$50.000 for a little Pussy

[Sparrowhawk]

CAT

lmao

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(AP) Nine-week-old "Little Nicky" Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004 in Texas. "Little Nicky" a successfully...


Cloned Cat Sale Generates Ethics Debate
Dec 23, 7:20 AM (ET)

By PAUL ELIAS



SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The first cloned-to-order pet sold in the United States is named Little Nicky, a 9-week-old kitten delivered to a Texas woman saddened by the loss of a cat she had owned for 17 years.

The kitten cost its owner $50,000 and was created from DNA from her beloved cat, named Nicky, who died last year.

"He is identical. His personality is the same," the owner, Julie, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Although she agreed to be photographed with her cat, she asked that her last name and hometown not be disclosed because she said she fears being targeted by groups opposed to cloning.

Yet while Little Nicky, who was delivered two weeks ago, frolics in his new home, the kitten's creation and sale has reignited fierce ethical and scientific debate over cloning technology, which is rapidly advancing.




The company that created Little Nicky, Sausalito-based Genetic Savings and Clone, said it hopes by May to have produced the world's first cloned dog - a much more lucrative market than cats.

While it is based in the San Francisco Bay area, the company's cloning work will be done at its new lab in Madison, Wis.

Commercial interests already are cloning prized cattle for about $20,000 each, and scientists have cloned mice, rabbits, goats, pigs, horses - and even the endangered banteng, a wild bull that is found mostly in Indonesia.

Several research teams around the world, meanwhile, are racing to create the first cloned monkey.

Aside from human cloning, which has been achieved only at the microscopic embryo stage, no cloning project has fueled more debate than the marketing plans of Genetic Savings and Clone.


(AP) Julie holds her nine-week-old cat "Little Nicky" Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004 in Texas. "Little Nicky"...
Full Image


"It's morally problematic and a little reprehensible," said David Magnus, co-director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University. "For $50,000, she could have provided homes for a lot of strays."

Animals rights activists complain that new feline production systems aren't needed because thousands of stray cats are euthanized each year for want of homes.

Lou Hawthorne, Genetic Savings and Clone's chief executive, said his company purchases thousands of ovaries from spay clinics across the country. It extracts the eggs, which are combined with the genetic material from the animals to be cloned.

Critics also complain that the technology is available only to the wealthy, that using it to create house pets is frivolous and that customers grieving over lost pets have unrealistic expectations of what they're buying.

In fact, the first cat cloned in 2001 had a different coat from its genetic donor, underscoring that environment and other biological variables make it impossible to exactly duplicate animals.




"The thing that many people do not realize is that the cloned cat is not the same as the original," said Bonnie Beaver, a Texas A&M animal behaviorist who heads the American Veterinary Medical Association, which has no position on the issue. "It has a different personality. It has different life experiences. They want Fluffy, but it's not Fluffy."

Scientists also warn that cloned animals suffer from more health problems than their traditionally bred peers and that cloning is still a very inexact science. It takes many gruesome failures to produce just a single clone.

Genetic Savings and Clone said its new cloning technique, developed by animal cloning pioneer James Robl has improved survival rates, health and appearance. The new technique seeks to condense and transfer only the donor's genetic material to a surrogate's egg instead of an entire cell nucleus.

Between 15 percent and 45 percent of cloned cats born alive die within the first 30 days, Hawthorne said. But he said that range is consistent with natural births, depending on the breed of cat.

Austin, Texas-based ViaGen Inc., which has cloned hundreds of cows, pigs and goats, also is experimenting with the new cloning technique.

"The jury is still out, but the research shows it to be promising," company president Sara Davis said. "The technology is improving all the time."

Genetic Savings and Clone has been behind the creation of at least five cats since 2001, including the first one created.

It hopes to deliver as many as five more clones to customers who have paid the company's $50,000 fee. By the end of next year, it hopes to have cloned as many as 50 cats.

The company has yet to turn a profit.

[femalemarine_89]

OMG.. I am sorry I love my dog but no way in hell would i clone her.. thats nuts.. what they gonna do next.

[Sgt Morales, AM]

$50,000?!?!?!? For a Pussy? That lady is nuts! At least she can prepare for the death of her new cat ahead of time! LOL

[Osotogary]

My God! She makes my $5.00 look rather lame.

[Toby M]

Hey, it's her money...I've seen worse cases of people wasting money. Some of us probably wasted that much (at least) drinking and chasing around in a lifetime...

[femalemarine_89]

yeah but that is still crazy.. hell you can get another cat for less than that.. i can definately think of better things to do with 50,000

[Sgt Morales, AM]

Yeah...$50,00 can buy a new car...a boat...tons of beer...NOT A CAT.
At the SPCA I volunteer at, you can get 2 cats for the price of one ($65).

[HardJedi]

seems like a lot of money for something to kick and use as target practice..............


( Hardjedi=not a cat person)

[femalemarine_89]

Yeah i know right.. and hell all i would do is feed the 50,000 cat to my dog anyways.. can you tell i hate cats )

[cjdoyle]

Hardjedi
I am all with you on that one I hate D@MN CATS
Sgt D

[woodman]

that cat sounds like my ex-wife. cost me 50K and was worthless

[Jarhed]

Originally posted by woodman
that cat sounds like my ex-wife. cost me 50K and was worthless

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

Ok, so it's ok to admit this now? Cause I'm in the same situation now, spent way too much on this woman and she's just riding my coattails on the way to the top (and getting VERY heavy I might add!). And I wondered why I am so beat to death tired every evening and weekend? Maybe I should have spent all that money on a cat 6 years ago instead?

Is there a SPCW (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Wives) that can come take her off my hands?

[Osotogary]

I was once told, "If you can't afford *ussy, don't go to town." I could never figure out what that meant until now. LMAO. Thank you Ms. Julie for enlightening me.

[Sparrowhawk]

And what's wrong with using a flatten cat one that's a road kill for a frisbee?

Wouldn't that be great? You can stick a whistle in its mouth and when you throw him he'll meow.

Maybe I might have to post a disclaimer here in case some animal rights people are looking-loooing around.

The views posted on this tread by Sparrowhawk are his own and should not reflect in anyway upon Leatherneck.com or other Marines that post here, except for Hardjedi & cjdoyle, they too are cat haters!

LMAO

[Sgt Morales, AM]

Instead of posting a "cat haters" virsion of a frisbee, you should post a flattened picture of the lady who purchased that $50,000 cat. Maybe if you decorate it really nice you can use it a door mat!