I know the title of the thread may sound like a james bond movie lol.
But I want to know if there are codes you use to let other people know you are into zoo (of course I´m talking about codes that only another zoophile would understand so in case someone that doesn´t like it sees/hears the message, it would pass unnoticed).
There were codes like those in the past, but I can't find any contemporary reference in todays internet.
For once, there was the zoo-code, adapted from the fur-code, which in itself was an adaption of the gay-code back in the day (and by that I mean over quarter of an century ago). You can still find references for the fur-code (for Furries, obviously) online, but I don't know what the zoo-code did differently from that. I doubt many people today remember it ever existed, most zoos aren't even aware of the
Z.E.T.A. principles after all. I also never bothered to learn it, because, personally, I always found the usage of codes silly and prefered to talk more openly with likeminded people online.
That said, the zoo-code was comprised of letters and numbers, it was just a (for outsiders) nonsensical string of characters and hyphens that encoded your preferences and orientation. Similarly how the fur-code encoded information about a furry's fursona, interests and kinks. Still, it's unlikely that you could tell others secretly that you are a zoo by providing this code, since, as I mentioned, other communities used similar codes and without knowing which code it was it couldn't properly be decyphered, so in the end you still had to tell someone you were a zoo in order to let them decipher the code.
A more common way to communicate that you are a zoophile would be wearing a zeta-pin. That's this symbol here:
This sign has been used by zoophiles for as long as I know them to identify themselves. Not only in Europe, but anywhere in the world, where people had access to the internet and found their way into zoo communities. Some people even made them as pendants for necklaces or as a pin for shirts so you may identify each other on conventions or everywhere else in real life. Some furries working on J. Michael Straczynski's show "Babylon 5" even sneakily snuck the symbol in to adorn some alien vessels in the show. But that's just an obscure reference.
Some zoophile interest groups still use it to this day:
Zeta Verein
The thing is, people are now aware of this symbol. Not only zoophiles of old, but also zoophile haters. So wearing it might not only tell likeminded people what you're into, so you may don't want to wear it in public after all.
The problem with secret symbols is always the same:
Either it's too obscure to be recognized by the uninitiated.
Or it's too well known to only be recognized by the inner circles.
Especially on youtube zoophile haters know this symbol quite well and keep a close watch on furries and their own audience to spot the zoos. But it's not only youtube, I wouldn't doubt quite some other online-witchhunter-circlejerks like Kiwifarms are well aware of the symbol and eager to hunt zoophiles down if they spot them. They did so before and will likely do so again.
Yet some people publicly still use the Zeta as identifier in social media. Especially on telegram you might run into them. Still, not a clever decision in this day and age. Still funny, that the Zeta as a symbol for zoophiles has survived to this day, while the Zeta movement has largely been forgotten.
So, there you have it. Indeed there were (and still are) secret codes, but they are not in widespread use anymore. Especially since Web 2.0 and social media have conditioned people to be way too open with their private lives. Who needs codes when people can just blurt all the details out?
