyes
 * Co-Chair & MAARS: Vidwulf
 * Dealer Den: Jaguar
 * ConStore: Black Hawk
 * Registration: Narchious
 * Theatrical: Raven
 * Backstage Manager: Chronowulf
 * Onsite Programming: Vinson Mink
 * Con-Ops: Victor
 * Fursuit: Lareth Inúzuka
 * Gaming: HappyWulf, Justin Foxchase (temp lead)

Controversy
Within 24 to 48 hours before the start of the event, the venue was flooded by calls (example) and Twitter messages regarding a panel about Babyfurs and BDSM.

The seriousness of the tone of the messages prompted the venue to increase the security fee by $25,000 and the demand for the con to strike the babyfur panel (also impacting the venue's concerns was a nearby PETA protest, which ended up being unrelated to the convention, but caused law enforcement to be on the scene of the convention). Califur had the choice of canceling the con but went ahead and agreed to the terms.

It was determined later that calls to the hotel were made by members from the AltFurry Discord, a Discord chat group for "Alt Furries", a social/political group who align themselves with alt-right ideologies and movements. The attack was based on an Alt Furry Discord consensus that the babyfur panel was pedophilic in nature, and the group's founder, Len Gilbert/Furred Reich, has encouraged such tactics on his YouTube channel, since deleted. Also, the AltFurry Discord's Twitter (maintained by Len Gilbert) sent the hotel sexual cub-related art drawn by Jaga Fuxfell via Twitter, portraying it as an example of what would be featured in the panel.

Alt Furry's management first tried to deny their involvement, then downplay their hand in it, finally blaming others for it.

Some have mistakenly reported that the calls were part of a campaign by the Furry Raiders, due to the fact that Raiders leader, Foxler Nightfire, being associated both with the alt-right and with the AltFurry Discord, and there is some overlap of membership, but the groups are distinct, and Len Gilbert and his members are not Raiders.