I would say it’s more that they recognize furries are largely a queer subculture (regardless of the fact that straight furries exist) and correctly recognize it as less objectionable to most people’s sensibilities to say you’re getting furries removed from schools by animal control than it is to say you’re getting queer kids removed from schools by animal control.
It sounds really outlandish until you remember that in the 80s, DnD was used to make everyone afraid of a literal Satan, and we ended up with children testifying they were flown across the country and back to participate in Satanic rituals or flushed down toilets into hidden chambers where people were sacrificing live animals to the Dark Lord in the 8-9 hours they were at daycare.
People went to prison over this.
In the early 90s my mom was convinced Satanic women got pregnant and gave birth to babies to murder in rituals, and nobody could prove it because they gave birth outside a hospital and no record of the children existed.
I get some of the 80s/90s nostalgia but SO much of it was just actual hell lol.
