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The physical resemblance to the deceased cat
combined with this disappointment could be so
great that the owner begins to resent the clone
for not being identical in personality to the
previous cat. I have seen this when an owner
adopts a cat which is "the spitting image of
my old one" . Resented for being itself, the
cat is all too often returned to the shelter or
breeder, or worse it is neglected or abandoned. A
resented clone, or multiple clones, could simply
add to the feline overpopulation problem.
Loss of
Diversity and Cloning for Curiosity
Cloned animals have the same genetic make-up as
the tissue donor. You can breed the clones
together and get different-looking offspring, but
there is only a limited variety of genes which can
be passed around. Using clones in a breeding
program means losing genetic diversity while
increasing the incidence (concentration) of other
genes in the breeding population. Using clones of
stud cats is likely increase the incidence of
inbreeding.
The problem of inbreeding is covered in my
article "The Pros and Cons
of Inbreeding". Because the clones are
genetically identical, genetic diversity will
being lost. This could lead to lower disease
resistance especially to a new disease, greater
incidence of harmful defects (as more of the
breeding population carry the genes for those
defects) and reduced fertility when breeding in
the time-honored male-impregnates-female way. It
leads to what is known as a genetic bottleneck and
a loss of hybrid vigor.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
are opposed to the cloning of endangered species,
fearing that the cloned animals will be bred for
zoos and that nothing will be done about
preserving the species in the wild by preserving
its wild habitat. Take it one step further and
there is the problem of resurrecting an animal
e.g. a mammoth whose habitat has already vanished.
This is cloning for curiosity's sake. What does
this have to do with cats? What if a mutated cat
is born which is so deformed it cannot breed, but
which breeders think is 'kinda cute'? Create a few
clones and use surrogate mothers of course!
Curiosity might clone the cat.
There are benefits in cloning endangered
species or cloning livestock for selective
breeding e.g. cloning from animals which don't
carry harmful genetic traits, cloning those which
are genetically resistant to certain diseases or
rapidly increasing the breeding population of an
endangered species. Cloning technology could
produce cattle herds free of the prion protein
gene which causes BSE (mad cow disease) and which
appears to be transmissible to humans, causing New
Variant CJD (vCJD).
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