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South Korean Scientists Clone Dog
Ebon Praetor writes "According to the BBC and Reuters, South Korean scientists have created the world's first cloned dog, an Afghan hound. The research purpose of the research is ostensibly to produce research animals and not for commercial purposes. Dogs are especially difficult to clone, but the scientists were able to extract DNA from a skin cell, inject it into an egg, and implant the egg into a surrogate mother."
Dammit where is the half dog half alligator? This whole cloning regular animals thing is getting boring.
What, are they running out of their favorite food over there? *ba-dum-bump*
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The organizers of the Iditerod prepare for scandal worse than major league baseball and and olympic running, combined!
He can be his own best friend
Why are cloning dogs "notoriously difficult"? Is it because of the wide range of variability within the species?
"a frisky, healthy, normal, rambunctious puppy."
If you ignore the glowing red eyes, caustic drool, and an unearthly howl that makes babies cry and causes normal dogs who hear it to lose bowel control, chew through their leads, and leap in front of FedEx trucks.
I hold nothing but extreme vitriol towards people that breed dogs when there are so many cats and dogs that are out on the streets and in shelters needing good homes. Same goes towards any pet store that sells cats and dogs.
People, please spay or neuter your pets and don't allow your ego to perpetuate the suffering of homeless cats and dogs.
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From the NYTimes story:
* Can't stimulate estrus with hormones, as you can with other animals. (Doggy estrus is weird. I read about it while reading up on dogs prior to adopting one. Very complex process, and messy. Glad my pup is spayed.)
* Difficult to detect ovulation.
* Eggs are not ripe when they leave the ovary. They have to be nabbed as they travel through the fallopian tube, modified, and reinserted within a few hours.
The research purpose of the research is...
Wait, research has research purpose? When did this happen?
His stated goal was to create a new golf club to allow every blissful, well-fed citizen to achieve holes-in-one, even on tricky dog legs.
Up next: Kim writes The Iliad and Beowulf in one afternoon, after using his psyonic powers to defeat Canada (in preparation for a crippling attack of their southern neighbor).
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
"You can't teach an old dog new tricks" was easy to remember, and often true.
So, what is it now? You can now teach your new old dog new tricks? Or, you can only re-teach your new dog's tricks to the old dog? Do the old tricks come pre-installed, and how many new tricks can you stack on top?
Wait, you can't teach your old dog new tricks, but the new dog....
Forget it...
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Whether or not people have objections about cloning based on moral or religious reasons, I doubt that anyone would be willing to accept a 1 in 1000 success rate for attempting to clone a person. Whether or not the clones have souls, are real people, or any of the other arguments that apply, I don't think people would want 999 failures out of 1000 tries.
So until people become more accepting of cloning and the science is able to produce reliable results, I don't think we'll see it done with humans anytime soon.
Quoth the article: "Canine cloning runs contrary to the Kennel Club's objective 'To promote in every way the general improvement of dogs'," Phil Buckley, spokesman for the Kennel Club told the BBC News website.
But the KC does things like register particular breeds of dogs which, due to their popularity, have been improperly bred so that they develop a wide variety of health problems. Some breeds are even prone to genetic disorders even if they aren't inbred. So doesn't promoting the breeding of these susceptible dog breeds detract from the lives of those dogs?
And besides that, there are so many dogs out there that are euthanized because nobody can find homes for them. Doesn't intentionally breeding more dogs in such an environment make life worse (as in, dead) for the dogs that get euthanized?
Yes, I think that cloning animals to be pets is a bad idea, but aside from the multitude of failed clones, I don't get how that's any worse than breeding them. And at least the cloning scientists have a goal of improving the state of medicine for humans.
For testing to have worth a damn, you need to know the genetic history of the animal. Also, you can create animals with a specific genetic disorders to test meds against.
Magine being able to test a drug were all the test animal were identical.
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Read Charlotte's Web, watch Babe, and keep a pig as a pet for a while. See if you don't feel like eating pork any more. I'd bet you would feel a slight bit edgy, but that's only because our culture doesn't make eating pork shameful or socially discourage the practice. If we had the same snide jokes about people eating pigs as we did about people eating dogs, you'd certainly find less people having bacon with their eggs.
If you're not squimish about eating beef, pork, chicken, or any other kind of meat, dog really shouldn't bother you. Yet because our culture identifies dogs and cats as pets and friendly, domesticated creatures we're prone to frown on eating them. To me, it seems as though it's almost viewed in the same light as canabalism.
To be blatantly honest, we Westerns are the ones being hypocritical and irrational for the most part. I don't know whether or not dog tastes good, and I might be willing to try it just for the sake of trying it, but I've been culturally conditioned to not want to eat dog.
Do not attempt to put guilt upon the good breeders out there. It is not their fault for the huge numbers of homeless animals and they should not have their legitimate activities curtailed.
The good breeders promote their breeds by ensuring only the good representatives of the breed are bred. They usually sell their dogs in two classes, show and pet. Show class dogs are show no signs of defect, injury, or disease. They are splendid examples of their breed and will help to keep the breed useful and defect free. Pet quality dogs are usually those whom the breeder to be healthy animals yet not posses the best qualities representative of the breed. They are sold on the condition that they are to be spayed or neutured. Their registration actually prevents unscrupulous buyers from registering litters produced by them.
The good effect of cloning is that by advancements in the procedures it may be possible to eliminate some defects that show up in various types of animals thereby improving the breeds.
I am all for control of the pet population but it is just as selfish to condemn all breeders and sellers as it is to ignore the problem out there. Quite a few states PERMIT puppy-mills (Misourri is one). I am all for shutting down those places and the businesses that use them.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
We generally don't eat predators of any kind. They're generally just not very tasty, whether, cat, dog, ferret, cassowary or whatever.
The only predators we eat on a regular basis are fish.
It's not a cultural issue so much as it is that most predatory species have too little marbling and too much stringy muscle.
Dogs, snakes, and other predators are eaten in the Far East more for the association of the animals' living characteristics than for their flavor.
Seoul National University puppy = Snuppy.