Bonsai Kitten

Bonsai Kitten (bonsaikitten.com) is a website created by a graduate student at MIT in 2000, which claims that kittens can be sealed into small containers and kept as elaborate ornaments rather than pets. It is a well-made hoax, an elaborate joke#Dead body jokes. The site is in part a parody of the Japanese art of bonsai, but also resembles the mythical practice of comprachicos (in which the subjects are Human).

The site appears to have fooled a number of people, who fell for the hoax and believed that the website was both advocating and engaging in animal cruelty. Some went as far as to complain to animal welfare organisations about the site and to set up online petitions to have the site banned. Others, while aware that the site is a hoax, believe that the site will induce children and mentally unbalanced adults to attempt to create a bonsai kitten, and thus should still be banned. Due to activists protests several web hosting services have either refused to host Bonsai Kitten or its mirror sites. However, the attempts to ban the site are ultimately futile as there are other hosting services which consider free speech being more important than political correctness [http://www.cruel.com/sub/bonsai.shtml]. Bonsai Kitten is currently hosted by e.g. rotten.com [http://www.rotten.com] (Viewer discretion warning).

The site was investigated by the FBI in February of 2001, and MIT was served with a Grand Jury subpoena, asking for any and all subscriber information of the website. Apparently FBI has quietly dropped the case, as the site is still alive and running [http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41733,00.html].

= External links=

*[http://www.bonsaikitten.com/ The Bonsai Kitten homepage] *[http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Mythology_and_Folklore/Folklore/Urban_Legends/Bonsai_Kitten/ Yahoo Directory Urban Legends > Bonsai Kitten] *[http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/bonsai.asp Bonsai Kittens: A web site provides information and equipment for making bonsai kittens. ] (Snopes.com) *[http://www.cruel.com/sub/bonsai.shtml Happiness is a Rectilinear Kitten] *[http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41733,00.html FBI Goes After Bonsaikitten.com] (Wired News) *[http://www.rotten.com Rotten.com] (Viewer discretion warning)