I’m a cat person. I don’t carry pictures of my cats in my wallet, and they don’t have their own rooms or anything. But I have been known to chase the occasional stray kitten around the parking lot, crooning, “Heeere kitty, kitty.” But, when I heard about “cc”, the cat scientists recently cloned, I recoiled.
Sure, “cc” looks like a regular kitten, but the possibilities emerging from pet-cloning technology creep me out in a freaky, “Pet Cemetery” sort of way. They also open a messy can of ethical and moral worms.
It’s like a science fiction movie. Companies with cutesy names like PerPETuate and Genetic Savings & Clone have already been processing and storing pet DNA for years, with hopes of cloning them for their owners someday. Even weirder, according to the U.S. News & World Report, one out of 10 pet owners would clone a pet and “designer pets could tap into a huge market.” Companies could use cloning research not only to create genetic copies of beloved pets, but also produce specialty animals, like hypoallergenic cats and even pets that glow (a French lab has already created a fluorescent rabbit).
The Humane Society has argued that it’s unwise to consider cloning animals when so many cats and dogs already need homes. What will happen to the millions of stray pets if we start producing made-to-order animals? But those mourning the loss of their favorite pets probably won’t take much comfort in that argument. A Texas man had his white steer, Chance, cloned after it died last year. His new steer was appropriately named Second Chance.
Grief after the death of a pet is understandable, but trying to bring that animal back to life in the form of a clone is not. Companies like Genetic Savings & Clone appear suspiciously as if they’re about to make a profit from grief, although they claim that’s not their purpose. People who have recently lost a pet need time to grieve over their losses. Then, if they decide they want a new pet, they should adopt one from their local animal shelter or Humane Society.
A common reaction for parents is to replace a child’s pet as soon as it dies so the child never knows what happened. That would be much easier if the pet could be cloned. But the death of a pet teaches children important lessons about grieving. Parents would be hard-pressed to clone Grandma.
Donna Schuurman, from Portland’s Dougy Center for Grieving Children, told U.S. News & World Report, “One of the dangers of cloning a pet for a child is simply to say, ‘Here, let’s replace this,’ as if you don’t grieve for the loss. How does that translate when Dad dies?”
Still, others claim the benefits outweigh the costs. Cloning projects could bring back endangered species and create helpful animals like specialized guide dogs. Most companies claim their interests lie more in these areas, rather than pet cloning. But we already have expert breeders and methods for revamping populations of endangered species. We don’t need to add cloning to the mix, since it is expensive and risky — it costs $20,000 to clone a single cow, and cloned animals have exhibited health problems such as a short lifespan, obesity and arthritis.
Most importantly, we should remember that we are dealing with living creatures. Cloning research is valuable but it should be confined to creating cells and tissue dedicated to causes such as curing diseases and possibly creating “spare parts,” but never, ever to create whole beings.
Wealthy pet-owners will just have to forgo the possibilities of resurrecting “Fi-fi” or bragging about their glow-in-the-dark poodles. The stakes are just too high.