Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts (28 page)

In a 2008 report, the two groups
: The Humane Society of the United States and the American Anti-Vivisection Society,
Pet Cloning Is NOT for Pet Lovers
(May 22, 2008).

“Few cloned animals…”
: Ibid.

To create Snuppy, the South Korean … in an editorial
: “A Dog’s Life,”
Nature
436 (August 4, 2005): 604.

“It is unlikely that even…”
: Ibid.

Animal Welfare Act
: Animal Welfare Act, 7 U.S.C., Chapter 54, Sections 2131–2159; “Animal Welfare,” 9 C.F.R., Chapter 1, Subchapter A, Parts 1–3. You can read more about these regulations, and view the full text of the law, at “Animal Welfare Act,” National Agricultural Library, United States Department of Agriculture, accessed March 26, 2012,
http://awic.nal.usda.gov/government-and-professional-resources/federal-laws/animal-welfare-act
.

“positive physical contact … of the animal”
: “Exercise for Dogs,” 9 C.F.R. Chapter 1, Subchapter A, Part 3, Section 3.8.

Among other things, the code stated
: “Code of Bioethics,” Genetic Savings & Clone, May 10, 2006,
www.savingsandclone.com/ethics/code_of_bioethics_pet2000.html
(site discontinued, accessed via Internet Archive on February 7, 2012,
http://web.archive.org/web/20060510145114/www.savingsandclone.com/ethics/code_of_bioethics_pet2000.html
).

Hawthorne countered some of these concerns
: Hawthorne, “A Project to Clone Companion Animals,” 229–31.

The A&M researchers got most of their cat eggs
: Mark Westhusin, e-mail to author, February 7, 2012.

“never worked out well
 …
for nuclear transfer”
: Westhusin, e-mail to author, February 2, 2012.

Institutions that receive federal
: Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, National Institutes of Health,
Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals
(rev. August 2002).

Surveys show that more
: The Center for Genetics and Society keeps an excellent running tally of opinion polls on various types of animal cloning, “Animal and Pet Cloning Opinion Polls,” Center for Genetics and Society, accessed June 2, 2011,
www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=470
. See also “Cloning,” Gallup, Inc., accessed March 25, 2012
www.gallup.com/poll/6028/cloning.aspx
; Lydia Saad, “Doctor-Assisted Suicide Is Moral Issue Dividing Americans Most,” accessed on March 25, 2012,
www.gallup.com/poll/147842/doctor-assisted-suicide-moral-issue-dividing-americans.aspx
.

Even the Animal Welfare Act
: Animal Welfare Act, 7 U.S.C., Chapter 54, Sections 2131–2159.

the A&M team adhered
: Westhusin, e-mail message, February 2, 2012.

Though cloners are figuring out
: Ibid.

on September 10, 2009, he announced
: Lou Hawthorne, “Six Reasons We’re No Longer Cloning Dogs.”

“Cloning,” he acknowledged
: Ibid.

Several cloned cows, for instance
: Walton, discussion, December 2010. “Apple 2 Wins at World Dairy Expo,” Bovance, accessed June 24, 2011,
www.bovance.com/news_102008.html
.

Doc, the winning steer
: Walton, discussion, December 2010; “Champion Steer at Iowa State Fair Continues Reign,” Bovance, accessed June 24, 2011,
www.bovance.com/news_083010.html
.

Dolly had been cloned again
 …
just five embryos
: Fiona Macrae, “Dolly Reborn! Four Clones Created of Sheep That Changed Science,”
Daily Mail
, November 30, 2010,
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1334201/Dolly-reborn-Four-clones-created-sheep-changed-science.html
.

$20,000 for the cow
: Walton, in discussion with author via telephone, February 6, 2012.

more than pays for itself
: Walton, discussion, December 2010.

cloning several hundred animals
: Walton, e-mail message to author, June 29, 2011.

Most of its customers are duplicating cattle
: Ibid.

ViaGen has cloned a champion barrel racer
: “Charmayne James and Scamper,” ViaGen, accessed April 7, 2012,
www.viagen.com/benefits/success-stories/horse-owners-and-breeders-james/
.

an Argentinian polo player
: Rory Carroll, “Argentinian Polo Readies Itself for Attack of the Clones,”
Guardian
, June 5, 2011,
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/05/argentinian-polo-clones-player
.

And in 2012, the Fédération
: “FEI Spring Bureau Meeting Update,” Fédération Equestre Internationale, June 18, 2012, accessed August 15, 2012,
www.fei.org/media/press-releases/fei-spring-bureau-meeting-update
. Kastalia Medrano, “Cloned Horses Coming to the Olympics?”
National Geographic News
, August 3, 2012,
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/08/120808-cloned-horses-clones-science-london-olympics-2012-equestrian/
.

Despite the furor over cloned meat … to be slaughtered
: Ibid.

And although the FDA concluded
: Center for Veterinary Medicine,
Animal Cloning: A Risk Assessment.

Instead, cloned cows will be used … in grocery stores
: Walton, discussion, December 2010.

ViaGen’s financial backers
: Ibid.

One of these companies, PerPETuate
: “About PerPETuate, Inc.,” PerPETuate, Inc., accessed March 25, 2012,
www.perpetuate.net/about/
.

“produce extraordinary, matchless…”
: Ibid.

Gillespie guided me
: Information about PerPETuate comes from Ron Gillespie, in discussion with author via telephone: June 3, 2011.

In the meantime, several of its customers
: Ibid.

and Gillespie says the price
: Gillespie, discussion.

“because it gives her hope”
: Ibid.

“There is almost no fee…”
: “Our Pricing,” PerPETuate, Inc., accessed March 25, 2012,
www.perpetuate.net/pricing/
.

“theme park for cloned dogs”
: “RNL Bio and Start Licensing Settled Patent Disputes and Concluded a License Agreement,” PR Newswire,
www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rnl-bio-and-start-licensing-settled-patent-disputes-and-concluded-a-license-agreement-81191552.html
.

$1,300, plus a yearly storage fee
: Ibid.

All major credit cards
: Ibid.

Westhusin, for instance, cloned a bull
: Kraemer, discussion, December 2010; Westhusin, discussion, May 2011; M. E. Westhusin et al., “Rescuing Valuable Genomes by Animal Cloning: A Case for Natural Disease Resistance in Cattle,”
Journal of Animal Science
85, no. 1 (2007): 138–42.

4. Nine Lives

Almost a quarter … of birds
: Jean-Christophe Vié et al., eds.,
Wildlife in a Changing World: An Analysis of the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
(Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 2009).

There have been five
: Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin,
The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind
(New York: Random House, 1996); Elizabeth Kolbert, “The Sixth Extinction,”
The New Yorker
, May 25, 2009.

demographers estimate that
: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division,
World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, Highlights and Advance Tables
(New York: United Nations, 2011).

a little gaur named Noah
: Details about Noah and his cloning are from Robert P. Lanza et al., “Cloning of an Endangered Species (
Bos gaurus
) Using Interspecies Nuclear Transfer,”
Cloning
2, no. 2 (2000): 79–90; Philip Damiani et al., Cloning Endangered and Extinct Species, US Patent application no. 10/398,608, filed August 1, 2003, publication no. US 2004/0031069 A1.

1,200 acres
: “Species Survival Center,” Audubon Nature Institute, accessed April 20, 2012,
www.auduboninstitute.org/conservation/saving-species/research-center
.

36,000-square-foot complex
: Ibid.

Dresser has spent her life
: Information on Dresser’s background comes from multiple conversations with her, including discussion with author via telephone, November 23, 2009; discussion with author, New Orleans, Louisiana, December 1, 2010; discussion with author via telephone, April 17, 2012.

“I saw the science and technology…”
: Dresser, discussion, November 2009.

At CREW, Dresser and her colleagues
: Dresser, discussion, December 2010; B. L. Dresser et al., “Induction of Ovulation and Successful Artificial Insemination in a Persian Leopard (
Panthera pardus saxicolor
),”
Zoo Biology
1, no. 1 (1982): 55–57; C. E. Pope et al., “Birth of Western Lowland Gorilla (
Gorilla gorilla gorilla
) Following In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer,”
American Journal of Primatology
41, no. 3 (1997): 247–60.

“We exist because we want…”
: Dresser, discussion, November 2009.

whatever reproductive technologies
: For more on the use of assisted reproductive technologies with endangered species, see S. M. H Andrabi and W. M. C. Maxwell, “A Review on Reproductive Biotechnologies for Conservation of Endangered Mammalian Species,”
Animal Reproduction Science
99 (2007): 223–43.

Nearly all of these felines … wild felines
: Dresser, discussions, November 2009 and December 2010; Martha C. Gomez et al., “Birth of African Wildcat Cloned Kittens Born from Domestic Cats,”
Cloning and Stem Cells
6 (2004): 247–58.

the technique had limitations … even dead animals
: Dresser, discussion, November 2009; Dresser, in discussion with author via telephone, March 25, 2011; Robert P. Lanza et al., “Cloning Noah’s Ark,”
Scientific American
, November 2000, 84–89; William V. Holt et al., “Wildlife Conservation and Reproductive Cloning,”
Reproduction
(March 2004): 317–24; Oliver A. Ryder, “Cloning Advances and Challenges for Conservation,”
TRENDS in Biotechnology
20, no. 6 (June 2002): 231–32.

As she imagines it
: Dresser, discussions, December 2010 and April 2012.

“If a habitat can’t be saved…”
: Dresser, discussion, April 2012.

“There is no one answer…”
: Dresser, discussion, December 2010.

the African wildcat
: C. Driscoll and K. Nowell, “
Felis silvestris
,” in
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
2011.2,
www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/8543/0
; Dresser, discussion, December 2010.

Nuclear transfer presents …
interspecies
nuclear transfer
: Dresser, discussions, November 2009 and March 2011; Lanza et al., “Cloning Noah’s Ark”; Carrie Friese, “Enacting Conservation and Biomedicine: Cloning Animals of Endangered Species in the Borderlands of the United States” (dissertation, University of California, San Francisco, 2007).