Pet Cloning Opposed by The Humane Society of the United States, Friends of the Earth in letter to Texas A&M University

March 8, 2002

Dr. Ray M. Bowen, President
Texas A&M University
College Park, TX 77843

Dear Dr. Bowen,

We are writing to you regarding the recent announcement of the cloning of a cat in your laboratories at Texas A&M University. The Humane Society of the United States and Friends of the Earth are concerned about the well-being of the animals involved in these experiments and about the larger environmental and animal welfare issues that would emerge from a wider application of this procedure.

We oppose pet cloning because it poses unnecessary health risks to the cloned animals. As previous cloning experiments revealed, the subjects of this work suffer from an array of physical problems, diminishing the quantity and quality of their lives. Cloning also raises questions about the welfare of maternal surrogate animals, that would be kept in confinement in unknown numbers in order to allow for cloned embryos to mature.

In a larger sense, we do not believe that the rewards justify the risks. Pet cloning serves no compelling social purpose, and it may in fact contribute further to the pet overpopulation crisis. Currently, there are more than 5 millions dogs and cats killed in shelters and humane societies for lack of suitable homes. It makes little sense to create animals through inhumane, experimental means when there are so many animals desperate for homes.

Keeping an adopted animal as a companion is an enriching experience for people of all ages, and it is life-saving for the animals that are adopted. Cloning animals strips away the altruistic component behind the decision to keep pets and reduces the experience to one marked primarily by selfish attachment.

We are also concerned that the possibility of endangered species cloning, raised by your partners in Genetic Savings & Clone Inc., fundamentally distracts from the important habitat protection work needed to sustain viable wildlife populations. Trophy specimens in laboratories or pens are not the same as animals living in the wild in their natural habitat. Restoring native wildlife populations is far more complex than cloning an animal.

We believe that public disclosure of your university's work on cloning is critically important to the larger societal debate about the cloning procedure and its applications. To that end, we respectfully request that you make available information on the number of deaths, deformities, and disabilities resulting from cloning attempts; how many animals have been used in these experiments and the cats, dogs and other species that are the subjects; and, if you decide to continue with this line of research, what plans you have for future cloning research. We would be grateful for an opportunity to have our staff visit your facilities to learn more about your work and to provide an on-the-ground assessment of the welfare issues we identified above.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Brent Blackwelder, President, Friends of the Earth

Wayne Pacelle, Senior Vice President, The Humane Society

cc:
Mark Westhusin, Ph.D., College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University
Lou Hawthorne, CEO, Genetic Savings and Clone

Please reply to: Friends of the Earth 1025 Vermont Ave., NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005