Description of The Spoof
BonsaiKitten.com's pictures are the source of its controversy. They show kittens in jars, presented as real examples of the "lost art" as described on the Bonsai Kitten web page. The pictures of the kittens are, of course, naturally created, because a very young cat has supple bones, and can fit into tiny spaces with only a small amount of encouragement. The spoof, according to "Dr. Chang" is that the world increasingly sees nature as a commodity, so such a site may well be in demand. The spoof came to large-scale attention as The Cruel Site of the Day for Dec. 22, 2000, and was continually heavily condemned by most animal rights organizations, and after hundreds of people complained daily to them, they stated that even if Bonsai Kitten was a spoof it "encourages animal cruelty".
The webpage being featured on the cruel.com website was significantly controversial and it was quickly removed. Initial humane society statements decrying the website as "encouraging abuse" caused local investigation, along with an FBI announcement that it was to investigate the hoax. The prosecution of the site by the FBI was welcomed by animal activists, but decried by web authorities. The FBI backed up its investigating of Bonsai Kitten by using a law passed by Bill Clinton in 1999. The attacking of the BonsaiKitten.com website had the effect of displacing the website, which found a new ISP two more times, before being permanently hosted on Rotten.com servers. Because the website is still kept on some mirrors, it continues to receive complaints from animal activists.
The furor over the site triggered by animal rights organizations has been off-set by their continued statements that the site itself is a fake. They have been stating this since 2001.
Read more about this topic: Bonsai Kitten
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