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  Discussion on Champ Endurance Horse CLONED...
Author Message
Member:
Penner

Posted on Friday, Apr 15, 2005 - 10:47 am:

WOW, I didn't know this was actually being done commercially & the public could do this.

Pieraz, a World Champion endurance horse was a gelding, so could not reproduce, so the owners cloned him.

The cloned horse apparently is to be used as breeding stock, not to be raced.

What do you all think about the implications of this, the ethical, financial, legal, narrowing of the gene pool etc?

Also, a interesting observation, the cloned foal is a chestnut, Pieraz is a grey. Now I know greys can be another color as foals, but did the cloning process "reset" all cells to neonatal status?

Wow, I don't know, this kind of gives me the creeps because where will it end...

https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4443881.stm
Member:
Christos

Posted on Friday, Apr 15, 2005 - 12:06 pm:

Cloning is just reproducing the past, Penner. As such, I do not think it can catch up with current development. While some are trying to reproduce the past, some others are trying to improve the present. I think it is the latter who define the future.
I believe that if there's one thing to worry about with genetics, this is gene modification. Gene reproduction is not such a big thing, whatever the method.
Member:
Canter

Posted on Friday, Apr 15, 2005 - 1:27 pm:

From what I understand, most cloned animals do not lead long & healthy lives (think Dolly the sheep who died prematurely). I can completely understand people wanting to clone a beloved animal, but I personally have a few objections to the whole thing:
a) it's tremendously expensive...wouldn't that money be better spent on researching disease / rescueing the neglected and or abused
b) there's already so many unwanted horses, cats, dogs that are just languishing in humane societies or being euathanized or sent to aution in the case of horses.
c) any creature is not just a product of it's genetics, it's also a product of it's environment & experiences. No guarantees that a cloned animal has the same temperament as the original
d) As I mentioned before, these animals are typically not health and don't live long...why add suffering to the world

I guess the only time I would be in favor of cloning is in the case of an extremely endangered species where all other efforts to preserve it have failed. Then perhaps the benefits outweigh the risks.

Just my humble opinion...
Member:
Warwick

Posted on Friday, Apr 15, 2005 - 1:47 pm:

I was watching a documentary a few months back about cloning animals and apparently the animal they cannot clone - at least to up to this point - is the dog. Something weird in their makeup apparently. There's a clinic in California (Genetic Savings and Clone) that is working on it but they have had no success so far. They have cloned lots of cats - at a cost of $32,000 USD per kitty! No dogs yet though lots of owners are sending in DNA for storage.
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