STAR BORES: ATTACK OF THE CLONES

August 10, 2008

Well nothing can be more boorish then the wealthy and their frivolous

spending, but this news article that is proliferating on the wire services

this week is worthy of note to the animal welfare community:

But what it means to animal conservation efforts is not clear, as the

privately owned company is marketing it's cloning service to the rich and

famous first, with no mention of zoos on the company website:

RNL BIO's website is interesting in it's own right, as one can find organic

rice and dietary aids laced with genetic material, and also learn that

stem-cell research is done in partnership with John Hopkins School of

Medicine in the US. RNL is also producing cancer-sniffing canines as clones

and even have a drug-sniffing variation as well.

Well, I don't know about you, but I am starting to sniff something putrid in

all of this: a Korean Company Cloning Canines. But putting my racism aside,

there are many of us here that wish the breeding of wild animals in zoos (in

the name of conservation) would stop, as there are just as many that support

this effort - and then some that haggle over the details: is a

Siberian-Bengal tiger breed in Canada really a tiger? But here is the

question to all: is the commercial cloning of mammals a positive checkpoint

on the animal welfare front or a negative one? Do you support RNL BIO's

efforts in this regard, or are you ready to create an online petition and

then hit the streets in protest?

Personally, I am confused. If rich Americans want to clone Boogers at 10,000

usd a pop (that is the discounted rate by the way) then who am I to say this

is stupid, noting that 50,000 usd for a litter of pups could be better spent

elsewhere in the pet community. And if cloning companies start proliferating

and creating camel clones for Sheiks in the mid-east, who am I to say this

won't benefit mankind, or perhaps not, as the cost of this cloning will no

doubt be passed on to the petro-consuming public. And if the wildlife

conservation community somehow gets into the act (partnership/contracts with

RNL BIO-associated companies), and starts cloning Bengal tigers in Nepal,

for a re-population and re-balancing of the world ecosystem, who am I to

question the wisdom in that?

Still, something is stinking me thinks.

Jigs in Nepal

Recommended Posts