Maybe get a new cat and donate $60k to an animal shelter?
I guess the fact of such services existing and competing drives forward and funds genetics research, so from that point of view I'm glad they exist, but it seems like a strange way to spend so much money.
Anyone with a spare 60K who would use it to clone a cat rather than to improve the lifes of existing cats (donating to local shelters, TNR programs, etc) hardly deserves to have a cat.
I have no idea what genetic material is, but cloning a `cat` is very easy, the instructions in German are very clear: "Nie Kaffee verwenden, sondern immer `tee`!" :) I'm also not sure why it costs `60K` for you? Only `14,320` here.
I could maybe see the worth of this if it was a $60k medical bill to save a dying cat. But even a successful clone will only be physically identical, not behaviorally. And it feels like the resemblance would just magnify all the differences.
I love cats and dogs dearly, so I don't say this lightly, but please just get a new cat (even the same breed!) and save the money for a worthier cause.
Interestingly, the most cloned animal in the world are horses [1].
Given how popular (and expensive) it is for horses, it likely delivers on the results people are looking for. Note that current cloning techniques don't clone the mitochondria, which represents 1%-2% of the genome.
I understand why this post would get flagged but I love the question, it never came to my mind how logical it would be for someone to clone their beloved pet.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 51.9 ms ] threadBut in all seriousness I’m interested in knowing the answer to this too, just out of sheer curiosity.
Seriously, though, why are you asking? Was there some breakthrough in biology recently that made it feasible and available?
Or are we actually talking about cat(1)?
I guess the fact of such services existing and competing drives forward and funds genetics research, so from that point of view I'm glad they exist, but it seems like a strange way to spend so much money.
https://www.straypetsinneed.org/
and
https://guardianangelscatrescue.org/
from which we recently adopted Grace Hopper and Enrico Fermi, now beloved family members.
Wasted money.
[00s heavy electric music intensifies]
It also only has a ~30% success rate, so it might be in the ballpark of $200K to get a living clone
A UNIX fork is actually a clone of the process, in the first place.
(SCNR)
I love cats and dogs dearly, so I don't say this lightly, but please just get a new cat (even the same breed!) and save the money for a worthier cause.
Given how popular (and expensive) it is for horses, it likely delivers on the results people are looking for. Note that current cloning techniques don't clone the mitochondria, which represents 1%-2% of the genome.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_cloning
If the new cat behaves differently (which it will), you’re forced into one of two painful positions:
“This isn’t really them.” “Why aren’t you like you used to be?”
That comparison can prevent the new animal from being accepted as its own being.