Last week Genetic Savings and Clone (yes, their real name) of College Station, Texas announced that they successfully cloned a cat.
The ultimate aim, according to the popular press, of Genetic Savings and Clone is to one day clone your dead pets. The Humane Society suggests that such cloning “serves no compelling purpose.” Well, obviously clones of dead pets are “compelling” to some (more than likely those to whom freeze-dried dead pets are so compelling), but the question remains, do you really want a live replica of your dead cat running around the house?
Perhaps the widespread practice of cat cloning is some years off. Certain portentous signs such as the Schwarzenegger movie The Sixth Day point to an even more immediate inculcation of house pet cloning, though. Yes, although many of you may not have seen it, in that poorly conjured apocalyptic science-fiction extravaganza, Arnold takes his dead dog to the clone shop to be.cloned. He comes home with a clone of his dead dog. His little girl never knows the difference. Complications arise, however, when Arnold, too, is cloned and several Schwarzeneggers are all of a sudden unleashed on the world.
So far folks have cloned a great many things, including sheep and oxen, among other barnyard fare. And so far, those in cloning seem to have concentrated their efforts on utilitarian purposes. If cloned sheep can save lives or produce extra-warm wool, then these are good things to be gleaned. But what, may I ask, is quite the point of cloning yourr cat?
A cloned cat can’t be identical to its immediate ancestor, either physically or mentally. Indeed, the pattern of colors on a cat’s fur is determined by its position in the womb, among other things. And while a cloned cat might be given to similar behaviors as its parent, it cannot possibly have the same experiences-experiences that may have been essential in concocting your late cat’s charms.
When my cat was a smaller cat, he slept in the sink. (Now, he no longer fits in the sink.even the kitchen sink.) Would my cat’s clone sleep in the sink, too? No and no, and I’ll tell why. First, we have a different sink. Second, we locked my cat in the bathroom most nights in order to train him to use the cat litter box, and despite the nice, comfortable bed arranged just so on the cold, tiled floor, my cat, for reasons of his own, preferred the basin-style sink, even when the faucet was given to drip. There’s no guarantee we would employ identical training methods with this hypothetical clone.
So basically, if you clone your cat, you’re getting a different cat anyway. You might as well go out and buy some other cat. Try something new. There are plenty of cats to go around. Also, you might try dogs. Some people even have pigs. And there are these little furry things called bush babies that are kind of in vogue, I think. But, then, I’m not going to force the issue.
I’ve been happy with my uncloned cats. I’m sure you will be too.

Popularity: unranked [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2002 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Cadenza. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.