Featured Image Credit: Channel 4
Topics: Sex and Relationships
Emma Guinness
A group of self-confessed human puppies - otherwise known as 'furries' - are begging the public to accept their community.
Tom (AKA Spot) has spent more than £4,000 ($4,900) on becoming a dog, including wearing puppy training pads for when nature calls. You can meet him below:
As their name suggests, the human puppies spend their free time pretending to be dogs after the unusual community was born out of the BDSM one.
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But while the practice brings the human puppies a lot of joy, unfortunately, not everyone is understanding when it comes to their unconventional lifestyle.
This is partially down to the belief that puppy play, as it's known, is entirely about sex.
However, this is something that British members of the community attempted to debunk in the 2016 Channel 4 documentary Secret Life of the Human Pups.
Kye, then 28, who looks after human pups, said: "Puppy play is definitely not about sex, it is a form of escapism."
In the documentary, we learn Rachel split up with her partner Tom because of his love of puppy play.
Explaining why he loves puppy play so much, the then-32-year-old Tom said: "You disappear and start chasing puppy toys. You go so deep into the head space, you crave it and want it. It's just magic."
Unfortunately for Tom, who dresses up as a Dalmatian named Spot, his fiancée wasn't so enthusiastic about his pastime, which also saw him lock himself in a human puppy cage with puppy training pads.
"I didn't understand it. I didn't want to understand it," Rachel said.
Tom went on to admit that after the breakup, he did have some small regrets about being into puppy play.
"A tiny bit of me regrets being a puppy because I lost what I had," he said before adding: "Rachel thought I was becoming gay."
However, Tom and those featured in the programme insist that for them, being a human pup is not a sexual practice.
But the practice of dressing up as an animal is for the closely related furry community, who often have sex in full animal costumes.
Tom explained in the documentary that, for him, puppy play is a form of escapism.
As a theatre technician in his everyday life, he said that he very much likes to be behind the scenes, but when he's dressed up as Spot, he loves being the centre of attention.
However, while Tom and others tried their best to debunk the myths around puppy play, if reactions to the documentary are anything to go by, the community has a long way to go before they're widely accepted.
One viewer slammed: "That dog costume is way scarier than me almost crashing my mum's car because I'm dumb and didn't know how to drive."
"This takes being a furry to a whole new level," added a second.
However, not everyone was so critical.
Another viewer remarked: "Okay but kudos to them for being brave enough to share this."
"He's adorable to be honest," added a second. "In or out of gear. Pups are people too! It's more than some fetish to a lot of people."