Supporting information

RSPCA views

By 2005, dogs had joined the growing list of species that have been cloned, including sheep, mice, pigs, goats, cats, horses and mules.

The cloning of animals is a serious ethical and welfare concern for several reasons:

• the cloning process involves experimental procedures that can cause pain and suffering to animals, such as the surgical transplantation of cloned embryos into females who act as surrogate mothers

• fewer than five per cent of cloned embryos usually survive to birth

• many cloned animals are born with abnormalities, such as respiratory problems, tumours and liver defects, and they often have a reduced lifespan. 



Cloning is used to produce animals that have characteristics desirable to humans. This may be for a future medical application such as the production of pharmaceuticals in milk. The creation of the first cloned dog in South Korea was justified on the basis that cloned animals could be used to help eradicate genetic defects. However, the Society argues that this is too high a price to pay when dogs with genetic defects should not be bred in the first place.

Cloning technology is also being used to attempt to create 'copies' of pets, successful sport horses, and endangered (or even extinct) species. The RSPCA believes these purposes are completely unacceptable. There can be no justification for cloning animals to improve performance, or for 'recreating' a pet. The process involves subjecting animals to painful and distressing procedures and there are thousands of unwanted cats and dogs who could be given a loving home instead. The Society believes the application of new technologies such as this to animals needs to be much more stringently controlled, and strongly challenges the ethics behind the application of cloning in many forums, including:

• conveying the Society's concerns through the national media when scientific developments in this area are reported 

• involvement in a number of key ethical debates in academia and industry.