This is just a quick note to air my views on the cloning of wild cats using the eggs of a domestic cat and a domestic cat surrogate mother. I respect the views of others.
Mature egg cells are removed from a domestic cat in a surgical operation. Then genetic material from the egg cell is merged with a skin cell from a wildcat.
Embryos start to grow which are inserted into the womb of a surrogate mother cat, which is a domestic cat. The embryos can be deep frozen as well in liquid nitrogen.
In outline, that is the process. I am guessing that the surrogate domestic cat is a different cat to the domestic cat that provided the eggs.
Apparently this process has resulted in the successful cloning of three African wildcats who are living in an animal sanctuary somewhere. I think it is in New Orleans, USA. But someone will have to confirm that.
Cloning has often failed miserably. New born animals have lived for short periods only. Scientists don’t really know what they are doing. They are basically experimenting with the lives of animals.
What personally galls me a lot is the fact that it would be far more sensible if people stopped killing wild cats in the first place. We would not need to do these ghastly experiments then. People kill wild cats in many different ways. The most common is to destroy the places where they live or kill the prey they eat or just kill them for their fur.
And if people go on killing wild cats or prevent them from living by destroying their habitat, what will happen to any cloned cats that survive. Are they going to be put into the wild to be killed or will they spend their lives in cages? I seems like a lose-lose situation for the cat and a bit of fun for the human.
Far more work needs to be done to protect wild cats and other wild life. The big companies who are mining vast areas of Africa and logging forests should be under an obligation to ensure that the damage they inflict on the landscape should not have a damaging effect on the population numbers of wild cats. That is a pipe dream.
Yet it makes sense. Business should be responsible and sustainable. The logging and mining companies cannot be sustainable if they are simply using up parts of virgin landscape ad infinitum. The natural resources are limited.
Conclusion
Cloning wild cats is morally unjustifiable as long as we hurt animals in the process while failing to do enough to preserve the wild cat species that were created naturally.
Totally agree. For me there is a problem, in general, with humankind’s relationship with animals. The problem is all around us. Wild and domestic animals are abused and killed as a consequence of a desire for financial gain. The root cause for me is the belief by humans that they are different from and superior to animals when in fact humans are animals, biologically speaking. Science supports that. But people in their arrogance can’t bring themselves to believe it.
Too many people look upon animals as collective ‘animals’ they miss the point that each and every animal is an individual with their own feelings of fear and pain and their own right to live their life fitting to their species.
What an outcry there would be if people were treated the same way! Yet each of us have our own feelings of fear and pain too, just like each and every animal and each and every one of us has our human rights to live life fitting to a human.
Why not the same consideration for animals?
I’m with Hairless Cat, we have no right to use, abuse, eat or experiment on animals, yet many people continue to do just that.
I follow a lady that is fighting Pangollin (I think that’s right) poaching in Africa. She shows pictures of truck loads of skinned bodies left behind by poachers. There just aren’t enough enforcement officials to do anything about it. She had a spay/neuter clinic for the villages in her area and they had volunteers like crazy. They did a great amount of work. The nations of Africa don’t care or turn a blind eye. The ONLY thing they do in some areas is fines. For killing an endangered species. The fines are hefty, too. A Black Rhino is $150,000 (the highest). I agree we need to work to stop the killing. We need to replant rain forests and we need to de-toxify some areas of the world. I can’t say you’re wrong. It may be too soon to go to such drastic lengths. In my mind it is one way to keep the natural prides (etc) alive. How else can we introduce new genetic material?
I am sure that you and Marc share similar sentiments regarding cats, wildlife and people. They are excellent sentiments as far as I am concerned.
Thanx Marc – it seems we share some of the same sentiments.
=^-^= Hairless Cat Girl =^-^=
Thanks for the info Dan. Appreciated. What I am trying to say is that all the efforts of scientists should be directed at preserving naturally created wild cats and improving their genetic diversity rather than preparing for extinction. Cloning is a process of last resort. An act of despair and it is experimental. Cats suffer. Animals suffer. I don’t think we should be killing cats and then creating cats artificial. That is a system of madness. But then humans as a whole are mad as far as I am concerned. Visitors to PoC who love cats excepted 😉
Also I feel if scientists are preparing for extinction in cloning, this encourages irresponsible attitudes towards wild cats, which can only help the relentless march to extinction. That is my gut feeling.