posted July 27, 2005 01:47 PM         

"Central Principles
A bonsai plant, along with its more widely encountered counterpart the topiary garden, achieves its miniature yet mature form through a long and delicate process of trimming during the formative years of the tree. It is not possible to trim a kitten! However, fortunately the Oriental artists of yore were also expert in the modification of animal forms. Both foot-binding and head-binding were practiced in the Far East, for the purpose of miniaturizing the feet and shaping the head into attractive shapes. This technique is also the principle behind the well-known corset, which is regaining popularity in recent years. By physically constraining the growth of a developing living thing, it can be directed to take the shape of the vessel that constrains it. Just as a topiary gardener produces bushes that take the forms of animals or any other thing, you no longer need be satisfied with a housepet having the same mundane shape as all other members of its species. With Bonsai Kitten, a world of variation awaits you, limited only by your own imagination."

"Method
At only a few weeks of age, a kitten's bones have not yet hardened and become osseous. They are extremely soft and springy. In fact, if you take a week-old kitten and throw it to the floor, it will actually bounce! We do not recommend that you try this at home. The kitten may bounce under the furniture and be difficult to retrieve, as well as covered in unsightly household dust. However, the flexibility of the kitten's skeleton means that if the bones are gently warped at this early age, they can be molded into any desired shape. At Bonsai Kitten, we achieve this by placing the kitten into a rigid vessel soon after birth, and allowing the young cat to grow out its formative time entirely within this container. The kitten essentially grows into the shape of the vessel! Once the cat is fully developed, it is removed (or the vessel broken to remove it!), producing the lovable, furry pet you've always wanted, but it remains in the shape you've always dreamed of! There is virtually no limit to the eventual shape of your pet.

Practical Considerations
At Bonsai Kitten, we are happy to take care of all the little details and simply deliver to you a fully shaped kitten according to your specifications. However, for those who have applied for and received the appropriate Bonsai Kitticulture permits from the U.S. government, we are happy to provide details of the procedure to those who want to start from "scratch"! There are three main requirements that must be considered when making a Bonsai Kitten:

Air. This ought to go without saying, but you'd be surprised how many amateurs forget this detail and wind up with a cold, hard kitty in the morning! If the containment vessel is sealed, you must drill airholes prior to kitten insertion. A diamond drill is recommended for glass vessels.
Food & Water. Especially if the kitten's head is being shaped (one of the most versatile aspects of the Bonsai Kitten), it will not be able to eat or drink normally. The most common solution is another hole in the container with a feeding tube to the kitten's mouth, where a liquid food slurry can provide both nutrient and hydration requirements.
Waste Removal. Left to its own devices, the kitten would quickly fill its vessel with its own urine and feces, leading to certain sickness and death, not to mention the inevitably unpleasant appearance and odor. The best solution is to seal the kitten's anus with Super Glue prior to insertion, and then insert a waste tube through a third hole in the vessel. As the kitten's body is still developing, a natural rectal diverticulum will soon form around the tube, which can be drained in any convenient fashion. It's just like a kitty colostomy bag!
If you have your license to "grow your own", don't hesitate to contact us for assistance and also to let us know your results! Our staff are always happy to help. Remember, you should not attempt these procedures without the proper training and licenses. Bonsai Kitten will not be held responsible for the results of any attempts to apply any procedures described on this web site."

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Is there no end to cruelty?

posted July 27, 2005 02:24 PM         

Yes it is really cruel - I've heard of this before so I didn't read all the details.
So many animals are abused every day all over the world and I wish we could do more to help them I guess spreading the word of awareness is one way.

posted July 27, 2005 04:21 PM         

IF YOU DON'T SIGN THIS THEN YOU ARE SICK! OK this guy is like perverted!!This is so terrible. A site that we were able to shut last year has returned. We have to try to shut it down again! (www.bonsaikitten.com) A Japanese man in New York breeds and sells
kittens that are called BONSAI CATS. That would sound cute, if it weren't kittens that were put in to little bottles after being given a muscle relaxant and then locked up for The rest of their lives! The cats are fed through a straw and have a small tube for their faces.The skeleton of
the cat will take on the form of the bottle as the kitten grows. The cats never get the opportunity to move. They are used as original and exclusive souvenirs. These are the latest trends in New York, China, Indonesia and New Zealand.
This petition needs 500 names, so please put yours onit! Copy the text into
a new email and put your name on the bottom,then send it to everyone you know!

--------------------------------------------
This email you sent me regarding the Bonsai Cats is very old. Well a few
years already anyway. I wanted to let you know that I myself have received
this a few years back and did my own investigation on this subject, as its
animal cruelty. Let me ask you this ... in a Nation where we protect
innocent animals from harms way, WHY would the state of New York allow these
items for sale? The answer simply put, They WOULDN'T. So that in itself led
me to believe it was a sick, twisted and gorishly in humane person without a
soul trying to gain attention. Guess What??? yup, it was!! Here's past
information I have found on this subject. The best thing you can do is
NOTHING. When you keep forwarding these sorts of emails, that's exactly what
the creator wants. To be recognized and encouraged to try other new nastier
hoax's. They want to see that people are reading this and its still after 4
years being circulated. When I receive emails such as this, I first think of
WHY it wouldn't be allowed to happen and 2 I investigate. So again, here's
what I found on it: judge for yourself:

BONSAI KITTEN IS A HOAX
28 Jan 03 - Recently, there has been a renewed number of people emailing us
again about the Bonsai Kitten website. This is a hoax which has been around
since 2001.

Cat Welfare Society in fact wrote in to Today newspaper in April of 2001 to
express our disgust with this hoax (the article can be read in the Articles
section of this website). This website was created as a hoax by some
university students in the US, which reached epidemic proportions. While it
was removed by the original server after protests, it was moved to another
server. It was investigated by the FBI and found to be a hoax. What you can
do :- Please do NOT forward the Bonsai Kitten website to other people or
email others about it. We are specifically not including it here as we do
not want to give the creators any more publicity than they already have. The
creators' aim is to create outrage and by sending out petitions and
forwarding the emails, you are only encouraging them. Published by admin on
28 Jan 03. Last modified 28 Jan 03.

And for yet even more information, please go to these links :-

The Humane Society website :- http://www.hsus.org/ace/14130

The Urban Legend website :- http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa021401a.htm