It’s in the news today, that Rebecca Smith a British woman, won a competition to have her pet cloned and she now has Minnie Winnie a clone of her 12 year old dachshund Winnie.
This set me thinking about the cloning of animals and doing a PoC search I found this article Michael wrote a while back, it must have slipped under the radar as it has no comments.
I must have missed it at the time as it’s a very well written article and I’ve found it very interesting. Would you clone your cat? I wouldn’t, for many reasons, the main one being that we have no right to interfere with Nature this way, it’s going too far!
Imagine cloning the very first cat we had in our lives, what about when the clone grew old, would we/could we clone the clone? Each and every cat we have/have had in our home has been/is special and unique and much loved.
I don’t see how a cloned cat can grow to be exactly the same as the cat he/she is cloned from, because they will grow up under different circumstances.
My first extra special soulmate cat was Bert, I was in my twenties, he died when I was in my forties and a very different person to who I was when he came along and different again to who I am in my sixties, because with age we get experience and learn from our mistakes.
If we had cloned our first cat that would have been an already living breathing cat denied a home. For every cat cloned that’s one less home for another cat needing a home.
If cloning became popular and affordable there would be even less homes, more cats than ever would die unwanted.
I imagine cloning has been modified since Dolly the sheep, the first cloned animal, aged very quickly. I shudder to think of the experiments going on in laboratories and the number of cloned animals born in the process, only to die or to be killed as imperfect.
Only rich people will be able to afford to have a pet cloned right now, just as only well off people can afford to buy pedigree pets. Will having a cloned pet become the fashion for so called ‘celebrities’ and a status symbol of their wealth?
Thousands of animals are being killed in Shelters for lack of homes, all breeding of new breeds and cloning of animals should be stopped until that situation is resolved. But that will never happen because in this sad world the human race are never content, they want more, more, more and the animal kingdom are the ones suffering.
As much as I loved all the cats we have had and as much as I love Walter and Jozef I know and accept that one day we will lose them. Life and death of humans and animals are the natural order of this world to keep the numbers balanced.
I’d love Walt and Jo to be here with us forever, but they are irreplaceable, a Walter clone wouldn’t ‘be’ Walter, a Jozef clone wouldn’t ‘be’ Jozef. Each and every cat to me is unique and I think we have no right to clone any animal, they can’t consent to it.
I wouldn’t want another me in this world and like humans, cats are to me individuals, each the one and only, born as Nature intended.
We cannot clone a soul.
that would be terrible michael i could never imagine doing that. i know people want to remember their animals forever but just dont think this is an ideal situiton.
It may even prove to be a disappointment to the owner because as you say cloning does not reproduce the character or personality but the owner may expect (and want) the dog or cat’s personality to be the same or very similar. It may prove disappointing to the owner to have a cat or dog that is an exact copy physically but is actually different. It may even be unsettling to the owner to experience this.
The “CLONED” pet will have identical looks of its deceased donour but not the personality or characteristics.I myself am devastated at the recent death of my 22 year old Alexandrine parakeet “Mittoo”, a Internet star. I have got him stuffed and thanks to taxidermy he now sits on a perch in my house. memories of good and bad times we both had together.Even if i had the money i would not go for “CLONING” as i feel it serves no purpose as the pet would be totally different in all characteristics barring looks. Don’t all “Dachshunds” almost look the same ?I ownede a prize winning dachshund “Lucky” and having visited numerous dog shows realized that all “Dachshunds” look identical if true to type and breed standards, barring the different colous, mine was brown unlike “Minnie vWinnie” who is black in colour.No, even i f i had tons of incalculable money i would never clone my present pet cats “Matahari” or “Matata”.
no way at all. why would u want to to a pefect animal. Leave the animals alone.
NEVER.THE CLONED CAT MAY FILL UP AN EMPTY PLACE,BUT IT COULD NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF THE FIRST CAT ,BECAUSE OF ALL THE DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES. IF YOU NEED ANOTHER GO TO A SHELTER AND SAVE A LIFE.I THINK YOU WOULD DIS HONOR THE FIRST CAT BY TRYING TO CLONE HIM.HE WOULD LOSE HIS SPECIAL PLACE IN YOUR HEART.