Animals

One of a Kind (and Let's Keep it That Way): Pet Cloning Operation Closes Doors

by Stephanie Feldstein

category: Companion Animals

Published November 28, 2009 @ 07:00PM PT

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This fall, BioArts, the company claiming to hold the only worldwide rights to clone dogs, cats, and endangered species, announced plans to discontinue its “Best Friends Again” commercial dog cloning service.

The animal welfare community has protested pet cloning as irresponsible and inhumane since before it was even a viable concept. With millions of animals dying in shelters, there’s no good excuse for finding new ways to create more. In addition, multiple births were very common in cloned puppies and, like most people who breed their dogs, the “clients” only wanted one or two at a time, not an entire litter.

Cloning still feels like science fiction to a lot of people. There’s not a solid understanding of how it works, or of the fact that it’s not the key to immortality. Your pet’s clones would have the same genetic makeup, but they wouldn’t have the same experiences that molded the animal you adore. Even if raised in the same household, times would be different for the next generation, and the resulting personality would be different, too. Of course, this technicality is bad for business, which is why, at one point, BioArts tried to quantify personality similarities in cloned puppies by claiming that a pair of puppies shared the “very rare trait” with their mother of loving broccoli.

Physical traits became more of a problem for BioArts. They couldn’t deliver cloned puppies that ended up the wrong gender or with the wrong coloring to customers who wanted a carbon copy of their beloved pet. Others had health problems and deformities, some of which would degenerate as the puppy aged. Sadly, but not surprisingly, these types of animal welfare issues ranked #4 on the company's Six Reasons We're No Longer Cloning Dogs, well behind concerns about a "tiny market" for their "product."

Whatever reason finally prompted BioArts to pack up their test tubes, it was a move applauded by animal welfare activists and the American public. Unfortunately, all that excitement –- and evidence -- is being ignored by a South Korean biotech company that continues its unlicensed cloning program and plans to open a research center that could end up mass producing cloned dogs.

Photo credit: xinhuanet.com