Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., took to social media Thursday to blast furries, a community of people that often dress in anthropomorphic animal suits, doubling down on his widely mocked claims the practice is a danger to the airline industry.

Tuberville said in a post there is “an ALARMING number of these DERANGED people working in our airline industry,” referring to furries.

The senator did not provide any backing or data for his claims, instead sharing an NBC News clip of a radio recording from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in which two pilots can be heard meowing and barking at each other.

In a follow-up post , Tuberville shared a link for an “Aviation Furs Meet-up” that occurred at a furry convention in Minneapolis earlier this month, asking, “Would you be comfortable with a MENTALLY ILL FURRY being your pilot?”

No major medical organization categorizes being a furry as a mental illness.

In a Senate floor speech Tuesday, Tuberville claimed Tyler Robinson, who is on trial for allegedly assassinating right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, was involved in online furry culture.

A Utah furry community known as the Southern Utah Furs said they had no connection to Robinson and received harassment following Kirk’s death. “We condemn in the strongest terms the spreading of hate, conspiracy theories, and misinformation from any side of the political spectrum,” the group said in a statement reported by ABC 4 Utah .

The furry community became popularized and more aware to the general public in the 2010s. Those invested in it make art, attend conventions and sometimes wear full-body animal costumes known as “fursuits.” Some don furry costumes as part of a sexual fetish and incorporate the furry identity into a broader lifestyle, but for many it is a hobby not of a sexualized nature. In 2023, a bill that sought to restrict facilities for transgender students initially included a provision that sought to stop schools from accommodating a student’s “perception of being any animal species other than human.” The bill passed without the accommodation language, according to Vice . In 2024, a Republican lawmaker in Oklahoma launched a bill aimed at barring students who participated in anthropomorphic behavior from school activities.

Why are people always pointing the finger at furries?’: inside the wild world of the furry fandom (The Guardian)