CLONING AND YOUR PET: THE FUTURE IS HERE!

By now most people are familiar with Dolly, the sheep that was cloned. There have been a variety of animals that have been duplicated in this manner and everyone has some sort of feeling about it. It certainly gets the emotions up and running in some circles!

Although some people don’t like the idea of cloning an animal, it is a reality. In fact, in the clinic where I see animals for behavior problems, they are actually harvesting (collecting) and putting up cells for cloning and have been doing so for many months.

Your local veterinarian can do the procedure quickly and easily since there are instructions that come with the nifty little collection kits designed for this purpose.* You can gather cells from the live animal, or if the animal has been stored properly, you can collect the cells from an animal that is only recently deceased. If you plan to harvest cells from a live animal, the critter is alert throughout the whole process which takes less than 8 minutes to do.

There are two ways the Canine Cryobank* has harvested cells from a live animal. The first procedure is to use a topic anesthetic, while the other procedure uses an ice block to numb the area where the cells are to be harvested from. Both procedures are quick and cause very little concern or discomfort to the animal.

Once the cells have been harvested, the small puncture wound is closed with a skin adhesive, such as Nexaband® and healing occurs within a few days. The cells are then transferred to the lab and grown to a particular stage of development where they are then cryopreserved for future cloning.

What does cloning mean to you? Well, to me it means that there is a way to genetically reproduce an animal with identical characteristics to the original one. I have not personally met any cloned animals yet so I can’t really comment on how they are behaviorally, but I would suspect they won’t have the same personality/spirit of the animal they are cloned from. I suspect it would be much like the offspring an animal might have --only genetically identical.

Every living animal is a product of their environment. Experiences, diet, surroundings, and other variables will help to shape their behavior. Since these elements will vary greatly from animal to animal, it is highly unlikely you would have the exact same animal, only the potential to have it.

Utilization of the cloning process will affect different areas and industries of the animal world. For instance, cloning would allow neutered animals to be duplicated. It could perhaps help fight the resistance to spaying and neutering of pets since it would offer another alternative to animal reproduction; this would help prevent the already escalating pet overpopulation problem and multitude of animal deaths that occur yearly.

Another area of impact could be for endangered species. Captive animal cells could be put up for storage and eliminate the need for excessive breeding. Also, wild animals could have cells harvested and stored while they continue to live their lives out in their normal habitat. Why have new animals brought in or bred when you can have a genetic zoo? If zoos are a reservoir for endangered species, then with cloning as an option, they could all be represented without holding the animals in inadequate artificial environments or without pulling them from the already limited wild populations.

Laboratory testing facilities are interested in the cloning procedures from the standpoint of having identical animals to do studies with. Genetically this would be good, but again the animal would only have the potential to be identical to the original animal that the cells were harvested from. So, testing that is done on physiological responses would be standard while the intelligence testing or programming would have the potential to be similar if all the influences are the same.

From a behavioral perspective, methods and approaches to training and behavior modification can be tested to define the most effective approaches. Clones of the same animal could be dispersed between the different types of trainers and behaviorists to see what theories and methods are the most effective.

Since the environment and methods would have the same boiler plate animal, the results could be assessed in a more systematic manner. The only real variables to assess because of the genetic content in the animals would be those external influences. Essentially the question that could be asked is, "What will be the result of the comparison of the nature vs. nurture?"

Taking this another step forward in the behavioral realm animals have less of a predisposition to having behavior problems, or physical problems could be the ideal creatures to clone. Of course, this raises the ugly head of designing the superior race of specific creatures.

Arguments against cloning include people not wanting man to control the destiny of any living creature. This is an interesting point, and I am not sure how I feel about the topic from either a supportive or non-supportive stance. My view is that we have already affected the destiny of many species of animals through our actions and impact upon the environment and through a wide variety of other deeds.

If you look at our world, we already control the destiny of many animals by selective breeding and regulation of diets, and by introduction of non-indigenous species. We control and effect others through insecticides and other poisons, by destruction of habitat and by destroying unruly populations. We further control them by selectively hunting or culling animals. Everything we do has an impact. So I think we already do control the destiny of those animals.

I think the current concerns are valid, from my perspective the underlying question is how are we going to handle the future and the animals that occur and will be produced by this process? What will constitute the humane handling and treatment of these critters? The fact is that cloning and harvesting cells is already a viable reality today and is occurring. It will continue to transpire whether or not we agree with the process!

* For information on cloning or cryopreservation for mammalian cells contact the Canine Cryobank in San Diego County or http://www.caninecryobank.com for their latest contact information.