I also would like real data, but this article is very interesting.
It seems to me that like most subgenres aimed at young non-conforming adults, much of it is benign but it's extremely easy for non-benign people to exploit. So ok, say that most of the furry fandom is composed of autistic LGBTQ teenagers who haven't quite matured past the interest in cartoon animals, who enjoy producing and talking about art on old school sites like deviant art, who don't really "get" their peers, who feel marginalised and strange. These are exactly the types of people who are most vulnerable to an adult with ill intentions towards them. They then get exposed to increasingly sexualised images, and this becomes their sexual identity as well.
For what it's worth, as a young goth there was always older goths hanging around. At the time it seemed fair enough, now I think - creeps! See also, men who pretend to be trans women. It's not transwomen that pose a danger to women, it's men who infiltrate trans and women spaces in order to harm women that pose the real danger to both trans women and women. Anyway I think the link between furries and peadophiles is probably that the youth drawn to furry communities for innocent reasons are also the groups that are the easiest to infilitrate and exploit if you are a peadophile, not because liking cartoon animals makes you more likely to be a peadophile.