The furry phenomenon got really crazy and out of hand with my generation, and I feel I know why (of course this is just my opinion); my generation, since we were babies/toddlers, were shown movies or shows that had anthropomorphic characters - a lot of these shows also had hidden sexual symbolism, like Freud-level shit.

I remember from my childhood, when I was in pre-school, the two most popular shows that all my friends were watching, and my parents would have my brother and I watch when they were busy/doing something/cooking etc, was Little Bunny FooFoo and Barney. There came a point in time where my father was watching Little Bunny FooFoo with my brother and I (this show was the worst offender when it came to sexual degeneracy hidden in plain sight that adults noticed with ease, but slipped into our undeveloped mind's subconscious), and I remember for some reason he got so upset and turned it off instantly and threw out the VHS tape and said "we're done with Little Bunny FooFoo" (I was probably 4 or 5 at this time). When I got older, it came up in conversation one time when my brother and I were discussing our childhood, and my parents went in on those shows and told us they were disgusting and would have never guessed what was in that show, for kids. My dad told us there were phallic shaped carrots, and things in the background, that literally looked like a dick and balls. And there was one scene I remember so vividly, where the kids went to "Candy Mountain" with Bunny Foofoo, and the flowers released "the sweetest flavored juice" into the rivers and lakes, and candy grew there naturally like vegetables (as a kid, I remember wanting to go there so bad. I had dreams of "Candy Mountain" literally, when I fell asleep). The flowers that produced the juice that flowed into Candy Mountain's rivers, were shaped exactly like Vulvas.

Beyond this, we also had Disney pumping out things like the Lion King, Bambi, 101 Dalmatians, etc, which were all shows that gave animals intense human traits and stories. Basically, for my generation, every kids show had animals that behaved like humans. I was a big Sonic the Hedgehog fan when I was this age, because we were a Sega household, and Sonic was my Mario. Thankfully, I never had access to the comics or side-stories, even though I remember searching the internet for them on AOL on our first computer, and trying to access the Archie Comics site to read them, but couldn't.

The comics explain my generation's weird furry-obsession with Sonic too, like Chris Chan for example. They sexualized the female animal characters, especially one in particular "Sally Acorn", who wasn't apart of the game's story-line at all, and in the comics and side-story, was Sonic's love-interest.

I just saw this video on that the other day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkMnmNeCszs (Watch this video, it'll explain a lot).

Basically, my generation growing up, starting from babies/toddlers, were shown anthropomorphic characters as the main and only characters of movies, shows, series, educational videos, etc, and even sexualized these characters and gave them "love interests". I truly believe this is responsible for why furry degeneracy is such a big thing among my generation; in the Sally Acorn video I just linked to, many people admit in that video they knew they were furries and attracted to anthropomorphic characters at a young age, after being introduced to Sally Acorn.

Prior generations also had anthropomorphic characters in cartoons like Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, etc - but they weren't portrayed in the same way as the films and shows that came out during my childhood were. Those shows were ridiculous, over-the-top, and unrealistic - they were fun and funny for kids and adults to watch. But the shows that came out for my generation, showed animals in a completely different light than say Bugs Bunny, with serious love interests in episodes, acting like real humans, even kissing or falling in love like real humans. And unlike Bugs Bunny where each episode was a new, fun short, filled with chaos and funny moments, these shows ran like seasons, with each episode building on-top of each other, fleshing out the humanity behind the animal character way past the point of traditional cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny.