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Get the Family Dog Cloned
Anonymous writes "Some of you may have seen 'The 6th Day,' the movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger a few years back. If you recall there was a 're-pet' cloning service to get your dog back if you ever lost them. Enter 'Best Friends Again': 'A US biotech company on Wednesday announced it will auction off the right for five dog owners to have their furry best friend cloned, with bidding starting at 100,000 dollars. "BioArts International ... will sell five dog cloning service slots to the general public via a worldwide online auction," the California-based biotech start-up said in a statement.'"
are Playboy bunnies.
wonder if I can clone them too...
- Human knowledge belongs to the world
If we can put a man on the moon, I should be able to get my dog cloned for under 100k.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Let's hope that this company has greater success than earlier ones...
(Yeah, I know that the wired article says "Dead cats", but Genetic Savings & Clone was also a dog cloning company)
Let's face it, you are going to have to invest the time to re-train the clone, so isn't genetically descended almost identical to genetically-identical in practical terms?
Liam Lynch had him cat cloned after it died.
There is no promise your pet is going to be the same pet that left you. To me this spits in the face of nature. Not that I am against cloning, but to think you can bring a loved one... even in part back from the dead is a tragic notion.
I have seen this stuff before and remember the pet may not even come back looking the same. Even if they got it looking EXACTLY THE SAME, the memories, the personality, the... soul will not be the same.
All it will do is leave you missing your loved one more. Just let it go, and keep them in your heart. Mittens / Fido will always live on inside you *Yes yes sappy but it's true and you KNOW IT*
WYSIWAG... puppy and paste...
they take those pictures?
hilarious
So how many deformed and killed 'non viable' cloned puppies does it take to produce a successful one.
(Can you tell I am totally against this.)
The cloning process is kind of lossy. A lot of mutations can occur in the process, and as a result the cloned animal is likely to be unhealthy.
I saw them try this with a bull in the first TV episode of This American Life. The results were not good.
Synopsis: The original bull was nice. The cloned bull was irritable, short-tempered and just not quite right. Also, he kicked the owner in the balls.
I suppose you could just take from that the irony that the cloned animal managed to block its cloner's own ability to reproduce conventionally. But you could also just note that cloned bull was really ugly. You probably won't get what you wanted, unless you delude yourself into thinking you have it.
My neighbour's dog is a lot nicer than mine. I'd rather clone his and then we each have one. No need for the whole "you call him, I call him and we see who he runs to"...
QuantumPete
I assumed you were just pretending to love the dog to toy with my emotions. Oh, what have I done?
*crying*
Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?
It's better to grow up knowing sad things happen and finding healthy tools to deal with that...not than anyone on /. needs improved life skills or anything..
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More difficult than primates? Why is that?
I would rather get another dog and try to make his individual being love and respect me as the old one did and try to love and respect him for what he is. Cloning cheapens the value of the individual existence. The reason why people want copies is so they can forget about the original.
Can they clone my Aibo and make it black?
how do you know that the dog you get back from this company will be the same as your old dog. it could just be a dog they found in a kennel which looks exactly the same as your dog. your be so emotionally involved that you wont notice.
sink, swim, score and be happy
...and no Companion Cube cloning service?
Run to de BIO ARTS INTERNATIONAL Cloning Center!!! Arghghghghghhh!!!!
Because I was under the impression that cloning did not account for the individuality of each dog's coat. Another thread mentioned the irritability of a cloned bull but I doubt it was due to the cloning.
When it comes to dogs; my mother breeds, judges, and shows, a certain purebred; the bulk of good dog / bad dog behavior that owners see is largely governed by how much time the puppy had with its mother. Ideally it should be twelve weeks. This is not saying you can't breed in aggressiveness as it had been done to shepherds and the respectable breeders spent a generations (of dogs) trying to get it out.
The first few weeks in the care of a new owner will set the new puppy on his path to an individual personality. The key to getting a good dog versus a bad dog is : treat it nicely and give it space. If the new dog needs the reassurance of your company it will seek you out. Don't yell at the dog or around it. The pet is looking for acceptance and if you yell at your kids/spouse/tv etc it will affect the dog. About the "space" item, if a dog wants to get away the let it; provided of course its safe. I have seen more than one puppy returned as a nervous wreck to my parents because one kid or adult in the new owner family simply would not let the dog alone, the interesting side story is that these people took their kid to a psychiatrist who basically told them the kid was not mature enough for a pet but they tried anyway . They have their needs for rest too.
Am I against cloning pets or animals. Not if its used to protect a breed from extinction. I still would not have much qualms about it being done for the end owner. Now if cloning of pets is done for wholesale retail then that I would is nothing better than having mills. Worse is the number of bitches needed and who are basically abused to deliver the pups (I assume it still requires a womb)
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Dogs reproduce well enough on their own without requiring us to artificially inflate the supply via cloning.
This incredible technological advance could be of unparalleled value to people like my neighbor, as well as to certain endangered species. The neighbor owned a horrid little chihuahua that never learned either to shut up or, apparently, to look up.
We live on a major hawk migration route.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
A Labrador retriever, that is. They all look more or less exactly the same, and have exactly the same friendly personality.
Or just brave the wilds of adopting a new random dog. There's already way too many of them for anyone's good, without cloning up more in the world.
These cloning fees should include a $1000 donation to a programme that neuters 20 other dogs. If we're going to clone biodiversity out of the gene pool, we might as well get aggressive. After all, it's a dog eat dog world.
--
make install -not war
Am I the only one wondering what the odds are that the dog would come back evil like in Pet Cemetery? I read through the FAQs on the site and I didn't see anything about this. They would have to disclose it if there were, say, a one in ten chance that the cloned dog would turn on its master and try to kill your family, right? Right?!
I'm not dead yet!
To most pet lovers, that cherished "once-in-a-lifetime" dog or cat should remain just that. In February of 2004, the AAVS (American Anti-Vivisection Society) commissioned Opinion Research Corporation to conduct a national survey to assess public opinion about cloning pets. Eighty percent of the respondents were not in favor of cloning companion animals or the selling of genetically altered animals as pets. But for the 13% of respondents that are in favor of pet cloning, financial issues may well be the obstacle.
Genetic Savings & Clone, a gene banking and cloning service for pets, is currently offering to store a treasured pet's genetic material in the hopes that the owner will take advantage of cloning that pet in the future. Currently the cost to "bank" a pet's DNA, or genetic material, with GSC (Genetic Savings & Clone) varies from $295 to $1,395 plus $100-$150 annually for storage fees. The cost for cloning is a different story. According to the GSC website, expect to pay $32,000. And to date they have only been successful with cloning cats.
Yet, for all of the technology and expense involved, exact replicas of cloned animals are not always produced. In fact, due to unusual genetics, calico cats will rarely produce clones that physically resemble the donor. Cloning opponents contend that an exact replica of a pet is impossible, as training, experience, and environment are keys to an individual's behavior and personality. Even worse animal that have been cloned often have severe health problems, and a short life expectancy.
The industry is almost totally unregulated and strong opinions on both sides of the cloning issue seek to educate the public about the benefits, or lack thereof, of pet cloning. While tremendous publicity accompanies cloning successes, the public rarely hears about animal cloning failures.
The greatest publicity surrounds the cloning of pets when actually the majority of cloning is intended for agriculture, biomedical research, and propagation of endangered species. But in all cases, there are potential commercial applications.
For example, HorseCloning.com will make a clone of your horse for $375,000 per 100 mares implanted plus a patent royalty fee of 15%, based on the estimated value of each clone. According to their web site information, "All sales are final," and "even though no one can guarantee a specific result, you could hit the jackpot." Last but not least, "due to the complexity of the science, results cannot be guaranteed."
The cloning science is similar in most species, although there are some challenges with the cloning of dogs. Dogs have poorly understood reproductive physiology compared to other species and fewer estrus cycles.
Basically, the cloning procedure begins with collecting the DNA of the animal to be cloned. The tissue is grown and the cells are preserved while being treated to prevent them from differentiating into a particular cell type (hair, skin, nerve cell).
Eggs are taken from random females for implantation, and the genetic material from these eggs is removed. Cells and eggs are fused together to become cloned embryos. Surrogate females are then hormonally treated to synchronize their fertile periods and are then implanted with the cloned embryos. In the best scenario, the surrogate pregnancy produces a live, healthy offspring.
While moral and ethical issues of cloning pets continue to be argued, both sides seem to be closer concerning the problem of endangered species. Betty Dresser, Director of the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species in New Orleans says, "Saving habitat may not be enough. Any tool for saving endangered species is important. Cloning is just another reproductive tool, like in-vitro
I'm allergic to furry animals. I want my favorite pet goldfish cloned. And for $100k I better get several thousand clones.
Part of truely loving something is knowing when to let go.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Although I think he's happier there with a 360-degree view of the Nevada mountains and valleys he grew up in. . .
What?
If we develop brain scanning and want to imitate a Schwarzenegger movie, I want to see a blue sky on Mars!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Coming soon, "Grandparents forever" ...
Karma knock or not, it's spelled cemetery.
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I have a rudimentary understanding of genetics, but I understand that telomeres are shortened with each cell division, and when they run out, no more cell division can occur. Essentially this is "old age". When an old dog is cloned, how long will the cloned puppy live? Until the telomeres can be lengthened before the initial cell division begins in the new lifeform, this seems like a cruel service. When we figure out how to lengthen telomeres in dogs, then we've pretty much got longevity treatments for humans, who can then live hundreds of years, and then not many people will be as concerned with cloning dogs as they will be about lengthening their lives.
This is a serious question: Imagine you had an old or ailing pet, and you loved them very much indeed, and so when they died you wanted to maintain the (infinitesimally slim) possibility that the pet could be successfully cloned sometime in the future.
What would you need of the pet's... remains... in order to produce a successful clone? Fur? Saliva? Blood cells? Seriously, I'm asking.
And as for the clone-lacking-a-soul comments I've seen higher up, The animal's DNA is placed into the nucleus of an egg and the fertilized egg is implanted into the uterus of a living animal. The only step that is really missing is the copulation. The only way that a soul would be missing is if sex was the act that implanted/created a soul, and I have serious doubts about that. The ratio of sex to pregnancy is much too large, we'd be living in a world overrun by disembodied souls.
I never watched the 6th day, but the "Re-Pet" was used in Total Recall, before Arnold finds Recall.
-zariok-
...will some of them turn out really dumb?
But seriously, I think some people with more money than brains are going to extremely disappointed with the results. A cat cloned at Texas A&M didn't look any more like the mother than a normally bred kitten would. It also had a totally different personality--which most people wanting a clone of a particular pet would be to get the identical personality. Clones at this stage are not carbon copies--I suspect there's a lot more to the breakdown of the genome than we know. Or perhaps...there's the soul factor....
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
You should look closely at the "best friends again" website. Apparently the webmaster had different views about cloning and put up his own quote from Yoda in the image alt text. Look closely at this page from the company and see the alt image text on the company's quote on the bottom of the page.
http://www.bestfriendsagain.com/missyplicity/index.html
"Blind we are, if creation of this clone army we could not see. -- Yoda"
Lol, nice work
9,600,000 animals are euthanized in the United States every year.
anyone can go out and get a dog that "looks" like old yeller, so why bother? It's going to be a different dog! You still have to re-train and it's not going to behave the same way either.
Besides, I am just so beside myself at the very notion of this. Everyone is trying to "protect" themselves from emotional pain - let's stop keeping score of baseball games so little Johnny isn't hurt when he doesn't win - let's clone old yeller so little Johnny doesn't ever have to be sad and worry about losing someone he loves - WAKE UP PEOPLE! If you don't emotionally train yourself to handle problems, the world is going to be in a very difficult position. You can't protect everyone from everything - people have to suffer emotions - it's part of the growing process!!!
very silly if you ask me...
Speaking of dog vs cat psychology, there is one major factor that can make dogs uniquely problematic. As you say, they are pack animals. The problem with this is in how a pack works. There are the dominant members of the pack, and there are the submissive ones. As such, dogs are always on the lookout for when they can move up in the pack hierarchy. They're basically always looking for any sign of weakness you might show so that they can exploit it and turn the tables on you.
So yeah, they're pretty much the same as teenagers.
On the first episode of the This American Life tv show they covered the story of what happened when people tried to clone a very docile bull. Let's just say that one of the owners ended up in the hospital after the cloned bull gored him. (This story originally aired on the radio show)
I'm willing to bet that the people who get these cloned pets won't get what they bargained for.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
HELLO PEOPLE, don't you remember when Church came back, he was never the same...
Is a dog with a much longer lifespan. I really don't like to think that my little dog will only live 13 to 17 years, but a friend of mines bird will probably out live all of us 30 somethings.
Arnold already taught us that this is wrong in The Sixth Day. One day you're taking the dog to the mall to get cloned, next thing you wake up in a daze, watching a clone of yourself hugging your kids and screwing your wife. (BTW I thought that movie was underrated.)
If you go to hell you will meet your cat again. (And your cats dark lord...)
Only now the size ratio will be reversed.
And you can't die, you are already dead. Enjoy eternity being 'played with' by your cat.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
And I think I'm typical when I say of my dog, "I wouldn't take a million dollars for her & I wouldn't give you twenty-five cents for another one just like her".
A *clone*?! No Way!
So is the personality the same? If not, this is entirely pointless.
Either way, it's too creepy for me. Some things we should just let happen. If we can try to increase the length of life for our pet if they have cancer or something, then we should do it. But if they are going to die of natural causes, let it be and enjoy the memory of their life and move on.
Need an automatic screenshot taker? Try here.
Cloning is against God's will. Please don't clone any animals.
Carrie -The Christmas Angel
My wife and I have dogs, cats, and intermittantly, the more ephemeral hamsters and fish.
Setting aside the philosophical discussions for a moment, their behaviour suggests they have memory and personality.
Suggests it well enough that even if it's not really there, it's close enough to fool us.
We love them.
The thing about most types of pets is that we will watch all but the very last ones die.
When the animal dies, the memories are gone.
While some of the personality is due to breeding, most of that is gone, too.
Folks, the "clones" in the movies where they run off a new body in a 30-second special effects sequence, then download a lifetime of memories in a bright flash of light are not real.
We'll have an economical superluminal vehicle before we get that sort of clone tech.
We will soon be able to cheaply clone the bodies of mammals (including ourselves).
This changes nothing--It's simply yet another scam to fleece the bereaved.
When you arrive home and that little furry rocket zips around the room so happy to see you that he can't stand still, pet his head and rub his belly and tell him he's a good dog.
Don't pretend if that one breaks you can go out and buy another one just like it.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
I would totally make about 10 copies of the same dog and give them all the same name. This would be incredibly funny on a walk in the park. My dog's name is Legion;)=
So wait, almost 200 replies and nothing about Seymour (at least that I can see from a quick glance through the comments)?
Shame on you all. WHAT DO WE WANT? FRY'S DOG! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? FRY'S DOG!
...always is and always will be until the world turns inside-out and rids itself of all greedy humans.
Alternatively, it could be cut longitudinally and have each side framed, could have one in the living room and the other in the bedroom.
...that having money is no guarantee of having brains capable of rational thought.
I love dogs, but especially the few I've really gotten to actually know. They have unique personalities. Dogs, of course, have easily-identifiable traits or instincts, in common. But their unique personalities will NEVER be transfered via cloning, ever. These creatures are not single-cell, divide-to-replicate, beings... they are sentient beings whose unique personalities are shaped by their treatment (experience).
And while this useless hairball is dropping 50k on a piss-poor imitation of her so-called 'friend', 8 million dogs and cats will be euthanized in the US, this year. This brainless 'lady' is one sick bitch.
Someone please mod parent flamebait and/or offtopic; I can't think of any more appropriate situation to do so. Nobody really cares to know that much, nor wants a third party shoving it in their face.
(Mod me offtopic too if you'd like, but I needed to call the parent out - it's just too mean-spirited.)
Ah, I stand corrected about the telomeres. It appears that independent studies on the length of telomere chains in cloned animals disagreed with each other (high error margin?), and the media originally reported the worst case scenario. I see now that the actual consensus appears to be that the telomeres are not depleted in the clone. I am not against cloning whole animals, or even parts of animals or the human animal, with the assistance of stem cell technologies. I think that the acceptance of the ability to repair or replace one's damage d or missing body parts will be a major breakthrough. Cloning is probably not all that difficult once you have the lab set up, so these companies charging $100,000 for a cloned pet will likely probably have a high profit margin. However, their entire business model depends on their clients emotional state, which is borderline ethical in my opinion. I also think they're charging way too much. Otherwise, I'd run down to the hardware store and get a Cloninator for the home, if there was such a thing, to bring back the facsimile of my little dog.
Good luck finding two geneticists who agree how much that changes the clone, but virtually all agree that it does make a difference, and the clones are not as alike the original as identical twins created via enbryonic splitting.
Cloning is more difficult for some species than for others. From what I know, dog cloning is extremely difficult. The defunct pet cloning company Genetic Savings & Clone spent millions trying to do it. As for the emotional state of the clients, sounds like you're saying there's no rational reason to want to clone a dog? What if you have a neutered mutt of unknown parentage, and you've owned or known a lot of different canine breeds and mixes in the past, and you think your current mutt is the best -- perfectly suited to your preference and your image of the ideal dog. That's a subjective opinion, to be sure, though the dog may also be unusually intelligent, athletic, healthy, etc. With conventional breeding options, you'd be hard pressed to get another dog with that same mix. With cloning, you'll get that exact same mix again -- pretty impressive in my opinion.