Yesterday I read an article online about a new service offered to pet owners in South Korea. Owners who just can’t let go of their favorite dog now have the option of having them cloned.
This is something we have joked about in our family – my step-son Andrew has suggested the cloning of our cat Bouie as he is such a personality, so affectionate, and so laid back. But I don’t think I would really want my cat cloned. Somehow even if a new cat looked and acted just like him – it still wouldn’t be Bouie. I think it would seem odd and manufactured.
I do feel that cloning a pet would also be a crime when we have such a homeless pet problem and so many pets need a good home. How many homeless pets could given a loving home if less people bought pets from breeders and pet cloning agencies? For this reason I would be against this service being offered to mainstream pet owners.
It’s certain that not everyone will be able to afford the service – it currently runs at $50,000 to $100,000. Most customers for this service are looking to clone working dogs and endangered breeds. For example the South Korean customs service has cloned sniffer dogs as the cost of cloning is far less than the training process and screening that goes into finding dogs to train for their programs.
I’m interested in your opinion! What do you think of the pet cloning service? If the price falls to an affordable level would you ever consider cloning one of your pets? Have you ever had a client pet that you would have liked to clone?
Tell me by leaving a comment on this post…
If there was sufficient demand the price would be much less. Maybe $1000 would be more realistic. But then again how many animals could you save for $1000 dollars? Quite a few i think. In order for clonong to become more of an acceptable practice there would have to be a huge drop in price, little or no chance of defects at an older age due to second rate cels, and last but not least the animal population of cats, and dogs for example would have to be much more controlled, such that there are’nt 1000′s of poor homeless animals just looking for a bit of food and love. In short, the world would have to change quite a bit where domestic cats and dogs are concerned. Having you pet fixed should cost next to nothing. I have had a cat run over by a car and i can’t tell you grief and frustration, and anger i am feeling. If someone gave me the oppurtunity to clone my late cat at an affordable price, i would jump at it, and i would also adopt a homeless kitten just for good measure. Maybe that could be a condition. If you have your late pet cloned, you must adopt at least one other homeless animal.