bonsai kittens

Greetings all,
i was a little disturbed with an email i just got. firstly it just seemed to be just another kind of chain mail, because it contained a story/plea and requested that you send it on to everyone you know, and when 500 names are on the list, you send it back to one of the originators. it claims to be a petition of some kind, that is being gathered to try shut down a site, but i can't see how an electronic petition would stand up in court because everyones names could be forged. i was just wondering if anyone else here has come across the site http://www.bonsaikitten.com or has gotten the mail? i don't know what to make of it, whether it is a hoax or for real. if it is for real, are there not animal cruelty laws to prevent people from doing this? below is an extract from the mail.

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We need to work together on this.
WE succeeded in closing down this webpage about a year
ago
but now it's back again. WE WANT TO CLOSE IT AGAIN.
A Japanese person in New York breeds and sells cats,
called Bonsai cats.
Sounds harmless enough, except that these cats are
given a
muscle-relaxant and put LIVE into a bottle where they
spend the rest of
their lives! The cats are fed through a tube and
waste matter is removed via another tube. The bone
structure of the cat
forms in the shape of the container.
The cats are sold as original, exclusive ornaments.
This brutality ist
the
latest fashion in New York, China and Indonesia.
If you can bear it (the pictures are horrific) you can
see the details at the following webpage:


http://www.bonsaikitten.com/bkmethod.html
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The Protest list must have 500 names[snip<...

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i'm going to wait for some feedback before i go spreading more potential junk mail.

thanks.

I have seen this site before i got told it was a joke ? any one got any confirmation on that ? if not its sick as **** and who in there right minds would want a kitten in a bottle ?

From Snopes.com,

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"Bonsai Kitten" is a site that purports to be "dedicated to preserving the long lost [Oriental] art of body modification in housepets" (by raising them inside jars so that they remain small even when mature and their bodies take on the contours of the vessel used). It's actually a bit of fictional humor put up just before the end of the year 2000 by some MIT grad students to satirize "the human belief of nature as commodity " and to "punish the hypocritical and easily offended by upsetting them, and to amuse those who understand ."

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haha, I have known about that site for about 2 years now and think it is absolutely hilarious to see all these people get up in arms over a little tongue in cheek satire. I give the makers of the site two big thumbs up, and all the crazed PETA people a big old thumbs down with a rasberry for not being able to see humor when it's right in their faces.

thanks for reminding me about that site :)




El Diablo

The domain name is listed at OpenSRS as being owned by someone with "Dr." in front of his name. Seems that if it is a sick joke, it's a very sick joke. History says some orientals had a custom of wrapping their feet, supposedly to keep them small, and some remote tribes seem to wrap their heads to give them a long shape or something, but i've never heard of putting little animals in some restrictive container to stunt/control their growth. I was going to paste the registration of the domain so you could see it, however the TuCows agreement on lookup prohibits that.
Anyway, if it is a joke i for one am not amused. And if it's for real perhaps someone could think of a way to put the perpetrators in a bottle so they could evaluate and improve their process with a more personal touch. Today a cat, tomorrow a dog, next week a kid....

Urban Legend Zeitgeist says the same thing... Its a hoax...

http://www.tafkac.org/ulz/bonsai.html

Wired said that the doctor name is an alias.

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41733,00.html

Speaking of PETA, environmental wackos, and others of that ilk......

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FORTUNA, Calif. (AP) -- An activist was struck in the head and killed by a falling tree Thursday afternoon while trying to block the logging of ancient redwoods on Pacific Lumber Co. land, Earth First! said.

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I heard about this a few years ago. Although I don't think people getting killed is funny....you have to admit it has a certain comical irony.

The article is here

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The best results that we have observed have been achieved by replacing 5% of the kitten's diet with 100 micron powdered iron for two days, and then using a strong magnet to reposition the kitten from outside the vessel. With this technique the realignment of the rectal diverticulum with the waste hole should be achievable with no difficulty at all.

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My goodness these guys have gone through a lot of effort. Read the guest book, it is almost more bizarre than the rest of the site. The only thing I have to say is DRUGS, lots and lots of DRUGS..., were needed for them to create something like this. Only someone high as a kite sitting infront of a bonzai tree with their kitten would go "jeeze I should make a site called Bonzai Kittie and screw with PETA's head."

This almost goes beyond a hoax into a kind of cross between conceptual art and shock art. Think of it, instructions to make something that is impossible to execute in the real world (through legal constraints, ethical issues, and simple biological restriction (anyone that uses the phrase "rectal diverticulum" is full of ...). Not only that but because of the ethical issues surrounding the humain treatment of animals, there was no way that the creator of the site would not think that he was going to get a lot of negative responses to his site.

People believe almost anything they read online..., for all they know that site could have been made by a 13 year-old pot-head in a graphic arts class. I mean think about it..., there is no way for a kitten to become a dodecahedron..., sure you may be able to mold bones to a certain extent (just look at pictures of women that had lived their lives in corsets, their rib cages are all scewy).

Sheesh, they should change the URL to www.gullible.com, if you believe in spherical kittens, I've got a nice collection of victorian sporks that were once owned by Louis XIV that I would be willing to sell, (just give me some time to go to the nearest TacoBell to pick them up... :p )

Jeeze,
Dhej

lol, people never learn, this is the equivilent of lyrics written by NOFX, TOOL (if youv ever read any of these lyrics im naming you know what i mean, they seem really seriouse sometimes and there totally pranks on people) Cannibal Corpse, The Ramones (hehe how many people were offended to hear beat on the brat with a baseball bat and took it seriously) Marilyn Manson (i think people are actually realizing some of the stuff he did was just to make em Mad) Eminem (thats an easy guess, he does this daily) but all in all, pranks are funny, especially when people honestly think there true like this, those of us that understand just sit back and laugh at the protesters marching against the Parents whO hit There kids foundation or something lol.

Haha finally a thread about Bonsai Kittens. Anyone who can't tell this is a joke should put their hockey helmet back on and return to banging their head against the wall and drooling.....

Thanks again Mahakaal, CXGJarrod, everyone.
i guess its old news. for the record i noted this on the second line in the sales page. you know it is a hoax, but there is so much there that you just wonder why would someone write all this. then again, "Dr. Michael Wong Chang" owns his very own urban legend. :)

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Originally posted here by mathgirl32
Speaking of PETA, environmental wackos, and others of that ilk......



I heard about this a few years ago. Although I don't think people getting killed is funny....you have to admit it has a certain comical irony.

The article is here

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as an active member of peta, now, and much smaller various organizations, i believe that it is unfair for you to openly point out **** like that. That person was doing what he/she believed in and that should be good enough for you. If you were in the military, and died for your country, wouldnt your family be proud of you for being a martyr? Not even family, but people in general. Well we open minded and caring people are proud of martyr's like that person, standing up for what they believe in. IMO this is not a laughing or sarcastic matter. If a hick shoots him/her self while out skeet shooting, would you make a post saying it was funny? Possibly. But wrong if you did. Im not trying to be cynical here im just pointing out that i do not appreciate that discourse.

er0k, this is my opinion. It is not stated as a fact. It's just not personal. I love plants and animals, alike. I just have a problem with the few extremists who, for example, put animal rights above human rights. I'm just crazy that way. ;)

I don't think it is "unfair" of me to "openly point out" an event that has already been publicized by the media.

I did say I didn't think it was funny when people got killed.

Technically, it is ironic.
dictionary.com:

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Poignantly contrary to what was expected or intended:

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It's okay to have different opinions.

well here in the ME we don't have that much of animals right nor Human rights, sadly !
but i c it's not humanity to do such thing with a cat, this guy should be crazy for sure.

and i don't believe that if he was in war it would make him do what he is doing, nothing gives us human the rights to interfear to another creatures in the planet.

when i saw the pics of that AH, i was like .. wtf he is do'n ... this is a beast act not a human. !

* excuse my english lang.

www.rotten.com is behind bonsai kitten..

http://www.rotten.com/legal/desist-rspca.html

I just think its frekkin funny... was outraged at first untill a friend told me it was a hoax, then i could laugh... :D

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Originally posted here by mathgirl32
er0k, this is my opinion. I just have a problem with the few extremists who, for example, put animal rights above human rights. I'm just crazy that way. ;) ...

...I don't think it is "unfair" of me to "openly point out" an event that has already been publicized by the media....

...It's okay to have different opinions.

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People who value animals more than humans....are...well...silly. BUT that does not justify violating animal rights. Yes I do believe animals have rights :D And yes it's okay to have to have different opinions.

Threads about war with Iraq tend to die a quick death unless I'm there :p.

lol, ya know, i understand animal rights people a bit, but there are some giving you a horrid name, iv heard of people being beaten for not getting there dog a golden house (ok im pumping up the sarcasm a bit but you get the idea) you people would really be pissed at some of the movies i own (as my name implies im into horror/gore movies) and some of the cannibalistic movies i own have footage of natives grabbing animals and tearing them open and eating them, some of them are actually real, like, there wasnt any special effects at all in the scenes, the people actually killed the animals. the directors have been yelled at about it by animal rights people and one of them pretty much said "yea well they wouldv eaten the thing anyway i just filmed it", me personally, i try finding good things about stuff, like animal rights activists, its cool they stand up for animals, thats good, but also, if i got attacked by an animal and killed it some of them dont see the "hey look its trying to eat me" as a reason to kill it and thats annoying. And, sorry, but i love the taste of some animals, lol, not being mean or a wang about it but no matter what you eat, it was once a living thing, so unless you starve to death, your killing innocent lives to. (vegetables are plants, plants are living things too and no ones ever proven if they feel pain, chips come from potatoes, theyr plants too).

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Originally posted here by Mahakaal


People who value animals more than humans....are...well...silly. BUT that does not justify violating animal rights. Yes I do believe animals have rights :D And yes it's okay to have to have different opinions.

Threads about war with Iraq tend to die a quick death unless I'm there :p.

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yeah well we peta'ites in general do not value human lives less than animals, rather equal to those of humyns. We do not have the right to ****ing own an animal, its just like owning a mute slave. You can lay the "O well we take good care of them and ****" slander down on me, i dont care. animals other than humyns have as much right to live whereever they want to just as much as we do. WE all came from the same place. A simple prokaryotic anerobic cell. Just because we were higher in the evolutionary patter, doesnt mean we have any rights to own animals. And yes i do eat meat, simply because its what ive always done, and frankly its good to eat. I just do not condone anthropocentrism, and never will. Eating cows and stuff is cool with me, but animals that we dont eat being owned by us for our mere amusement is ****. Respect mahakaal for i am not directing this towards your post, merely elaborating. Humyn lives are as valuable as any other animals. Without those other animals, there is no food chain. Without those animals, we wouldnt be humyns. We are all equal in right to existence, even though humyns are yes more intelligent.

thank you Makaal and mathgirl that is exactly what I have been saying to the plethora of PETA folks (and their apparent supporters) that have attacked me since my comments. Only one of them has been reasonable in our discussions but the others have sunk to cursing me out, threatening me (it's ok to threaten a human apparently) and other such assorted things.

As an aside to this I would like to comment to those folks and tell them that if you disagree with someone then the best way to persuade them to your cause is to talk to them rationally not to attack them and attempt to belittle them. I have disagreed with several folks on AO in the past but this is the first time I have been both cursed out and physically threatened with violence over my opinions.

In my eyes that site was a joke from the moment I went there. I thought it was humorous to see all of these people getting up in arms over something that is FICTIONAL and I commented about that. Oh well, just goes to show you the level of maturity of some folks I guess.

I eagerly await all of the internet tough guys that will soon be threatening me again for this post.



El Diablo

The pictures are fake......they simply put half the cat in in one pick, and then the other half in another, there are NO pictures with an entire cat inside a box that is to small to house it for some period of time...
True, no animal should be confinded in such boxes, but they arn't in any imediat pain or discomfort....I'v seen a cat go down a Golf hole, they can get into the most impossible places, and somehting like this, well, it's a sick sense of humor, I don't find if funny, but No charges have been filled, "No harm, No Foul"

Ugh...I hate people who hurt animals.....

- Noia

im really not an animal rights person, but there is a torture device that people buy with fish in them, its a 4 inch cube that has like 4 fish in them! they sell em at chain stores and stuff and say this tiny lil tooth pick sized thing is what you feed them each day...guys 4 fish need at least a 5 gallon aquarium depending on the fish you buy, i cant remember the website for it but i have actually seen this torture tanks in stores, the fish that come in these should have AT LEAST a 10 gallon aquarium, when i first bought my Piranhas they were the size of a quarter (i bought 3 red bellies) i had em in a ten gallon tank to start out, then i moved em up to a 55 gallon mansion after they got to be around 2 inches in size (like a month later, i kept them well fed and spoiled em) they never once tried attacking me and i had my arm all the way in the water for cleaning and stuff, now one thing is sure, these fish are very dangerouse, iv watched them bite through a rock with ease, but i was careful about it, i had NO CUTS on my hands and they were fed first and i made sure i had so scabs or dry blood (they smell blood easily, most people think thats because there evil fish, in actuallity its because in natur blood means an injured target that will be easier to catch) i also had a pleco in the tank (the bigger black things that suck on the side) he was in there with them from day one, i also put in a Red Devil (beautiful fish) he actually dominated the tank, he would attack the Piranhas and i had him hand trained, i would feed him by hand...i miss that fish he kicked ass, i would hold food and he would swim up and get it from me, he was doing fine in there untill h made the mistake of getting intoa fight with my biggest Piranha in the tank, Leviathin ripped off a part of his bottom jaw and almost killed him so i had to give him away to my aunt:( im thinking if i ever get another tank again, ill either get red bellie Piranhas, or a black Piranha, or Red devil. wow that was a long post... sorry guys, just miss my old pets.

Red belly Piranhas....my teacher has some, he feed's them like chicken and such...it's so cool...only problem is that they eat each other as well.

- Noia
Don't hurt your pet's, in the next life, you might be a Abused Pet your self.....