Top 5 Contributions of Animal Cloning

Top 5 Contributions of Animal Cloning

5. Increased Knowledge of Dog and Cat Physiology – Before they were able to clone a pet, scientists had to learn the intricacies of cat and dog reproductive physiology. Before animal cloning endeavors, this area had not been extensively explored, due to lack of funding. Increased knowledge of cat and dog reproductive physiology will help in the development of contraceptives, aiding in the fight against homeless pets.

4. Better Working Animals – An animal needs a certain personality and skill set to be an ideal worker. Through animal cloning, those animals who are especially suited for a certain line of work can be cloned, and their clones will have a better chance at also being suited for the job than others would.

3. Xenotransplantation – Through advancements in animal cloning technologies, scientists have begun to understand better the process of xenotransplantation. Xenotransplantation is the transplantation of organs from one species to another. In order to do this, the organ grown in the donor must match the species it will be donated to. If you clone your pet, you support research that makes this a possibility. Humans stand to benefit from this technology, as organ donors will be more plentiful if they are not limited to humans.

2. Cloning an Endangered Species – Earlier this year, scientists successfully cloned a member of an extinct species for the first time. This is an important accomplishment for obvious reasons, and it likely would not have been possible without consumers who wanted to clone a pet. Their financial support funded the research that led to this event.

1. Transgenics – Animal cloning scientists have recently cloned the first transgenic dog. Ruppy is a puppy that was born possessing the genes of dogs and sea anemones, making him glow red in ultraviolet light. This birth has proven that trangenic cloning is possible and can be successful. The implications of this finding are immense. Dogs can now be cloned with human genes, allowing scientists to study human diseases.

Booger: Another Cloned Hero

Bernann McKinney's dog, Booger, saved her life when she was brutally attacked by another dog. Even though the dog was three times his size, Booger managed to scare him off. Both McKinney and Booger sustained injuries, hers more serious than the dog's. When Booger was fully recovered, he went to work helping McKinney recover. Although he was not trained as a service dog, he learned to help her remove shoes and clothing, pull her wheelchair, fetch things for her, and open doors for her. Booger is a wonderful example of why it can be a good idea to clone a pet. It takes a special dog to step up and be more than a companion in trying times, and Booger was just the dog to do so. It would be difficult to find a better argument for having a pet cloned.

When Booger died in 2006, McKinney reached out to the Korean biotechnology firm RNL Bio with a request to have her pet cloned. The firm succeeded last year, producing five descendants of Booger, created through the cloning process. McKinney has decided to keep three of the dogs as her own and donate two of them as service dogs to work with people who have special needs.

Deciding whether it is right to clone your pet is a major decision. In McKinney's case, it was an easy one. Starting the cloning process was a bit more complicated – McKinney had legal difficulties getting Booger's genetic material to the cloning company and had to sell her house to pay for the procedure. However, as McKinney concluded, using the cloning process to make dogs like Booger is, without a doubt, helpful to her and to other humans. Booger's triumphant story of overcoming his owner's attacker and then helping her through a long recovery process is proof that our society should support the cloning process and related technology.