Ta teden sem dobila že nekaj mejlov s pozivom, naj podpišem peticijo proti bonsai muckam oz. muckam v stekleničkah.

Za tiste, ki še ne veste – bonsai mucke NE OBSTAJAJO in spletna stran bonsaikitten.com je nateg.

Preden boste zabasali komu poštni nabiralnik s prošnjo naj se bori proti nečemu, kar sploh ne obstaja, si preberite naslednje:

(v hrvaščini)

Na sreću, ispalo je da je sve gore navedeno samo neslana montypythonovska šala, preuzeta iz Toma i Jerryja, a iza Kineza s liječničkom titulom krije se američki student koji se branio pozivajući se na slobodu mišljenja. Prema njemu, svaki iole normalan čovjek je mogao shvatiti da je riječ o šali, budući da:
a) na siteu nije bila navedna adresa za narudžbu bonsai maca,
b) nije bilo niti cjenika
c) za uzgoj posebno dizajniranih maca trebalo je nabaviti specijalne staklenke i
d) posebne licence za kultiviranje mačaka.

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 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.

Since December 2000, The Humane Society of the United States has
received literally thousands of complaints about a “Bonsai Kitten” web
site—subsequently determined to be a hoax—that describes how to stuff
kittens into glass containers to warp their bodies into the shape of
the container. The site’s creator describes and illustrates in detail
the method for abusing these animals. Most of the illustrations, which
appear to have been altered with photo-editing software, depict live
kittens being jammed into glass containers.

The HSUS investigated these complaints and found that the site was a joke created by a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), who had registered it at his school under a false name. Encouraged by all the negative attention, the student cited his right to free speech in an
attempt to keep the site online, but M.I.T. sided with the animal
protection organizations and citizens who complained, and removed the
site on December 22, 2000.

The following month, the site resurfaced on a new host, WEB2010.com. We contacted this company to voice our concerns, and the company removed the site on January 17, 2001.

While we were grateful to these hosts for removing the site, history tells us that creators of offensive web sites often seek out new hosts until they find one that has either no User’s Agreement or allows all content, no matter how offensive, permitted under the First Amendment. The creator of the Bonsai Kitten site followed this pattern, and the site is currently hosted by a new company that refuses to remove it.

The Massachusetts SPCA and the FBI initiated an investigation of the site’s creator, but discovered no evidence of actual animal abuse or the sale of bonsai kitten “products,” though the investigation remains active. If the creator is not e-mailing the obscene materials to an unwilling audience, violating a User’s Agreement, committing the abuse depicted on site, or actually selling products involving animal cruelty, then the site is considered free speech and is protected by the First Amendment.

How You Can Help

Please do not e-mail or otherwise contact the person running the site. The negative attention he’s received has fueled the posting of the site in several locations and the formation of a group of supporters. One course of
action is to contact the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that hosts the
site. There are some exceptions, but in most cases, ISPs have removed
sites because they determined that the sites’ content violated their
User’s Agreement. For information on how to determine the ISP that
hosts a particular site, see our web page on “What You Can Do about Web
Sites that Promote Animal Cruelty.”

A more effective response to web sites that depict animal cruelty is to submit information about them to the “Animal Cruelty Action List.” The list’s goal is to coordinate the efforts of the online community through targeted legal and time-sensitive methods, so that such sites are removed quickly,
thus frustrating the purpose of the sites’ creators to draw attention
to themselves and their site. For more information, visit the Hugs for
Homeless Animals web site by clicking the link below.

Though it has outraged animal-loving folks the wold over since at least
2000, the Bonsai Kitten was was designed to be a joke – albeit one that
many people fail to find funny. What the site suggests isn’t even
possible. Confining a growing animal to a certain space will not
somehow force that creature to take on the shape of that space. If
anyone were to really try the things suggested on BonsaiKitten.com,
they would likely only succeed in killing the animal in short order,
due to lack of nutrition and exercise. The images on the site, though
somewhat shocking, are carefully staged. A closer review reveals that
none of them actually depicts the cat completely enclosed in the
odd-shaped containers – only partially inserted.