new island of dr moreau

[Guest guest]

The Modern-Day Island of Dr. Moreau

Heather Moore, IMPACT Press

October 12, 2001

 

Virtually every species of domesticated animal has been tampered with...

Non-allergenic cats, glow-in-the-dark bunnies, mutant monkeys,

silk-producing goats, giant mice, " Frankenfish, " Enviropigs, etc.

Transgenic " Pets " In two years, Transgenic Pets, LLC, of Syracuse, N.Y.,

plans to sell cats who have been genetically engineered so that they

won't trigger allergies in people.... If the resulting modified cats

somehow turn out healthy--which is unlikely--they will be interbred and

their offspring will be sold for $750 to $1,000 each... Dr. Yang does

not know what will happen if the protein is removed from cats. He says

that they will " just have to remove it and see what happens. " ... Avner

chose not to mention that mortality rates for animals in transgenic

research are very high--80 to 90 percent--and that animals who do

survive are frequently born with severe physical abnormalities,

including missing limbs, facial clefts, and massive brain defects.

 

Designer Animals

 

Transgenic " artist " Eduardo Kac wanted to exhibit a glow-in-the-dark

dog, but since that technology was not yet possible, he commissioned

scientist Louis-Marie Hodebine and others at the National Institute of

Agronomic Research in France to create a fluorescent green bunny, named

Alba... Kac had intended to take custody of Alba, but because of growing

concerns for her welfare and the potentially devastating effect the

bunny would have on the ecosystem if she were to escape and reproduce,

she was not released to Kac. An assistant professor of art and

technology in Chicago, Kac contends that transgenic art is " important

because it places genetic engineering in a social context in which the

relationship between the private and the public spheres are negotiated.

In other words, biotechnology, the private realm of family life, and the

social domain of public opinion are discussed in relation to one

another. " To put it simply, he thought it would be really cool to have

an animal that glows in the dark.

 

.... The Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, recently implanted

jellyfish genes in at least 14 rhesus macaque monkey fetuses, and the

Oregon Regional Primate Research Center (ORPRC) made headlines for

" creating " ANDi ( " inserted DNA " abbreviated backwards). ANDi is the sole

survivor of 40 embryos (also inserted with jellyfish genes) that were

implanted in rhesus monkeys.

 

.... Perhaps even more disturbing is that the ORPRC receives funding from

the well-known birth defect charity March of Dimes. Most contributors to

the March of Dimes are completely unaware that their donations are

given to scientists at facilities that waste precious research dollars

and animals' lives by genetically engineering animals.

 

....Many people also fear that these transplants will result in the

emergence of new,

deadly human diseases. Regardless, Cambridge, England-based Imutran,

the world leader in xenotransplantation, has been breeding pigs with a

human gene in an attempt to create animal organs that will not be easily

rejected during human transplant operations. A Daily Express exposé of

Imutran reported that the company caused horrible suffering when

transplanting the modified pigs' hearts and kidneys into monkeys.

According to witnesses, the animals were huddled together, shivering,

and having spasms. Some had swellings or bruises; some had blood or pus

seeping from their wounds. Others vomited or suffered from diarrhea.

Many of the primates died during the operation because of " technical

failures. " Others died from organ failure just days later.

 

PPL Therapeutics, the same firm that cloned Dolly, committed a serious

ethical infringement by inserting the DNA of a Danish woman into

thousands of New Zealand sheep without her knowledge or consent. The

company hopes to make a profit from this action by extracting a protein,

which it claims might help cure diseases such as cystic fibrosis, from

the modified sheep's milk.

 

Nexia Biotechnologies, one of Canada's most prominent animal transgenic

companies,

believes it is " on the verge " of producing goats that will secrete

spiders' silk in their milk. Nexia scientists expect the offspring from

two male transgenic goats and a herd of unmodified females to produce

milk containing the spider silk protein, which Nexia plans to use to

manufacture a material lighter and stronger than steel. Nexia will

supposedly use the material for aircraft, racing vehicles, bulletproof

clothes, sutures, and artificial tendons, ligaments, and limbs.

 

Super-Sized Animals

 

After Se-Jin Lee, a professor of genetics at Johns Hopkins University

in Baltimore, discovered a gene that regulates muscle growth and

accidentally produced a family of giant mice, the University set up

MetaMorphix, a company that would attempt to develop giant lobsters,

chickens, pigs, sheep, and cattle by blocking the genes that limit the

animals' natural growth.

 

The gene-blocking procedure is being widely used to create super-size

fish, deemed

" Frankenfish " by opponents of genetic manipulation.

 

But genetically altering animals to grow larger and more rapidly is

nonsensical considering that humans are perfectly healthy, and far

better off, without meat and dairy products. It's even more absurd to

engineer cows to produce more milk when there is already a surplus of

milk in the United States and Europe. But that hasn't stopped Monsanto,

a chemical firm, from using BST (bovine somatotropin) to induce cows

into producing excess milk.

 

Sixteen years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it

had created the

world's first transgenic livestock animal. The result horrified the

public--sickly, mutant pigs crippled by gastric ulcers, arthritis, and

other illnesses. Undeterred, experimenters are continuing to fiddle with

pigs until they mutate them into practically different beings.

[Guest guest]

There was a photo in this Saturday's Grauniad of a transgenic pig

with a glow in the dark orange nose. It seems they had crossbred it

with the genes of a jellyfish.

 

Apparently a pig with a glowing orange nose is a great step forward

for peoplekind, and will have no end of medical benefits...

 

Don't it make you proud to be human???

 

Gosh we're so clever.

 

graham