Posted on 05/01/2005 9:15:49 AM PDT by Utah Binger
Bonsai Kitten site brings animal-rights roar E-Briefing archive
For past E-Briefing columns, click here.
Rae French doesn't think the little kittens shown stuffed into jars on the Web site, Bonsai Kitten, are real. She doesn't believe there is such a thing as bonsai kittens, or even that the MIT graduate students behind the Web site meant to do anything but make a "sick joke." But as president of Hugs for Homeless Animals, she stands by the e-campaign to shut it down, and she's hoping the FBI will take action.
Yes, the FBI apparently is investigating the site that depicts kittens being stuffed into glass jars to create miniaturized cats. An office of the U.S. attorney in Boston has served a subpoena to MIT, which originally carried Bonsai Kitten on its Web servers; it's now on Rotten.com. The agent named in the subpoena could not be reached for comment. The assistant U.S. attorney who signed it also could not be reached, but she told Wired that she would not comment. An attorney representing MIT also declined to comment.
But those on both sides of the issue speculate that the FBI is looking into whether the site broke a 1999 federal law that makes the depiction of animal cruelty, with few exceptions, illegal.
Bonsai Kitten was erected a week before Christmas by MIT grad students to satirize "the human belief of nature as commodity," said one of the creators, "Dr. Michael Wong Chang," in an instant-message interview. (He would not give his real name.)
"The main aims were to punish the hypocritical and easily offended by upsetting them, and to amuse those who understand," he said. "Both of which have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."
The attention has turned the site into a Web phenomenon and a possible test case for the law. (Experts doubt that it can stand a legal challenge.)
French doesn't like the amused media attention the site has received, but she says her group is responsible for having 25 mirror sites carrying Bonsai Kitten shut down; animal-rights activists also spurred the FBI investigation, she says. "It's inappropriate material, and whether it is a joke or not, it's in extremely poor taste. But more importantly, it promotes animal abuse," she says. "That's our concern." The Humane Society also has denounced the site.
Chang, while pleased by the attention, also is baffled. "To be honest, we never expected the animal organizations to get involved at all," he says. "We thought they'd understand." Judging by the thousands of e-mails he has received, many think he's actually torturing kittens. " We thought that most people would not think it was real. We were very wrong."
He adds that he thinks the animal-rights activists are the ones who are wrong and has no intention of taking down the site. He's just hoping to stay out of jail.
Meek, where's our picture of the kitten in the jar? Is that what they're talking about?
Bonsai elephants would be a lot more impressive.
It's as harmless a way to learn about gullibility as any, I suppose.
BANZAI!
I put the kittens into Klein Bottles.
I guess she got tired of her old hobby, stuffing toothpaste back in the tube.
Here's a clue Frenchy, you can't make something on the internet go away, you can only call more attention to it.
I wouldn't want to be caught juggling these cats.
ok I give up ...how did they get that cat in there?
I hope that he stays out of jail too. The left is siding with the enemy cheering the destruction of the capitalist WTC towers, cheering the fragging of military officers, and urging the murder of the president. If those are not crimes (treason and assassination) worthy of jailtime, this satire certainly falls under the scope of free speech.
According to T. Moonbeam Nut-Cluster, chairperson of the Coalition to Aid Fluffy Wildlife, "In this day and age of Homeland Security, we can't have people just running around laughing at anything that amuses them. I think all Americans can agree that there have to be limits, and stuffing kittens into jars is just ... well, it's just wrong."
Chang has obviously never listened to the Phil Hendry show...
Muscle relaxants and a shoehorn.
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