Fear that members of the local furry community could turn savage led organizers of Rocky Mountain Fur Con, typically attended by people dressed in plush animal costumes, to cancel the annual event.

A group called “Furry Raiders” adopted a symbol that consisted of a black paw on a red background. The image reminded other furries — people who dress as fictional animal characters with human personalities — of the Nazi swastika and their objections started the fur flying, convention chairman Zachary Brooks said.

“People overreacted. As it got more and more heated, people started talking about beating up people wearing the symbol,” Brooks said. “They said ‘We’ve got a right to protect ourselves and we are going to bring weapons.'”

The cat fight over the event, scheduled for Aug. 11-13 at the Denver Marriott Tech Center, Brooks said, “caused our security cost to increase to the point that we couldn’t sustain the convention.”

Sponsored by Mid-American Anthropomorphic and Arts Corp., Rocky Mountain Fur Con participants are fans of fiction, art and other media that features fictional animals with human personalities.

When MAAAC’s former CEO sent a cease-and-desist letter to a furry fan following the dispute over the “Furry Raiders,” he included blood-red thumb print as a seal, according to Flayrah, an online news magazine for and by furries.

“This seal, alongside other language used in the letter, is commonly linked with the ‘Sovereign Citizen’ movement, associated with rejection of federal and state government’s legitimacy to enforce laws and taxes,” Flayrah reported. “The ‘Furry Raiders’ have also been associated in press profiles with other alt-right and neo-Nazi movements.”

Flayrah offered another explanation for the cancellation: tax problems. MAAAC hadn’t filed taxes for a period of seven years.

“That is not correct,” Brooks said. MAAAC originally claimed tax-exempt, non-profit 501(c)(3) status, he said.

MAAAC lost that status due to a “mess up in the books,” and has paid the taxes it subsequently missed.

Last year’s Fur Con drew 1,700 people, Brooks said. Refunds to those who have so far paid registration fees, which range from $35 to $450, will be refunded “after making sure our taxes are settled and our vendors paid.”

MAAAC and Rocky Mountain Fur Con are in the process of ceasing operation, filing papers with the Internal Revenue Service to dissolve the corporation, Brooks said. “Most of those involved have little interest in putting energy into this after all the issues we have been dealing with.”