I grew up with a ton of cartoons and became a furry early on in life. Watched stuff like The Rescuers, Robin Hood, A Bugs Life, Antz, Aristocats, Balto, Brother Bear, Pokemon, Digimon, Hamtaro, just to name a few.
I mostly kept being a furry it to myself though, I didn't even know what a furry was but I loved to imagine myself as a cartoon animal in my head. Imagining myself being in those worlds, being a hamaster in hamtaro, being a cat in Aristocats, being a Pokemon in Pokemon. It never got sexual until I was exposed to furry porn.
I saw it as role playing for fun, me and my friends and cousins used to do that all the time. I remember being first exposed to furry porn when I saw a page of a comic when I searched pokemon on google images. I'd like to think it's possible to be furry and not have it be sexualized because it wasn't for me until that point.
Even now as a Christian, I still consider myself a furry but back to the way I was before falling into the NSFW part of the fandom. I don't have a fursona, I don't wear a fursuit, I just love anthro furry art, characters and worlds. I have high functioning autism so that probably plays a big part in me finding these worlds fun to be in and imagine myself in. The damage furry porn did is still done but I can safely say that part of my life is behind me thanks to God.
I will say though that nowadays I can definitely see the sexual implication and sexualization of furry and anthro shows and movies and whatnot. They're definitely trying to turn kids into furry porn addicts now, it seems to be mainly the female character designs that get this treatment. I have no doubt that if I had grown up with the furry stuff now I would have gone to furry porn rather than it coming to me.