Media Watch Reviews Myth About Kids Identifying As Cats And Dogs In Schools, Again

Media Watch has again stepped in to help debunk a long standing myth about children identifying as animals in school classrooms.

The myth, which appears to have been circulating amongst news outlets and online forums for several years has again surfaced recently, this time on radio.

This time the claims were made on Sydney radio 2GB, causing a flurry of concerned callers and commenters.

Media Watch reviews claims of Furries in schools. 

ABC’s Media Watch has again stepped in this week to investigate claims by a guest on 2GB radio that children in schools were self identifying as animals, mainly cats and dogs.

The claims were made by Lucy Zelic, a women’s rights activist and former journalist when she was a guest as part of the “Straight Shooters” segment on the 2GB drive program with Clinton Maynard recently.

Zelic shared a version of a familiar story, claiming that another parent had told her of a student being allowed be a dog and identifying as a “furry” in the classroom of her catholic school and that other students were told to recognise her as such.

She followed this up with statements that similar events were happening in Queensland, stating that students were allowed to have a litter box in their classroom.

“It’s an absolute and utter embarrassment that we have a western society have allowed things like this to happen” she said, with the station later receiving a flurry of comments on social media from concerned parents.

An increasingly agitated Zelic recommended that parents “give them a smack and teach them some respect and not put on a damn collar and act like a dog in the classroom.”

Several days later 2GB invited callers to share their stories on air, with many making similar claims, all second hand accounts from others who claimed to have heard similar stories.

However the station did later mention that the Education Department, The Catholic Schools Association and the Independent School Association had all denied the claims being made were true.

Media Watch contacted 2GB following the segments with representatives who replying that “in response to significant lister and social media correspondence, the program made clear the claims were unverified.”

If the story sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

The same story has been circulating online for many years, quite often appearing in stories or comments that target the transgender community, with many using this as an argument against the trans identifying people.

In fact Media Watch had previously investigated a similar story as recently as in 2022, this story claimed that girls at an elite private school in Brisbane were being allowed to identify as cats, which was debunked by the program.

In Queensland as recently as February this year a Marsden State High teacher was accused of identifying and acting like a cat in her classroom, a story that went viral internationally.

However what went largely unreported was that the story was identified as not being true, however the teacher was still forced to leave her job.

In February 2025 the Queensland Teachers Union issued a statement confirming they were “exploring legal proceedings regarding false allegations against a member at Marsden State High School.”

“As official school investigations and records will show, widespread media coverage of alleged incidents and allegations are false and potentially defamatory.”

In February 2022 claims were made that a non verbal student at a Melbourne school was identifying as a cat, however these claims were never verified.

In January 2024 a Cairns high school as accused of installing a giant littler tray for their students who identified as cats, this was debunked and proved as false by AAP that same month.

In May 2021 Leisa Goddard told Sky News that she had evidence that students were identifying as cats in schools, although this was not provided nor were the schools identified.

The story about this is in fact so prevalent that a wikipedia page has been set up following the history of the unfounded hoax, which alleges it commenced in 2021.

Thus far there are no verified claims of these incidents taking place that have been confirmed by any news outlets that the Star Observer was able to locate.

You can view the full Media Watch segment below.