$50,000 paid for cloned cat.

[Bulldogge]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20041223/ap_on_sc/cloned_cat

People disgust me sometimes. Like the gentleman in the article says, for that kind of money she could have given a stray animal a home - and helped a lot of others find new homes as well.

 

[Flatfoot]

The company has yet to turn a profit.

Geez, all this time, money, and research just to eliminate mating from the equation. Why bother? 😕

I'm not too against the idea of cloning organs, though. Lifeless bodies created for the purpose of organ transplants and whatnot.

As far as the woman in the article goes, I'm not gonna chastise her choice of throwing down 50 G's to "recreate" her former cat, just because she didn't help out a bunch of strays. For anyone who feels she made a selfish choice, I gotta wonder if they'd help a bunch of strays out if they had 50,000 bucks to throw around. If she had a special connection to her cat that she wasn't willing to let go of, that's her life lesson to learn from this "test tube cat". She says it's the same personality as her old cat, but it's only 9-weeks old. She'll see how its personality develops over time and through its own experiences.

 

[Bulldogge]

I'm not completely objecting to the idea of cloning - it's a complex issue, and one which I know very little about. But cloning an animal in this way when there are so many in need of good homes seems wasteful and immoral. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that between 6-8 Million animals are brought to animal shelters each year. Between 3-4 million are euthanized each year. They also ran a story today about this cat and they say that they could have used that $50,000 to spay and neuter 1,428 cats. Which seems like a fairly small number, until you consider this equation :

Average number of litters a fertile cat can produce in one year: 3

Average number of kittens in a feline litter: 4-6

In seven years, one female cat and her offspring can theoretically produce 420,000 cats.

Spay and neuter, or clone? I know which seems like the higher choice to me.

 

[Myriads]

Is the 50K a waste? seems to be the basis of this article.

Well if one takes the view that having disposible income, and not spending it on things that 'better the world' in general is bad, then the article is on point.

This of course opens the debate that if one has ANY excess income that it should be put to some worthy use or you are in the morally 'bad' zone. There are entire philosophies devoted to that sort of debate, and not a few political systems also.

On the other side of things, one could take the attitude it's her cash to do with as she wanted. She loved the lost pet, and has decided to see if she can get the right combination of genetics and environment to get one that is like it. Good luck to her. If she riased the first one, odds are she'll have a decent shot.

Perhaps more importantly, this seeming luxury spending on a trivial thing, advances the science behind the proceedure. Things will be learned, and we'll get better at a process that in the long run will probably aid in extending human longevity, and providing bio-stock for genetic proceedures and curing of genetic based issues. It is often the wealthy that give important science and technology the leg up they need to grow and become widely usefull to the many with thier luxury spending. I feel this is one such case.

And yes, the long term implications of this science is the 'replacement' of a lost child, that died or was killed at a young age. If you want moral arguments, try the ones that surround that on for size. They will be big ones. Human cloaning is not an 'if' it's a when. And while many nations will ban it, not all will, and we all know how well bans that are not global work out..... everyone ends up playing to stay even. Especially when money is there to be made. And it will be.

Myriads

 

[desdemona]

I kept hearing about this article on CNN today (when you're snowed in, there's not much else to entertain you.....) It made me sad for several reasons. Both Bulldogge and Flatfoot raise interesting points about the pet population issue - I won't beleager that here. And Myriads brings up the technological advancement side. I don't find fault there, either. What saddens me is that after having lost my 15 year old cat to cancer less than a year ago, I can relate to the woman's sense of loss. What I can't relate to is the need or the want to replace or replicate her previous beloved pet. For me, Chelsea was special and truly unique - I would gladly adopt another Siamese or Siamese type cat...but why would I want to recreate the same thing? I think life is about moving foward - not looking back. Nostalgia has its place...but this just defies logic. And to my knowledge...temperament and personality are not so much genetically engineered as they are learned. Like Myriads said, if she hand raises this one (and the hand raised ones usually turn out to be little demons btw...), maybe she'll have similar results, true. But the part they kept emphasizing about the two cats liking to play in water? Please...about 75% or more of the cats I see do, too. So that's just a statistic, not another thing they have in common. Just my two cents...

Unless of course Flatfoot you'd like some insight into the world of animal abandonment - the legal (and to a lesser extent moral) issues of dealing with unwanted/unclaimed strays. 🙂 Happy Holidays...Peace.

 

[desdemona]

There are no easy answers for how to handle that situation. Let me give you a little bit of background...in most states, animals are treated as "property" by law. In most cases, ownership is difficult to prove (although with tattoos or microchips, this is becoming less of an issue). But if a stray animal shows up on your doorstep, I offer this advice: 1) Put up signs in your neighborhood advertising that you have recently seen this cat. 2) Call your local animal shelter and give a description of the animal to see if anyone has reported one missing (don't put a lot of stock in this - most shelter workers are overworked volunteers who may not have the time or inclination to do a thorough search). 3) Take a picture of the cat and put up flyers in local stores. You never know how far the animal might have traveled. 4) Check the animal for any signs of a collar or tags and include that in your description.

You may want to consider taking it in (I understand with two other cats the risk of exposure plus behavioral issues). Try keeping it in a large dog cage or a garage. Winter elements (even in temperate zones) are often too demanding for domesticated animals. Plus then you have the cat on hand if you get a response/phone call about the "found" posters you distributed. Calling animal control (in Hamilton Co. Ohio anyway) is of no use because they will not come out for cats (cats aren't included in Ohio by-laws for stray animal regulation). I can't tell you how many "new" pets I've examined that have already been spayed or neutered and declawed that just "showed up" one day. Many people abandon pets when they move or travel. College campuses are a prime example of areas where you can find lots of strays just dumped, waiting for some kind hearted person to do a good deed and clean up someone else's mess. A lot of times, behavioral issues force people to turn their indoor animals into outdoor ones - without thinking out the whole ramification for the animal and its impact on the neighborhood.

Personally, responsible pet ownership is one of my pet peeves, and I see so many instances where the beloved pet becomes more of an unwanted obligation. When someone brings in a pet they suspect someone owns, they often feel "guilty" - like they're stealing. In some ways, I suppose it's true. But again, proof of ownership is tricky with animals. Some good samaritans just feel badly when they see an animal turned outside and want to take it in. Many people feel that it's cruel to keep animals who were once wild indoors. I would argue that domestication makes them our responsibility and as such, we provide food and shelter, like we would for a child. But that's a whole other argument 🙂 Hope this helps...I know I didn't exactly give you a definitive answer, but if nothing else, you can also call a local vet to see if anyone has reported a missing cat...we keep such a book at our front desk. Good luck!

 

[Lazarus]

To be blunt....

Had I the money, I would have seen about cloning my first pet cat, "Sweetheart", in a heartbeat.

It's a different argument when you actually become very attatched to a pet, IMHO.

Laz

 

[Nige]

An expensive CAT!!
Though it does seem a huge waste of money to me, I guess she can spend her own cash on what she wants.

 

[desdemona]

I thought I'd share a "cloning" story from my previous job.

A teenage boy brought in his intact female dog who was suddenly drinking a lot of water. After doing some testing, I found that the dog was diabetic. An unspayed female dog is NOT easy to get regulated when it comes to diabetes and I explained this to both the boy and his mother. She was insistent that it was his dog, he would have to pay for the surgery (which even though our clinic provided low cost spays/neuters, he still couldn't afford) and the cost of treating the diabetes. Oh, and she refused to help with the shots because again, it was his dog. Needless to say, the dog did poorly, and ultimately was euthanized. But before we did that, the boy asked if we could save some of her blood. I was curious to know why he wanted this. He wanted to be able to "clone" her if a cure for diabetes was ever discovered (while he may not have grasped the science, his heart was in the right place) because she was the best dog he said. For someone so young to feel so much love for an animal left me speechless. His mother on the other hand did the worst job of teaching responsible pet ownership...but that's another story. Until animals are viewed as more than possessions and merely replaceable, the sad state of overcrowded animal shelters will continue I'm afraid.