FBI Goes After Bonsaikitten.com
by Declan McCullagh  
 
[red]10:10 a.m. Feb. 9, 2001 PDT [/red]
WASHINGTON -- A website devoted to squishing kittens into Mason jars is one of two things: A trenchant parody designed to provoke, or a nefarious kitty-mutilation scheme that must be stopped, and probably outlawed.
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FBI agents in the Boston field office have launched an investigation into the site. They also have served MIT with a grand jury subpoena asking for "any and all subscriber information" about the site, which was initially hosted in a campus dormitory but has since moved to a commercial provider.
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"I was surprised," Chang said. "I really thought that the FBI had better things to do. That's your tax dollars at work."
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A gun-toting investigator from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reportedly stopped by campus and quizzed MIT network administrators about the intent of the site. Under state law, MSPCA investigators are deputized as "special state police officers" with investigation and arrest abilities.

The combined efforts of animal rights proponents, including such ardent activists as the closed-subscription "meowmies" group, seem to have prompted the FBI to launch its investigation.

"Why are they doing this?" asks Harvey Silverglate, a prominent Boston criminal defense attorney. "I think the answer is that political correctness has infected the FBI."

"The kind of fanatical end of the spectrum animal protection movement has affected them," says Silverglate, a partner at Silverglate and Good. "They want to be the good guys. They massively run rampant over Americans' liberties but they want to be seen as nice fuzzy guys who want to protect kittens."
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In December 1999, President Clinton signed a law that makes it a federal felony to possess "a depiction of animal cruelty" with the intent to distribute across state lines -- such as on the Internet. During a floor debate, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) claimed that "sick criminals are taking advantage of the loopholes in the local law and the lack of federal law on animal cruelty videos."

The law, which observers at the time said probably violated the First Amendment, only applies to images, videos, and sound recordings that are distributed "for commercial gain" -- and bonsaikitten.com's tongue-in-cheek descriptions of mail-order cats in bottles appears to have given the FBI sufficient justification for an investigation.

The national Humane Society, based in Washington, applauded the FBI's efforts.
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Full text at: (copy and paste}http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41733,00.html

Note the date of this item is Feb. 9, 2001.
This is what the democRAT and the Clintons' FBI was concentrating on. When Atta and bin Laden were completing plans to murder some 3,000 Americans, destroy the Trade Center, attack the Pentagon, and most likely the White House, the FBI was investigating gifted and privledged teenagers and their harmless, if tasteless, college pranks.

[red]9-11 [i]is[/i] the legacy of the Clinton era.[/red]

Thank goodness animal rights groups are around. I'd rather catch a couple of college kids hurting animals, then stop 2500+ americans from dying any day.

People need to get their fucking priorities straight, and pay attention to the possibilities of consequences of their actions.

i think we should stuff FBI agents into glass jars

or better yet, pine boxes

Well, seeing as SCOTUS decided that [i]virtual[/i] kiddieporn was protected under the First Amendment, I'd have thought that this one would be a no-brainer.  Waste of government resources.

But then, the liberals do seem to consider kittens and puppies more important than children...

Here is a sample of the photos on the site.

[img]http://www.bonsaikitten.com/insertbw.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.bonsaikitten.com/pawsbw.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.bonsaikitten.com/babyinsert2.jpg[/img]



While I completely agree the FBI should have better things to do, this site is troubling.  Given the stunning lack of intelligence some people continually demonstrate, to even suggest things like this is irresponsible at the very least.

[url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?id=133002[/url]

[url]http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/16/burned.kitten.ap/[/url]

"Hey Billy Bob, look here what I found on the Internet!  Catch me one them there kittens outside the trailer, I got a Mason jar here."

 [img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/sadness.gif[/img]

Just because you were fooled when you first visited the site doesn't mean everyone was.

Blaming that site is like when you see something in the movies and then go try it.

"Hey, watch this!"

Click. Boom. Thud.

Actually I wasn't "fooled"(to use your term).

To better understand my point, you need only look at the number of incidents of people trying the stunts from the MTV show "Jackass".

[url]http://www.mtv.com/onair/jackass/[/url]

You can be sure someone, somewhere would be stupid enough to at least try this.



I rest my case.
 

If some drunken frat-boy was killing kittens for fun I'd like to find him and introduce him to my baseball bat. Let's see him grin without any teeth. Sick bastards.

Nobody over react or anything, jeesh.


The kitten in a jar thing was "old fun" on the old forums, that thread went on for a few days back when the site was still new and fresh.


You're tellin me that nobody else thinks that the kitten in a jar thing is funny?   I mean really, I've seen kittens squeeze themselves through tighter spots than that mason jar.    Just the other day I had to chase down some little wild kittens on our business property, one of the things squeezed itself through a chainlink fence.


I highly doubt there was any permanent or even temporary injury done to the poor wittle kittys.


What's even more rediculously funny to me is that law enforcement officials would think that they need to intervene, ofcourse we know that most lawenforcement agencies have a total lack of humor.



For the record, I like cats more than I like dogs.    Lost my pet cat recently and was sulking for quite a few weeks and it still pisses me off that I don't know precisely what happened to him or what somebody might have done to him.    But stuffing kittens into a jar so they look a little "squished" up against the bottom end of the glass, big whoop.

Simply put, stupidity should hurt.  And I dare you to try putting a cat in a mason jar.  Here's a hint:  Cat's don't have collar bones, and will NOT go through anything that isn't as wide as their whiskers because they would not be able to get through it.  I guarantee you, that unless the cat is sedated, he's going to be clawing the hell out of anyone trying to shove him in a jar.

People dumb enough to try things they see on TV or read on the Internet and end up hurt is the essence of Darwinism in action.  Furthermore, you're saying that they are not responsible for their own actions because they saw it or something similar on TV!  That's BS.  It's survival of the fittest my friend.  If they can't hack living their life without doing something monumentally stupid, then so be it.  Hey, and it's not like I didn't do anything stupid growing up.  I'm just fortunate to be living with the scars.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

Especially since the pics are all photochopped to start with.

I could not agree more.  The problem here is some damn fool is going to see this and think it is something "cool" to do.  Some innocent animal is going be on the receiving end of this stupidity.

From the CNN link above.



 [img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/sadness.gif[/img]

You're preaching to the choir my friend.  My wife's cat andher mother's cat both had their faces beat in so badly that they both had to be put to sleep.  We're pretty sure the sicko across the street from my mother-in-law is responsible, as he's been known to abuse animals and both of their incidents coincide with him coming back from some treatment hospital.

But ultimately, the responsibility for putting a cat on a BBQ belongs to the guy who did it and anyone there who didn't stop it.  To deny that makes it impossible to punish them for what they did or did not do.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

Personally, I think that IGNORANCE and STUPIDITY should be ELLIMINATED rather ACCOMODATED. I'm sick of MY LIFE being affected JUST because SOME people are stupid.  

IF we cared more about encouraging people to use their minds rather than continue to simply propitiate their stupidity, there would be a lot less of this crap! Is this concept really that hard to understand?