Outrage at dog cloning
After photographer Monni Must’s daughter Miya, 28, committed suicide while in the midst of an abusive relationship, the grieving mother adopted Miya’s spunky black Labrador, Billy Bean.
Last year, as the 10th anniversary of her daughter’s death approached, the dog was nearing 13 and becoming increasingly frail.
“I knew I was falling apart. The thought of Billy dying was just more than I could handle.”
So Must decided to clone her – paying more than $50 000 for what is essentially an identical twin of Billy. “I have three other daughters and they thought I had completely lost my mind.”
Cloning animals is hardly new. The first major success was Dolly the sheep, born in 1996 as the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. In 2005, researchers in South Korea cloned the first dog.
But the news this week that singer Barbra Streisand had cloned her dog grabbed international headlines, and sparked outrage from animal rights groups.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) president Ingrid Newkirk issued a statement saying she would “love to have talked her out of cloning”, noting that “millions of wonderful adoptable dogs are languishing in animal shelters every year or dying in terrifying ways...”
Vicki Katrinak, programme manager for animal research issues at the Humane Society of the US, agreed.
Companies that clone animals are “preying on grieving pet owners, giving them a false promise that they are going to replicate their beloved pet,” she said. –