otherkinnews | News Sites Mistake Video of Festival Attendees As Transspecies Protestors

Summary
News reports claiming that a transspecies activist protest took place in Berlin, Germany in September 2023 is inaccurate. These fictitious stories are based on misinformation and assumptions made regarding a real video and of photographs taken of an event that took place in Berlin. The real event consisted of a gathering of people who partake in puppy play.

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The Claim
In the fall of 2023, multiple news agencies began publishing articles relaying that many people who identified as dogs, or who were transspecies, had gathered in Berlin, Germany in early September.

Several news sources claimed their appearance was part of a BDSM subculture street event (McManus) while other sources claimed it was part of a protest regarding transspecies rights or were otherwise “trans-species activists.” (Salvoni; Bishop)

News articles relating to this story were accompanied with either video clips or stills from a video said to have been taken during the claimed event.

Some stories claimed this event included “hundreds” of people (Salvoni, McManus), while several articles even claimed, around “1,000.” (Kato; Salvoni; Pandey; Bishop; Pisani, Jain)

Several stories also have insinuated or outright said that people called animal control to the event. (Kato; Pandey; Bishop; Jain)

Several of the news outlets sharing the story mentioned also therians and/or furries by name in relation to the event. (Kato; Pandey; Bishop; Jain)

The story was shared on news websites including GBNnews, DailyMail, the New York Post, the DailyStar, and IndiaTimes, among others.

This story is fictitious.

The Reality
While the videos and photographs are genuine and there was indeed an event that took place in Berlin where multiple people were dressed in dog-inspired attire, those who attended were neither protesting nor were self-identified transspecies people. (Chacón; McCreary)

The truth was the video and photos were taken during the Folsom Europe event. Folsom Europe is an annual, multi-day festival celebrating kink, fetish and alternative sexuality subcultures. (Chacón; McCreary) Those among the leather and BDSM crowd included those interested in puppy play. (McCreary)

Puppy play (also called pup play) refers to a type of roleplay based around submissive/dominant interactions between an adult human adopting the characteristics of a domestic dog (the “pup”) and an adult human taking the role of an owner (also called a “handler”) for an agreed upon duration. Puppy play is not about identifying as a dog. It is merely a form of roleplay. (Langdridge & Lawson)

The videos and photos in question were taken during an event called the “puppy walk” that took place on the 9th as part of the larger festival. (Chacón; McCreary; Tereszcuk) A post from the events official Facebook page stated the event included around “400 puppies.” (Folsom Europe e.V.)

Further Context
The misrepresentation and outright fabrications of this story is sadly part of a larger trend among conservative news agencies. (House of Chimeras, Scribner, and Shepard, 2023)

In recent years, there has been a dramatic rise in claims that the existence of transgender people is detrimental to society at large and there has been a sharp increase in anti-trans related bills being proposed and even passing within the past few years. The use of claims of people who identify as animals has increasingly been used as part of an effort to attack the transgender community. (House of Chimeras, 2022; Chacón)

Conservatives have a long history of branding unrelated events and people as “transspecies” for their own political gain. (House of Chimeras, 2021) Over the past few years there has also been a sharp increase of people making wild claims regarding “furries,” but using the term to mean people who identify as animals rather than the fans of anthropomorphic animals that furries actually are. (House of Chimeras, 2022) Within the past two years this has taken the form of various false claims regarding people identifying as animals asking for bathroom accommodations in public schools across the United States. (House of Chimeras, 2022; House of Chimeras, Orion Scribner, and Page Shepard; McCreary)

References
Bishop, Holly. “Woke nonsense! Hundreds of humans identifying as DOGS gather in Berlin,” GB News, 21 September 2023, https://www.gbnews.com/news/world/gender-row-identity-woke-dogs-identifying-berlin

Chacón, Marcos Martínez. “Video shows fetish festival attendees, not ‘trans species’ rights protestors,” APNews, 3 October 2023, https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trans-species-protest-fetish-festival-671841239565 .

Folsom Europe e.V., Facebook, 8 September 2023, https://www.facebook.com/FolsomEurope/posts/pfbid02HeyVkZjQ5Z1zug8E5aqyWQMVc61bReW8BWJxgwYJAZQTYsFDRgW3iFZ3UmNjBjdHl

House of Chimeras "Litter Boxes in School Bathrooms: Dissecting the Alt-Right’s Current Moral Panic." (12 August 2022). https://houseofchimeras.neocities.org/Lectures

House of Chimeras "The Use and Misuse of The Term Transspecies." (14 August 2021). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miSyXSesyzw

House of Chimeras, Orion Scribner, and Page Shepard. “Litter Box Hoax 2: Legislature Boogaloo.” OtherCon 2023. 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsXy_ctC4Jc&t=1425s

Jain, Anusha. "Viral Video: People Who Identify As Dogs Gather In Berlin For This Strange Meetup." India Times. 21 September 2023. https://www.indiatimes.com/trending/wtf/a-group-of-people-identifying-as-dogs-gathers-in-berlin-615611.html

Kato, Brooke. "Hundreds of people who identify as dogs gather in city center: ‘Call animal control’." New York Post. 19 September 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/09/19/hundreds-of-people-who-identify-as-dogs-gather-in-city-center-call-animal-control/

Langdridge, Darren & Lawson, Jamie. “The Psychology of Puppy Play: A Phenomenological Investigation.” Archives of Sexual Behavior, Volume 48, (2019): pages 2201–2215.

McCreary, Joedy. “False claim that people in dog costumes were part of 'trans-species' protest | Fact check,” USA Today, 10 October 2023, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/10/12/trans-species-rights-no-video-shows-fetish-festival-fact-check/71154892007/

McManus, Leigh. “Hundreds of people who ‘identify as dogs’ gather in major city to bark and howl,” DailyStar, 22 September 2023, https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/hundreds-people-who-identify-dogs-31001429

Pandey, Nikhil. "People Who Identify As Dogs Gather In Berlin, Prompting Calls For Animal Control." New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV). 20 September 2023. https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/people-who-identify-as-dogs-gather-in-berlin-prompting-calls-for-animal-control-4408339

Pisani, Joe. “What has ‘human dog’ unleashed?” The News-Times, 12 October 2023, Page A11.

Salvoni, Elena. “Are they barking mad? Hundreds of people who identify as DOGS gather to bark and howl at each other in Germany,” DailyMail, 21 September 2023, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12544297/Hundreds-people-identify-DOGS-gather-bark-howl-Germany.html

Tereszcuk, Alexis. “Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show 'Trans Species Rights' Protest In Germany -- People Barking Like Dogs Were At A Fetish Events Rally,” LeadStories, 4 October 2023, https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2023/10/fact-check-video-does-not-show-trans-species-rights-protest-in-germany-people-barking-like-dogs-were-at-a-fetish-events-rally.html .