WASHINGTON—As Genetic Savings & Clone announces the delivery of the first cloned cat to a paying customer, The Humane Society of the United States is questioning the ethics behind creating cloned pets when animal shelters across the country are attempting to place millions of dogs and cats in new homes every year.
"Genetic Savings & Clone is taking advantage of the close connection that their clients have had with their pets," said Wayne Pacelle, HSUS president and CEO. "The company's efforts are wrapped in feel-good PR-speak that glosses over what the business is about at its core -- profiting from efforts to engineer a new production strategy that is unnecessary, unwarranted, and inhumane."
Genetic Savings & Clone announced in 2002 that it had cloned the first cat as part of an effort to launch a commercial pet cloning service. Tomorrow, Genetic Savings & Clone will reportedly announce that it presented a Texas woman with her clone at the company's holiday party held earlier this month in San Francisco. The cat reportedly carries a $50,000 price tag, enough money to spay or neuter 1,428 cats through The HSUS' Remote Area Veterinary Services, which provides free spaying and neutering surgeries and veterinary care to impoverished areas in the United States and abroad.
The HSUS estimates that 3-4 million cats and dogs are euthanized in shelters every year because there aren't enough homes for them. The HSUS, other national humane organizations, local humane societies and animal control agencies devote significant resources towards efforts aimed at reducing pet overpopulation, including pet adoption outreach efforts, educating pet owners about the importance of spaying and neutering, and helping people resolve pet behavior problems.
In addition to concerns about driving potential adopters away from animal shelters, The HSUS also points out that cloning has been fraught with problems resulting in needless suffering of the resulting animals. Some of the documented problems include:
- A report in the journal Cloning & Stem Cells in 2004 found that out of 50 domestic cats implanted with clones of an African wildcat, 12 became pregnant, nine of those surrogates delivered live litters, resulting in the births of 17 cloned kittens. Of those 17 kittens, seven were stillborn, eight died within hours of delivery or up to six weeks of age, and two were alive and healthy at the time the publication was written.
- In 2002, Nature reported problems in cloned animals that included failure of the immune system, structural abnormalities of the brain and digestive dysfunction.
- Also in 2002, Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning reported defects of cloned animals including increased birth size, immune dysfunction, placental abnormalities, and lung, kidney and cardiovascular problems.
The Roslin Institute in Scotland, which made headlines with the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep in the 1990s, has also spoken out against pet cloning. "Given that the supposed benefit of cloning a pet is an illusion and the harms to the other animals involved would be real, there seems to us no ethical justification for proceeding with this particular application of cloning," according to the Roslin Institute's assistant director in a statement posted on the organization's web site.
Researchers are also studying the feasibility of marketing cloned farm animals and animals bred for research.
In 2002, The HSUS asked the Food & Drug Administration to ban sales of products from cloned farm animals after the National Academy of Sciences found adverse impacts on animal welfare in the cloning of farm animals. No such products are known to have entered the food supply, but the FDA has failed to respond to The HSUS' request.
"There's no doubt that cloning causes animals to suffer," said Pacelle. "For every successful 'clone,' there are dozens of animals who die prematurely, who face shortened life spans, who have physical abnormalities, and who face chronic pain and suffering. Cloning is, simply put, at odds with basic animal welfare considerations. Millions of dollars have been spent on developing a technology with no redeeming social purpose."
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization with more than eight million members and constituents. The HSUS is a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in companion animals and equine protection, wildlife and habitat protection, animals in research and farm animals and sustainable agriculture. The HSUS protects all animals through legislation, litigation, investigation, education, advocacy and fieldwork. The non-profit organization is based in Washington, DC and has 10 regional offices across the country. On the web at www.hsus.org.
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