The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : CLONING PETS

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 29, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

CLONING PETS

PEOPLE SOMETIMES BECOME so close to their pets that they can go to extraordinary lengths. A Texan woman has become the first to have her pet, a cat named Nicky that died last year, cloned. She paid a Californian company, Genetic Savings & Clone Inc., $50,000 for the purpose. The lady is reported to be delighted with the result and has been quoted as saying the kitten is exactly like the original Nicky. She and the company that carried out the cloning may have been lucky in that respect. When the domestic cat was first cloned three years ago, the kitten Cc (short for `Carbon copy') did not have the same coat as her genetic twin. It illustrates an important point about cloning that is often overlooked. Just because an animal is genetically identical to another does not make one the duplicate of the other. An animal's characteristics are the result of a complex interplay between genes and environmental factors right from the early stages of embryonic development. A pet's personality, which creates that strong but intangible bond between human and animal, is even more difficult to control. Genetic Savings & Clone Inc. says as much on its website: "The cloned pet will be a unique, newborn animal that will share genes and probably behavioural tendencies, but not memories, with its genetic predecessor."

Having demonstrated the commercial feasibility of cloning cats, Genetic Savings & Clone Inc. hopes to achieve the same for dogs in 2005. Although a variety of animals has been successfully cloned, several factors make dogs a real challenge. The most important bottleneck appears to be collecting mature eggs from the animals. While the eggs of most mammals reach maturity in the ovary and are therefore easy to gather, bitches release immature eggs when they ovulate. The Californian company says it is looking at ways of collecting the mature eggs as well as of maturing eggs in the laboratory after extraction from the ovary. Another problem is having a suitable surrogate mother at hand soon after the donor animal's genetic material has been transferred to the egg and the cloned embryo begins to develop. The embryo can be transplanted to the womb only while the bitch is still in season, which happens only twice a year. Rather than maintain a large stable of animals so that a surrogate will always be available, a superior method (which will be disclosed soon) has been discovered, according to Genetic Savings & Clone Inc.

But should pets be cloned? Animal protection activists condemn such cloning as unconscionable extravagance. More than three million unwanted pets are put down annually in the United States alone, points out the Humane Society. Scientists too are sceptical as cloned animals are more likely to be unhealthy and have shorter lives. Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, was put down after she developed arthritis at a relatively young age. Cloned calves have a propensity to be abnormally large, and they tend to die young. Scientists have discovered that the normal functioning of the genomes of cloned animals is often affected not because the genes have mutated but because mechanisms for activating genes have got altered. A key principle therefore is that the benefit from the research must be in proportion to the potential harm to the animals. The Roslin Institute, where Dolly was cloned, has refused to clone pets, arguing that there was no scientific value in doing so. In any case, isn't it better to cherish memories than to chase an illusion by trying to recreate a much-loved pet?

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