Criticizing cloned cuteness is like kicking puppies

When the dog cloners bring out their cute puppies at press conferences for the world to see, the problems, failure rate, ethical concerns and all the suffering animals that are part of the cloning process take a back seat.

No one wants to rain on someone’s parade when they are glowing with the happiness that only a warm puppy (or five) can bring.

But there are realities apart from cute puppies and heartwarming stories that should not be forgotten by those of us who love dogs.

• From the start 99 percent of the cloning attempts have failed.
• Hundreds of dogs are needed to produce each clone.
• The egg donors and surrogate mothers must undergo invasive and painful surgery to harvest the eggs, to implant the fertilized embryo, and to undergo caesarian births.
• These dogs are kept in cages and treated like objects of an experiment, which, of course, they are.
• No one will reveal the number of dogs that have died as a result of cloning attempts.
• Few clones are born live and of those, most die within a short time.
• No one knows what the long range health problems will be for cloned dogs. The first clone (Snuppy) was born in 2005.
• Although the clone has the same DNA as the original, it is not the same dog any more than identical twins are the same person. (Remember Jan’s evil twin Skippy)
• The code of ethics of the cloning companies is suspect at best.
• The cloning team is led by a man who has admitted to charges of falsifying data, embezzling and fraud.
• A company officer previously failed in his business to clone pet cats, resulting in broken contracts and refunds.
• In the United States, the pet cloning industry laboratories are not regulated like other facilities that do animal research. No one is quite sure what goes on in South Korean laboratories.
• This is a use (or misuse) of science for the sole purpose of making money for the owners while preying on grief.

I know the puppy clones are really cute. Are they worth it?
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Comments

[Robert]

This is an excellent post that points out the arguments against cloning. The people who are carrying it out are sleazy at best, criminal at worst. I hope the people who pay the huge sums will realize the reality of all the dogs that must be sacrificed.

[Khyra]

Furry good post....

I mean, woo would khlone my khuteness?

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
PeeEssWoo: I know woo would but.....

[jan's funny farm]

Khyra has a good question? Who would clone her cuteness -- besides her mom? :) But even if a clone looked like her, it would not be her. And since it wouldn't be Khyra, why not just adopt a cute puppy with its own personality and give it a home?

[rosemary]

When I think of all of the dogs that are wandering lost or thrown away in North Idaho and then see the ones that are in the shelter and then think of all of the dogs that are left at abandoned houses to die....well, cloning is right up there on the absolutely not needed list. Every dog has its own cuteness, special trick (whether recognized or not) and ability to give unconditional love if treated right. They don't need to be a puppy....every dog was a puppy.....they just need a chance. Cloning would not bring back Charlie's years without us when he was mistreated, would not put him in the shelter at just the right time for us to find him, would not give me back the day I ran from a moose and he ran faster....nor would it ever be able to give me the essence of Penelope. I feel really strongly about cloning. It is selfish.

[the 4 Bs]

is it really necessary?

[jackie]

i think people that clone their pets are assholes..pure and simple..stupid assholes to boot

[cube]

Cloning is definitely not necessary. There are plenty of reasons why it's not a good idea, however, that isn't going to stop the science. It's never been about the animals. These labs are shooting for cloning human beings.

[Jimmy]

I'd like to clone my foot up those peoples ass's! That's all I got to say about that!

[SmartDogs]

It's a scam. Getting people to shell out tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars in the vain hope that they'll get an exact copy of their beloved, deceased pet back.

Besides the excellent points you made there is also the issue that we aren't solely products of our genes. Besides the obvious nature/nurture issue (you can't raise that puppy exactly like you did the last one) there is the far more complex and much less well understood issue of epigenetic inheritance.

Epigenetics (changes to the genome that occur without altering the DNA sequence) control the phenotype (the physical expression of the genotype) and are affected by conditions in the womb, environmental pressures in early development, disease and more. The fact that these environmental conditions are *never* exactly the same for ANY two organisms is why identical twins can be very different and why genetically identical plants and single-celled organisms can differ drastically from each other.

It's a very complex subject - so of course the lazy noobs in the media take the easy out - ignore it and report the crap from the cloning company's press release.

[ibor]

Very usefull, i enjoy to read your posting. Thanks for all.

Best regard,
Ibor