The only reason why scientists at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species (ACRES) are engaged in failed attempts at cloning small wild cat species (at the expense of the cats who are kept in cages etc.), is because people in general are basically killing off the wild cat species in the wild in one way or another and neither can they reproduce in zoos. It is simply about an unstoppable expansion of human activity that destroys everything else. Cloning isn’t the answer. Stopping the abuse and use of natural resources in an unsustainable way is. But we just can’t stop it. No one is even trying to stop it.
The specific reason why it is immoral to try and clone wild cat species is because even if this unnatural process is successful in years to come, where will the scientists put all the identical cats they have proudly created in the laboratory test tube? Back into the wild? There will be none left. Even if there were some habitat left, what would be the point? They’ll only be shot for their fur or trapped and killed for their body parts or they’ll starve to death because their prey has been shot or something like that.
The way humankind is headed at present, the only place to put cloned wild cats would be in zoo cages and what is the point of that? It is an admission of failure.
The scientists who are messing around with cloning, a process that is still very unrefined, are doing it for themselves. It is a job. There is obviously lots of money out there for it. Scientists cannot work in isolation like this. To make the research meaningful there has to be a coordinated program of research and effective conservation. That essentially means conservation of wild cat habitat. Loss of habitat is the single biggest killer of wild cats and it normally relates to trees. The forests are disappearing to make that nice furniture in the shops or even the bloody photocopying paper. To convert virgin forest to photocopying paper is sheer madness.
There is another reason why cloning wild cats or any animal is immoral. It is this. It is against the laws of common sense and nature to replicate an individual animal any number of times. It is ungodly and it won’t work. It is indecent. It is a last desperate act to try and preserve that which we are destroying. Cloning is another admission of failure. Former president Clinton dislikes it too, for what it is worth. He’s smart. The Vatican think cloning is a mortal sin by the way.
There is also a faint recognition by the scientists that with our current knowledge we will be unable to successfully clone animals for many years because they proudly state that they have created a frozen zoo. This is the deep frozen DNA of many animals stored in liquid nitrogen. It can remain stored for hundreds of years and brought out when every wild cat in the wild has perished. Then they can successfully clone the cats and stick them in glass cages for people to gawp at. At that time in the future, the wild cats would be freaks because they would have been extinct for donkey’s years.
And then they’ll have to top up the cages with freshly cloned cats because they are too stressed to mate and reproduce in cages. It is not a particularly edifying future for the wild cats is it?
Picture of Rusty-spotted cat by Joachim S. Müller
I know it is the house cat and stray cat that is breeding with the wildcat. I have said that in all my articles and in my comment on this page.. However, you are wrong when you say…
…because the initial reason why the population of the wildcat became so precarious in the first place is because it was consistently hunted over hundreds of years throughout England. It moved to places that were inaccessible in deserted Scotland much like the tiger has moved to the Himalayas to escape persecution by humans.
You also say that marine mammals are being killed by cat parasites. You grossly oversimplify as you love to express you hatred for the cat. The truth is that “many” of 5,000 dead marine mammals suffered from brain swelling in the Pacific Northwest.
It is believed that the cause was people flushing cat litter down the toilet and the feces that contained the T. gondii parasite (and not all cat feces do) combined with another parasite Sarcocyctis neurona foud in the feces of Virginia opossums.
So the truth is that you need opossums and people to make this transmission work. It is not solely about the cat but also about people and how they care for their cats and other animals. It is far more complicated than you state.
How many dolphins are killed or their immune systems are weakened by the indiscriminate dumping of toxic man-made chemicals and waste into the oceans or from run off from farm land? Many, many more.
Hunting and habitat-loss has nothing to do with the extinction of the Scottish Wildcat.
guardian.co D0T uk SLASH environment/2012/sep/16/scottish-wildcat-extinction
“A report, produced by the Scottish Wildcat Association, reviewed 2,000 records of camera trap recordings, eyewitness reports and road kills, and concluded there may be only about 40 wildcats left in Scotland in the wild today. ‘However you juggle the figures, it is hard to find anything positive,’ says Steve Piper, the association’s chairman. ‘The overwhelming evidence is that the wildcat is going to be extinct within months.'” … “However, it is not the loss of habitat that is causing the current cat crisis in the Cairngorms. It is the spread of the domestic cat.” … “‘Essentially the Highland wildcat is being eradicated by an alien invasive species: the domestic cat.'”
(note: this was quoted from a report over a year ago, they’re probably already extinct in the wild)
You are also killing off all your inland River Otters in England with your cats’ parasites.
wildlifeextra D0T com SLASH go/news/otter-toxoplasmosis.html
As well as all house-cat “animal lovers” are now killing off all Big Cats in all wildlife reserves around the world.
thenational D0T ae SLASH news/uae-news/big-cat-owners-warned-to-keep-them-acres-away-from-feral-strays
As well as your cats’ parasites killing off all rare and endangered marine mammals on all coastlines around the world (worse than any oil-spill that has ever existed or could even be imagined).
msnbc.msn D0T com SLASH id/43159544/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/lethal-parasites-team-kill-dolphins-seals/
But now these (house-cats ONLY) “animal lovers” are also killing off all the Mountain Lions (Cougars, Puma, Endangered Florida Panther, etc.), and all other native cat species in the USA.
rapidcityjournal D0T com SLASH sports/local/feral-cats-pose-threat-to-birds-lions/article_8ec451c9-4b03-55a3-baa7-71ac577905cb.html
There will come a time when you can no longer blame anyone else but yourselves. That time should have been over two decades ago but some people are VERY slow and would rather live in a world of blissful denial.
Thanks!
For feline DNA-related content try http://www.messybeast.com/genetics-index.htm – I cover everything from the basics (genes, alleles, meiosis, mitosis) through to mutation, cloning, anomalies and even some epigenetics.
I first started studying genetics around 35 years ago and it still fascinates me.
It is so amazing to learn about all this in my Intro to DNA class. There is another DNA class but it’s not online yet! I am going to take it if I can. I have looked for feline genetic related research papers in BYU-Idahos online library database and there really isn’t anything. Mostly selective breeding stuff. Interesting stuff but not what I was hoping to read about. Oh well.