• Wow, I remember these kids. Crazy stuff.

• Man I remember growing up in SA (still live here actually) and the city had it's own Latin/Country/Mexican vibe to it. Around 2000 or so it seems like everyone just wanted to become a Clear Channel "gangsta" or a Hot Topic reject.

• You're so right! Hot Topic isn't goth at all. Real Goths don't wear chains or vinyl or makeup. Real Goths wear bulky armor of fine animal furs and bronze plate metal mined from their Germanic homelands as they burned Rome to the ground. We're talking about the Visigoths, right?

• Ok. Can I still laugh at them?

• I couldn't believe how calm and open minded that boy's mother was (I thought it was pretty awesome or her actually) The kids according to everyone around them are good kids. And if you read into the dog's head story it's pretty much a witch-hunt on a girl who's strange. I think it's getting harder to be unique, every style will be impacted by previous styles because there's only so much you can do to be shocking now. Chains (i.e. Hot Topic) want to profit from trends, until it becomes mainstream... It's just social evolution and they're probably better off than the future 17yr old cheerleader moms with no idea who owes them child support.

• your 15... what are you talking about?

• when did teenagers start having all these crazy crazy hormone changes which seem to rival the power of depression/bipolar? the word teenage hasnt even been around for 100 years... sure everything is "the most" but so is the first day of school for a child, the first day of work. when you have nothing to compare it to, of course its going to be "the most" you've ever experienced. i'm young, and i still have a tendancy to run around in a pikachu outfit in the middle of the city, but i do it for lols. I don't dress up in bright colours then moan about people looking at me. to be honest, i want to say more about how we treat kids these days, but i just can't find the words to describe how we coddle our little ones into being bags of emotional stress who never really grow out of their feelings.

• huh... i was a teenage kid in high school... didn't realise that had become so old school. im an aussie and we've picked up some of the more crazy american trends but i swear to god, if i start seeing werewolf children i will pack up and move to canada. or new zealand. I remember when vampires and werewolves were SCARY.

• Yeah, I wished I had superpowers when I was a kid. Did I show up at school dressed like goddamned Spider-man? No. I certainly frigging didnt. I dressed like a normal (geeky) kid, and kept the ridicule to a minimum. you want to talk about embarrassment? maybe they shouldnt draw so much attention to themselves if they want to be left alone. I didn't hide my nerdy proclivities, but I also didnt shout it from the rooftops. As ive said on other articles here on the site, it's all about balance.

• they wont be bothering anyone for long, if thats the case. The Creature could breathe underwater, so I imagine they'll try.

• OMG I saw that exact energy vampire news story back in the day!

• I am actually more surprised how positive this story was and how it's overall theme was like look at these kids- boy are they strange, but they're alright. It just seems very odd for a news channel to view anything like kids dressing up weird and hanging out at the mall in a positive light. time must have changed.

• Is that like Vampire Weekend?

• Sorry, gotta keep ranting here. So... Gangs who kill people and shit are posers, but the douchebags pretending to be werewolves arent...? Okay, that makes sense. And I love how that one girl is like "We go to each other for our problems." You could do that with these things called "Real Friends" and you wouldnt even need the outfits that look like a Hot Topic raped you.

• Oh its not emo and its not goth. Good to know. Cause wearing a fucking tail is definitely better than being a damn goth! Also good to know that the reporter is hip enough to know those words. It was a phresh to deth report on lycans too.

• Sad. They're not even worth a single silver bullet to the heart. Even Van Helsing wouldn't bother hunting them down.

• Hmm... Interesting, in that "Cool but what ON EARTH are they smoking?" way...

• As someone who was a "real goth" for the longest time, who listened to Switchblade Symphony, Christian Death, Bahaus, Crux Shadows, old Bella Morte, read Poppy Z. Brite, and wore thrift shop clothes, I want to say: THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR THE LOVE OF GOD THANK YOU!! (And on a side note, that is why Abby the Pretend Goth on NCIS pisses me off.)

• I'm not a furry myself, but I have friends that are, so I can deal even if I don't agree. Still, I would pay money to see a fight between these werewolf people and the furries.

• "I know why Jesus Wept".

• No, no, no, no, no. If you can't actually change into a bloodthirsty best by the light of the full moon, you have no right to call yourself a werewolf. These people are a disgrace to all the Larry Talbots and David Kesslers of the world.

• Hot Topic is NOT NOT NOT NOT goth!!! - Goth was NEVER that look. It was only after Marilyn Manson's fans started emulating him that *they* declared that they were "goth" (they weren't) and that "goth" looked like that. - Goth, originally, looked no different than Allie Sheedy's character in "The Breakfast Club". No PVC, no vinyl, no chains, no harlequin makeup (just 'black shit' as they say in TBC), and no "vampire" or "werewolf" themed trinkets. - Goth was dark clothing (because the popular style at the time was dayglo colors), minor-key punk/alternative music, long hair (during a time when buzzcuts and big hair were all the rage for preps) and rejection of social "standards" (we wore thrift-shop clothes while the preps were all into their Jordache and Izod designer crap). - No goths existed after 1989. Anyone who claimed to be a goth after 1989 was either a poser who jumped on board after the subculture became popular (thus negating its very existence) or an original who just couldn't let go. - Once again, goth-- like hippie culture, mod culture, flapper culture, and original punk culture-- was a product of an *era*, not just the act of dressing up. If you weren't part of that generation, you're not goth (or hippie, or mod, or flapper, etc.) - Hot Topic is a poser palace. They sell crappy "punk" clothes that defy the very POINT of being alternative: Displaying your creativity. In the old days, we made our outfits. We didn't buy pre-ripped jeans or shirts that came with the safety pins in them already. We actually created artwork out of our clothes. - All Hot Topic is doing is taking the creativity out of a long-dead subculture, and peddling it to kids who have all the creativity of a cold bowl of oatmeal.

• Me too... but then, I think there's a big difference between punk/alternative/goth style of the late 70s to early 80s, and walking around in Hot Topic rip-offs of that style while adding fake dog tails to the mix and declaring yourself a "werewolf". - I feel the same way about these kids that I did about the "vampires" who co-opted punk/goth style and ran around drinking V8 and playing "Vampire the Masquerade" as if it were real to them. - Posers with no creativity. Come up with your own style, kids. Don't keep borrowing from the true (1st generation) hippies, punks, and goths who are all at least 36 years old right now. - I hate disco, but at least the disco generation came up with their own (ugly) style. Gen Y and later seem to be caught in a loop where they keep borrowing from punk, goth, and hippie styles. (But at least they're not borrowing from disco).

• No... But I wouldn't mind shaking that fellow's hand. - I'd wash afterward, though.

• I live in SA. OH MY GOD THESE PEOPLE LIVE IN THIS CITY! AAAUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!

• grow up

• I'm from 95' and not only am I doing fine, I hate these bastards as much as most of you.

• Don't forget to wave your fingers when you say MAAAAAGIC ...

• I hope someone is bullying these geeks. They deserve it.

• Having lived in the SA area (fredericksburg forthose who know the area) for several years I know that texas doesn't suck as much as some of you seem to think. SA is teeming with stuff to do. I had to move from WI to Texas in the middle of my freshman year of high school. You wanna talk about difficult adjustment I wasn't even accepted by the local nerds till I was a junior and helped them with world history. I graduated from the most communist school EVER I mean I would have thought Lennin and Marx were the principles! We had a VERY strict dress code and I could go on and on and on, but the bottom line is I survived and came out pretty normal but these kids are sad sad sad excuses for social outcasts I at least kept to myself and read RA Salvatore's entire catalog, most of stephen King's and was once stuffed in a trash can for trying to explain Hawkings to the varsity football team's center. Life in Texas is tough for a nerd but we can all agree that it aint easy anywhere, buÞ come the fuck on they aint making it any easier for themselves and surrounding nerds. At least they don't have a huge chance of procreating as inner pack love is most likely frowned upon by the alpha male

• "It's not emo, and it's not goth..." So when you pin a fake tail on an emo goth kid, they suddenly aren't an emo goth kid anymore... they're a "werewolf". Even though they're head to toe in Hot Topic clothing, wearing "scary" novelty contact lenses/fangs, and sporting sloppily applied heavy black eyeliner and lipstick? Those tails must be MAGIC.

• Good for them but this is so f*ckin' lame. Serioulsly the only cool Werewolf i know is Captain Hans Güsche from the "Hellsing" Mangas. Oh, well Kids...

• I laughed way too much. Also, I am pretty sure I've seen an emo girl wearing a tail before

• I know the arcade you're talking about. Yeah, it shut down last time I was there a few weeks ago. And yes, it was a haven some real nuts. Including a guy in his 40s who was often seen with a fake tail and cat ears. My friend knows the guy and I've spoken to him a few times. He's actually a nice fellow but I just want to grab him and scream "Grow up!" whenever I see him.

• Why are they wearing leashes and collars? That would seem to be something more associated with domestic dogs than wild wolves!

• According to some of the comments here they killed the neighbor's dog and kept its skull (I couldn't get through that entire abomination of a video)- so that goes beyond having some chemical imbalances making you join innocent, albeit stupid, fads and puts them in the mentally insane category. Killing someone's pet dog for your stupid werewolf fantasy =/= not cool.

• Teel dear.

• Agreed. Seem pretty harmless, better then having an actual gang that terrorizes others. Do what you want cuz a pirate is free...

• Awesome, now I no longer have any regrets about any geeky thing I've ever done. Like some nerd Jesus, these "werewolves" have become the ultimate social pariahs so that the rest of us can seem normal... and they let it be aired on TV.

• In the video, LOOK at how far apart the boy's mother is standing from him. That speaks volumes to me. (I'm not convinced by her words.) Teenagers do not get enough love and support from their families, so it is only natural for them to create a family of their own among their peers. They cling tightly to each other for social and emotional survival. The tails and the leashes are just uniforms to show the world that they are part of a group and not alone.

• So that was YOU in the soiled trenchcoat holding up a sign saying "God hates furry cosplayers"!

• just..shut the fuck up will ya?

• 100+ posts and not a mention of the dog killing whore Blackie? Sad.

• This whole post is a giant facepalm. No.

• Exactly my point Superfecta. A 'werewolf' that wound up going to Harvard. Lighten up guys.

• ironic, yet delightful, if a real werewolf decided to eat their faces

• This is great - it reminds me of a girl I knew back in the day. She maintained that she was 'related to Wolverine' and also 'a werewolf' (I'm not sure where on the geek continuum those things crossed). It took me a while to realize that on some level she actually believed both things; perhaps the best part of the story is that she went to Harvard, which must have been really pushing the boat out for diversity if they were trying to up the werewolf contingent.

• then you're one of the lucky ones

• ROTFLMAO! Ok...so was it really necessary to do a news story about this? I mean really... are you trying to get this crap to spread? We just finally got rid of the glampires( Love of vampires = necrophiliacs) now we are going to have to see these individuals slinking around the local mall and coffee houses, *sigh* ( wolfpackies = bestiality) so what will be next? The frankenstieners? The Godzillers? Can not wait for the next silly teen angst rage...they are amusing, but they will also be running our country some day.

• If I may share my own personal story about the rage this caused me: I posted this video (via an article from Gamma Squad) on Facebook, and I ranted and raved appropriately. Or so I thought. I got called out my deserved hatred of these... let's call them "beings"... when I was reminded that Twilight (obviously the cause of this trend) is my friend Melissa's favorite book. Melissa died in 2008. I felt like crap, but I still hate Twilight. I will continue to do so, but every time I rage like this, it'll kill me just a bit because I know that it was so dear to my good friend. "Bittersweet" hardly begins to describe it.

• wow..judgmental much? I would love to see the high school pictures of all of you stellar examples of mankind. how many of you sported the ridiculous multitude of "popped collars" or walked around one-handed because the other was needed to hold up your pants? No doubt some of you are sitting there in your plaid walking shorts, brown knee-high nylon socks and Birkenstock sandals. Want to crack on something appalling? Check your mirror as you're rushing out to the grocery store sometime. Now young "Dexter" with the neighbor's dog's head is another matter entirely...

• WHAT THE FUCK???

• WHAT THE FUCK???

• I remember a year or so ago I was watching the local news do a story on vampires in the city. The people were absolutely serious, claiming to be "Energy Vampires who drank the good vibes off of people around them" They interviewed a couple where the mundane husband said he had always been hyper but since moving in with his vampiric girlfriend, finds himself more calm. The point is that this woman claimed they had legitimate status as vampires and it was not to get attention or anything as silly as that. Then she went on to talk about how she had changed her name to "Ravenblood Moongoddess" BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT VAMPIRE NAMES ARE SUPPOSED TO SOUND LIKE.

• You guys better not make fun of them, or Wolfie Blackheart will cut your dog's head off, too...

• Everyone is someone else's furry.

• I think you need to re-award the "nerd embarassment" award to all of these kids. I'm ashamed just knowing that these idiots are breathing air that I could be using.

• see now why arent we all dressing up like wampas and ewoks gathering in malls

• no actually, that sounds better, considering how awesome michael was in "Underworld: Evolution" and how sucky the doggies were in twilight. :3

• It puts me in mind of all of the women who like to call themselves "Cat" despite the fact that they are about as far from the slim, supple ideal of felinity as one can get. Why was it always the fat, dumpy chicks who wanted that nickname? They weren't even named Catherine so there was really no excuse. They just wanted, no, NEEDED that little fantasy to feel special and beautiful. These kids aren't much different; they're just taking on a slightly darker fantasy because they want, they need to feel special and powerful.

• meh. teenagers are impressionable, anyways. no surprise that some of the things they did would be moronic by adult standards. i mean, hey, i was a NERD in my teens, and STILL proud of it today! if not, i wouldn't frequent this place, now wouldn't i? and now, for my shakira impersonation. ahem. "There's a she wolf in your closet/Awooooo/Open up and set her free" -belly dance hip shakes-

• Woah, woah woah. I recognize that I have a lot of patience for teenagers and that I cannot necessarily expect that trait from others. Having said that, please keep in mind that teenagers with functional hormone levels face high levels of disconnect between the reality they find themselves in and the reality of their neurochemical makeup. Everything in their bodies and minds is telling them that each and every day is a desperate fight. Every boy or girl they like is "the most" physically attractive. Every slight embarrassment is "the most" mortifying. Every wound is "the most" scarring... because their physiological and chemical reactions to these events are disproportionate. If you had everything in your being telling you something, you'd be hard pressed to ignore it, too. In addition, sandwiched between being able to own their adulthood and being able to be excused for being children, teenagers are desperately searching for meaning. I agree with this kid's mom. If this is the worst thing he does in high school, she is blessed. Did anyone notice that these kids seemed slightly more mentally at peace with their situation? And who are we to say whether a person's normal animal affinities might actually define a part of who their soul is. To me, this is way less embarrassing than the otaku in my Eastern Civ classes by far. Anyone reading this site is likely to have, at one time or another, desperately wished or even begun to think that some part of the world was magical. And these kids look rather fey and THEY LIVE IN TEXAS. I'd want to escape too. For shame, TR nerds. For shame.

• I went through that phase around age 12, though thankfully it was only a mental thing, no tails or goth stuff or any of that crap. Now I wonder what the fuck I was thinking.

• The strike tag doesn't work. Arse.

• HELLO MY NAME IS TWILIGHT AND I AM A <S>VAMPIRE</S> WEREWOLF.

• I'm going to prescribe a copy of Whitley Streiber's "The Wolfen" to be shoved down the collective throat of this pathetic subculture. If the symptoms should continue or worsen I suggest a rock salt loaded shotgun blast at close range.

• I have to note, it must have been a really slow news day for this to constitute as 'news.'

• They're like crappy emo kids with a hint of furry. Ugh. It's even nice looking fashion. Like most emos, they still fashion queues from the older and more well defined goth and punk movements. Plays that add on wolf ears that looks like rejects from an anime con. Not that I'm hating on all the anime con cat ear wearing fangirls, as I went out with a girl who did it for a con and she wasn't bad about it at all. Yet to do this so blindly without a fashion sense every day annoys the hell out of me. Ironically wearing Three Wolf Moon shirts are infinitely cooler than anything here. There have been people long before these idiots who are into wolves and did something neat with clothing. Hell, I got a small silver wolf pendant myself. Yet this is just a fashion and social train wreck.

• Sigh That was physically painful to watch but I made myself sit through the whole thing. I'm a fan of the werewolf genre in books and film, and this whole thing is really just...blech. I get they want to be individuals and this is their way to feel that way, but they still look like idiots. As most teenagers do.

• At first I thought they were harmless. Aww, it's just stupid high schoolers trying to find a group they fit into and that they can derive their identity from. It's a unique example of a normal process. But then they said their 'alpha male' was found with the skull of a neighbors dog! WTF? Where did that come from? WTF happened?

• I just use the word ned, but then that's more of a Scottish thing.

• So being a werewolf is the new thing? Man, when I was in high school they would have been "Wiccans" and ran about with pentagrams and books by Silver Ravenwolf. Actually, that's a little less insane than this, because at least Wiccans still believe they're human (most of the time). Still it's just goth kids being goth kids-nothing has really changed, just the title of what they deem themselves to be and the accessories (furry tails instead of "magic" crystals). It does seem that fads are getting even more ridiculous as time goes on-at least Wicca could still be a reasonable belief system (it's better than Scientology) but thinking you're part canine is pretty ludicrous. As someone who went through the "I'm all dark and goffic" phase, I find myself wanting to punch every one of those kids because I know how fucking stupid it all is.

• Damn, *sigh* damn. I know I've said this before but I think this, THIS, is the reason why the world hates the US. Goddamn, I hope Twiglight goes to he'll, it goes to he'll and it dies!!!

• My wife just watched this video... we are now aware of the furgoths.... Actualy that doesnt sound like a half bad band name....

• What a pretty young lady. Oh . . . err . . . that's a boy?????

• i was born in 93. i seem to be doing alright.

• Pretty much this.

• roflmao

• dude. Twilight called. They want their lameness back.

• To those defending these wastes of skin. There is a line between "nerd" and "sad". I play videogames, but I don't dress like Tidus and go around bothering strangers about "how awesome FF X is". I read comic books, but I don't think I 'm from Krypton and blather about what each color of Kryptonite does. I watch anime, but I don't pretend to speak Japanese or try to kill people by writing down their names. Going out in public dressed like an animal and telling everyone you turn into a wolf is just sad. So very, very sad.

• Like all silly fads ignore it and it goes away. However I did have a laugh at the kid wo said "we aren't trying to intimidate anyone or anything" lol the last thing those bony geeks do is intimidate anyone.

• Yikes.

• The station did make a report of the dog skull found in the kid's possession. This is the second report of these guys. My mom works at the second school mentioned and said they just do their own thing.

• I should be embarassed and threatened by these people who have nothing to do with me, why?

• I think the notion that we, as nerds, are inherently (or ought to be) nonjudgmental is fallacious. Nerds, generally defined, are some of the most contentious and argumentative people there are demonstrable by our willingness to take and defend polarizing aesthetic (and sometimes moral) positions about our particular areas of interest to the hostile exclusion of positions and groupings with which/whom we disagree. I liken this to survival by intrepid settlers in wild and hostile environments--societally speaking in this case. We're on shaky ground in danger of alienation (starvation, exposure, etc.) and we're ever wary of our fellow nerd settlers squandering carefully accrued cultural capital and acceptance (resources) thereby bringing the entire community down by proxy. The fact of the matter is that nerddom is a continuum stretching from the most casual, almost indiscernible fan of Star Wars or Batman to our splendid catalog of FFF writers with everything in between. Everyone draws his/her own line on that continuum somewhere, and I don't blame anyone who says these kids are "over the line" because they've crossed mine too.

• and I guess my last post didn't like my sarcasm tags .. sigh ...

• <sarcasm> What self-respecting wolf would allow themselves to be tethered to a leash, let alone their own leash. Kids, please for the love of God, if you want to be werewolves, go play the White Wolf game. </sarcasm>

• I'm not sure which part of your post depresses me more; the actual story or the fact that another Marvel vs Capcom 2 cabinet was lost to the nether.

• The friggin news story didn't even bring more attention to the dog skull! I don't care what some lonely teens do in their free time, what about the possibility of a sociopathic wolfkid killing dogs!

• these kids are totally into Michael J. Fox...

• Oh dear lord no. GET THESE KIDS TO PSYCHIATRISTS NOW WHILE THEY STILL HAVE A CHANCE AT BEING PRODUCTIVE MEMBERS OF SOCIETY

• i too am i resisdent here in SA..i saw this when it originally aired and im just as embarrassed then as i am now..and James up there that made the Texas comment..fuck you sir fuck you right in the ear

• i live in san antonio. and have much shame for this... jack daniels your my only friend

• DAYKITTEN. WOLFRAM. LUPUS. WHAT?

• Funny, I still don't hate these kids as much as I hate local news broadcasts. Yes, KENS Live at 5, it was probably FUCKING VAN HELSING (or Twilight, maybe), but probably this lazy B-ROLL OF FUCKING VAN HELSING that caused a fire sale on tails at Hot Topic.

• I'm just glad they were so reassuring as to not being threatening to anyone. Otherwise I might be too scared to go out at night if there's a full moon. Sad. And lame. Why can't they all grow a pair and play D&D in the basement like normal kids?

• HAHAHA! "We're not to be feared" Oh my god, I was a bit goth myself, but if anyone tried wearing a fake tail, they would have been eviscerated. Of course, the same would apply if they were hanging out at the mall... there was nothing to do in Tucson for teenagers either, but no matter how lame we may have been, we could always look down on the kids who hung out at the mall.

• i needa go out and buy a few bats >.>

• How has nobody commented on the crazy chick who cut her neighbor's dog's head off and boiled it? That was by far way worse than a couple of misguided youths playing dress-up.

• I don't deny being a punk during the 80's and 90's. It's something I'm proud of to this day.

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