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Debunked Hoaxes

The Bonsai Kittens Hoax

In December 2000, a website appeared claiming you could raise a kitten inside a glass jar until its bones set into the shape of the container — like a bonsai tree. Square jar, square cat. The internet lost its mind.

It was 100% fake. No kittens. No product. Pure satire — and almost nobody got the joke.

Read the Full Story ↓
The Setup

What Was Bonsai Kitten?

Bonsai Kitten (bonsaikitten.com) was a satirical website that pretended to sell “kittens moulded into any shape you desire.” The pitch: take a week-old kitten — whose skeleton is still soft — pop it in a jar, feed it through a tube, and let its bones set into the container as it grows.

It had it all: a slick “Method” page, a “Gallery” of staged photos, a “Sales” page and a guestbook. It looked like a real, functioning business.

Every single word of it was made up.

The Damage It Did
11web hosts dropped it in a month
10,000sof hate emails by Feb 2001
1FBI grand-jury subpoena
<1%of people realised it was a joke
The Truth

Was It Real? Were Any Cats Hurt?

No. It was a hoax from start to finish. There were no jarred kittens, no product and no cruelty — the photos were faked and the “science” was nonsense. The whole thing was a piece of internet satire about how gullible people are and how fast content spreads.

The creators later admitted “far fewer than 1 percent” of the people who wrote in realised it was a joke.

The Culprit

Who Made It — and Why the Outrage?

It went live in December 2000, built by an MIT graduate student hiding behind the alias “Dr. Michael Wong Chang.” It was hosted right on MIT’s servers from a campus computer — which is exactly why the university ended up in the firing line.

It looked real enough, and the idea was horrifying enough, that people lost it. Complaints flooded the Humane Society, the ASPCA and PETA. Petitions gathered huge numbers of signatures. And host after host — eleven of them — picked up the site and dropped it under pressure.

The Investigation

Did the FBI Really Investigate?

Yes. In February 2001 the Boston FBI field office issued a grand-jury subpoena to MIT, citing a 1999 federal law against distributing depictions of animal cruelty across state lines. The Massachusetts SPCA subpoenaed it too and even sent an armed investigator to campus.

After all that, the FBI concluded no animal cruelty had taken place — because, of course, there was nothing there. It was a website.

The Legacy

How It Ended — and Why People Still Search

After being bounced off host after host, the site eventually landed on Rotten.com in March 2001. The original page faded from the live web years ago — but it never really died. It lives on as one of the internet’s most infamous hoaxes, still cited in lists of viral fakes two decades later.

Why? Because it’s the perfect storm: shocking, fake, and just believable enough that new people discover it every year and can’t tell if it was real. It’s a case study in how outrage travels faster than facts — the exact thing a good prank runs on.

Still Curious?

Bonsai Kittens FAQ

Is Bonsai Kitten real?

No. It was a satirical hoax website. No kittens were ever grown in jars and no animals were harmed — the photos were faked and the "method" was nonsense.

Who created Bonsai Kitten?

An MIT graduate student using the fake name "Dr. Michael Wong Chang," in December 2000. It was first hosted on MIT's own servers.

Did anyone get arrested for Bonsai Kitten?

No. The FBI and the Massachusetts SPCA investigated in 2001 but found no actual animal cruelty had occurred — because the entire site was fabricated.

Is Bonsai Kitten still online?

The original site is long gone from the live web, but copies and write-ups survive as internet history. It's remembered as one of the most notorious hoaxes ever posted.

Why was Bonsai Kitten made?

As satire — a commentary on gullibility and how fast shocking content spreads online. The creators noted almost nobody realised it was a joke.

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