I think there’s several sub-groups, tbh.
There’s those that think furries are sexy, and prefer to parade around naked for the most part. Those are the types that disturb people, I think. The loud minority.
The ERP crowd, probably what comes to minds of most-non furries when they think of the term. And all the dark stuff that comes with that.
And then there’s those that think it’s neat to play an animal character, and get nothing sexual out of it.
Not any different from people that play elves, and some that do have body pillows of their favorite elf, while the rest just think elves are neat.
The sexual stuff is what weirds people out, not just being an animal-person.
They just don’t wanna be sniffed at or anything like that, ahah.