A few years ago, I made the mistake of mentioning “bonsai kitty” in a comment on one of my Clipart Caption Contest posts. Since then, I’ve received quite a few angry comments from what are obviously angsty teenagers in search of a cause to be passionate about. David Gagne has apparently had the same problem. My sympathies, David.
OMG, pplz. Uz3 ur br41N! RTFSnopes!
This post is designed to grab the traffic that is, for some reason, making its way to the other post.
Some info on Bonsai Kitten, from Snopes:
Bonsai kittens are not real. Nobody is making bonsai kittens. Nobody is selling equipment to help people make bonsai kittens. Nobody is instructing people in the “lost Eastern art of sealing Meow! kittens inside rectilinear jars.”
The Bonsai Kitten web site is a joke, not an actual promotion for the making of bonsai kittens. Investigations by law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have already determined no real cats were harmed in the creation of the pictures used on the Bonsai Kitten web site. Signing a petition to shut down the Bonsai Kitten web site will not prevent any kittens from being harmed, because no kittens were harmed in the first place.
It was all a joke, one which some say was in terribly poor taste. If that was your reaction, take comfort in the knowledge that many others thought the same.
How could you have known the Bonsai Kitten site was a satire despite its lack of “This is a joke!” banners emblazoned across it? Satire doesn’t always announce itself as such (some feel that would ruin its humor), so in cases like this, one dusts off the common sense and aims it at the problem:
- The process described is impossible: animals so treated would die long before they could be “molded.”
- The web site offers no way to purchase the materials advertised. A real commercial enterprise wouldn’t build consumer interest through a flashy web site then fail to offer anything for sale. (The site does include a page of “Helpful Tools & Supplies” but provides no form through which they can be ordered.)
- The “Bonsai Kitten” site displays no actual pictures of the finished product. There are plenty of pictures of kittens in jars which can comfortably accommodate them (cats are quite elastic and can fit into very small spaces without discomfort), but there are no photographs of molded kittens on display.
The cruel.com web site offers an article entitled “Happiness is a Rectilinear Kitten,” their comprehensive history of the furor and media coverage generated by the Bonsai Kitten web site throughout its first year of existence.
One more time: Bonsai Kitten is a hoax. There is no such thing. It’s not really that cruel or sick if you realize that the main point of the gag is to see how upset people will get over something that is obviously not real.
PETA, though, has a very teen-angsty statement on the Bonsai Kitten hoax in which they bemoan the First Amendment, which, OMG, apparently protects other people’s right to free speech even if it’s, like, icky.
PETA also has a grossly offensive campaign that compares animal captivity to human enslavement. The Flash slideshow on Animal Liberation (with audio) claims to “illustrate the connection between the oppression of humans and that of animals. It is a call for justice and compassion for all beings.” It’s more like a rude appropriation of heroes like Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi for PETA’s sometimes wacko agendas. I’m no fan of cruelty to animals, but I don’t think PETA is justified in saying that human oppression is on par with animal captivity. Free speech truly goes both ways.
