The Revolution will not be Cloned

T

he first cat cloning project was conducted by Texas A&M University in collaboration with the pet cloning company, Genetic Savings and Clone. The result was the birth of CC (“Copy Cat”) in 2002, who shared the same “cell lines” with her genetic mother Rainbow.

Humans hoping for an identical copy were disappointed though. In spite of sharing identical cell lines with her genetic mother, CC was not a “Copy Cat” of Rainbow. Their coat colors were different; their personalities were different. This is because gene activation for many characteristics can be random—it can also depend on nutrition, environment and a whole host of unpredictable factors where minor variations can amplify effects. In simple language, genetic reductionism is too simplistic a model for a complex organism. Just observe cats for one day, and you’ll understand; we’re complex, emotional beings that cannot be reduced to a stereotype or a gene sequence. We are not our genes, and the humans need to wake up to the complexity of our existence. If humans (understandably) want a similar successor to their recently departed pet, they can easily find one of us at the local shelter who looks fairly similar, yet necessarily different. There is value in grieving a pet’s passing, but there is even greater value in choosing your successor cat from a shelter instead of opting for expensive and unnecessary cloning procedures.

Rights to key cloning technologies are owned by private corporations to ensure future profits. Outside of “retail cloning,” cloning for medical purposes is always portrayed as having the potential to benefit large numbers of people and even the animals themselves. Typically, this involves cloning animal models of disease or cloning to make stem cells. In a weakly regulated and privatized environment as is typical in neoliberal capitalism, the benefits will likely accrue mostly to the fabulously wealthy corporations who can profit from the research and wealthy individuals who can afford expensive treatments.

The profiting is already underway. The cloning research at Texas A&M has spawned an industry of cat cloning. A global pet cloning industry led by ViaGen Pets today clones cats for $35,000 and dogs for $50,000. You can imagine how may thousands of cats can benefit if instead of cloning, wealthy owners redirected their resources to other more effective ways of helping cats. Unfortunately, ViaGen is encouraging owners to preserve their cats genes through genetic preservation, and many cat owners have indeed done this according to the ViaGen website. ViaGen claims on their website that “Your cloned cat will share many of the most important attributes of your current cat, including appearance, intelligence and temperament.“ This sounds a lot like genetic reductionism. If you ever choose the cloning route for whatever reason, please insist that the cloning company provide detailed information on what they exactly mean by "similar," and how much of the similarity is predictable and how much of it is random. Will the benefits of cloning cats and conducting related research outweigh the costs? Not likely. Note that Start Licensing, a subsidiary of ViaGen, owns the cloning patent.

The cat world revolution will not be cloned; cloning cats is the antithesis of Cat World Domination. Just say no to genetic preservation, and please adopt your next cat from the local pet shelter.

P.S. CC passed away at the age of 18 in 2020.