By the time Copycat was born at Texas A&M University on Dec. 22, two months – and perhaps a few of her nine lives — had already passed the young kitten by.
Researchers at the university have cloned a domestic cat, marking the first time a pet has been cloned.
The birth of Copycat, who has earned the nickname “CC,” also heralds the possible beginning of a lucrative industry to bring family pets back from beyond the grave.
Ironically, CC is not an exact carbon copy of her mother, Rainbow. Her coat is different, because the pattern of colors on multicolored animals is determined by events in the womb rather than by genes — a reminder that clones may be genetic copies of their parent but are never quite identical.
The Texas laboratory responsible for Copycat has already cloned a pig, bull and goat. Work is underway to clone a dog. Animal welfare groups have voiced concern over the experiments.
“I am completely against animal cloning,” said Pamela Dyles, co-owner of Have-a-Heart Animal Control in Memphis. “The pet population is overwhelming, and people are irresponsible with the animals they already have.”
There will be no commercial cat cloning until the procedure becomes more efficient, and until the long-term health of Copycat is assured. She was cloned from cumulus cells, which surround mammalian eggs before ovulation. An earlier attempt by the Texas team to clone a kitten from a cat’s mouth cells failed.
Copycat is the only surviving animal of 87 kitten embryos created by cloning. The success rate is similar to that achieved with sheep, mice, cows, goats and pigs.
It will have to improve if pet cloning is to become a reality.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the cloning experiments were funded by an 81-year-old financier named John Sperling, who wants to charge wealthy pet owners to clone their animals. Sperling donated $3.7 million for the cloning.
“Nothing should be cloned,” said Allonya Payne, senior theater major at The U of M. “We are all created individually and are not meant to be replicated.”
Sperling was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that he would like to see cloning used for socially useful animals such as rescue dogs.
The current price for a pet clone has been estimated at $250,000, which would drop to $20,000 as the technology improved. In the meantime, pet owners can store their pet’s DNA for $895. Banking the DNA of a terminally ill or recently deceased cat runs $1,395.
“We are putting ourselves in the position of God,” said Dyles. “I don’t know why people want to take on the position of God, because the effect could be disastrous.”
