Pedro Caetano'S

"To anyone with love and respect for life: In New York there is a Japanese who sells bonsai-kittens". Sounds like fun huh? NOT! These animals are squeezed into a bottle. Their urine and feces are removed through probes. They feed them with a kind of tube. They feed them chemicals to keep their bones soft and flexible so the kittens grow into the shape of the bottle. The animals will stay their as long as they live. They can't walk or move or wash themselves. Bonsai-kittens are becoming a fashion in New York and Asia."

See this horror at: www.bonsaikitten.com

Please sign this email in protest against these tortures. If you receive an email with over 500 names, please send a copy to: anacheca@hotmail.com. From there this protest will be sent to USA and Mexican animal protection organizations."

(This e-mail was circulating trough the Net, in 2001)

"FOR EVERYONE WHO LOVES ANIMALS

A site that we were able to shut last year has returned. We have to try to shut it down again! 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 faeces. 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.

If you think you can handle it, view www.bonsaikitten.com and have a look at the methods being used to put these little kittens into bottles. This petition needs 500 names, so please put your one name on it!!! Copy the text into a new email and put your name on the bottom, then send it to everyone you know. If you notice that there are 500 names on the list, please send it to: anacheca@hotmail.com"

(This e-mail was circulating trough the Net, in 2002)

Since then, the domain bonsaikitten.com was shut down, but the Bonsai Kitten website moved to http://www.shorty.com/bonsaikitten/index.html, still "Dedicated to preserving the long lost art of body modification in housepets". "If you think you can handle it, view Bonsai Kitten and have a look at the methods being used to put these little kittens into bottles".

More information at Snopes, Wikipedia, and Wired. The cruel.com website offered an article entitled "Cruel Site of The Day (The World Wide Web's Bitter Aftertaste): Happiness is a Rectilinear Kitten", their comprensive history of the furor and media coverage generated by the Bonsai Kitten website.