April 12, 2021
I am wildly late to talking about this formally, but a few months ago, a handful of individuals in the 'kin community over on Tumblr spoke up about nonhuman urges they feel that are violent, predatory, or somehow go against the grain of human societal beliefs in some way. There was immediate push back by some anonymous commenters on the subject, stating that we shouldn't be speaking about these subjects for fear of sounding like we're advocating for expression of these thoughts, and perhaps indoctrinating young minds in the community. While most of the replies detailing ugly urges were by those with predatory kintypes, there were a few who spoke up with other viewpoints, including scavengers having urges to eat roadkill, and a handful of fictionkin talking about violence through the lens of their fictotypes.
I briefly outlined some of my experiences on Tumblr in agreement with the general idea, but I'll expand on them here a little more and attempt to explain why we should be candid about these feelings.
As a predatory species, I have a strong prey drive, and I get the urge to hunt animals I see in various situations. Zoo animals are like eye candy, and watching all the little captive animals walk around is tantalizing. Deer I see on hikes are tempting, and I enjoy the thought of plunging headfirst into streams I walk by to get at the fish in them. I've half-considered stealing food from the hand of a passerby. I have the urge to swallow things whole, eat bones, and consume raw meat. I want to bite. Baby animals look like snacks. This includes human children. I will not eat your child. Let me be clear. I obviously know how abhorrent an action like that would be, and I have no desire to act upon these thoughts. But the thoughts are still there.
Again, and as others have agreed, these are all thoughts, and thoughts only. It's like experiencing an intrusive thought, when something in the back of your mind tells you to drive into the median as you're hurtling down the freeway. That's a scary experience, but that the human brain has checks that prevent you from actually turning the steering wheel. The same goes for us. We are all still in biologically human bodies, operating in a human society, and as such, we are exceedingly aware these are not appropriate actions. Also, urges don't always align with what our human brains are comfortable with. In the case of the therian who had urges to eat roadkill, the thought of actually going out and eating roadkill is something they were immensely appalled by, but the urge to do it on a conceptual level was still there.
The point of bringing these things up and expanding on them here isn't to show we're somehow different from humans by feeling these things, or that having these urges or intrusive thoughts is an indication that you're "true" otherkin and rightfully belong in the community. These don't legitimize or de-legitimize anything. It's to point out that these feelings, in some individuals, are there, and that they're normal. Once we start talking about things like this, the more we learn as a community what's harmless and normal. We learn about what pushes past the boundaries of what's simply uncomfortable to talk about and what actually starts veering into the territory of dangerous behavior or thoughts. It's also incredibly alienating to experience these feelings, not knowing that others are experiencing them as well, and worrying that you're dangerous or messed up. It's okay to experience these thoughts. It's not okay to act on these thoughts. Once we begin acknowledging their existence, we can delineate when they're going too far, instead of simply pretending they don't exist in the first place.