There are some cons of cloning animals. Before we look at them, we need to look at animal cloning. The process of cloning is to create a identical organism from the genetic material of another organism, to make two identical organisms. Since 1952 scientists have been very busy. One of the first animals to be cloned was a tadpole (1958). In recent times, scientist cloned a camel. My favorite animal was a cat name CC for CopyCat. CC was cloned in 2001. Scientists have been very busy around the globe for a while now. Should they be cloning? Are we flirting with disaster?

Cons Of Cloning Animals – Early Death & Medical Problems

One thing is for certain. Many of the cloned animals die a very early death. The first Gaur, a type of wild cattle, died within 48 hours of being born. A Pyrenean Ibex was born and then died with 7 minutes in 2009. As you can see, many of these animals died early, and they were due to complications from the cloning.

Scientists are not sure why many of the clones die from “unexplained” causes. In Japan, the scientists studied cloned mice. In their studies, the came to the conclusion that the mice die early and live in poor health. Another weird thing they discovered is that the calves that were cloned did not live very long. They died early and some of them were larger than normal, which is very strange.

Several of these animals were born with weak immune systems and died early. Other than dying early, many of these animals were born with genetic defects, and they have a high rate of cancer. Dolly, the world famous sheep, died at age 6. Usually these type of sheep, the Finn Dorset, live until 10 or 11 years of age. Dolly also had lung cancer.

Here is a video of Dolly The Sheep in the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh:

Cons Of Cloning Animals

One has to wonder, if we were to clone our food supply, are any of the genetic defects or issues going to be passed on to those who eat them? Also, with all of the disease and genetic defects present in most of the cloned animals, we need to be careful that we do not let them loose. We do not want any of them to breed with the non-cloned animals. If that were to happen we would see a spike in the amount of animals to develop these conditions, and we would have no way to reverse it. Once scientists figure it out and produce a “superior” animal, then we can debate the idea of eating them, having them as a pet, or using them in farming.

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