would you clone your pet(s)? why or why not?

[marigoldz]

title, just curious y'all
personally, i wouldnt. spending $10,000+ to make a blatant carbon copy of the pet who has died just feels unnatural and i hate the idea. the idea would sit in the back of my head all the time, the fact that i replaced my best friend with a duplicate.

[marigoldz]

b

[Targaryen]

I wouldn't for three reasons.

1. It feels wrong and strange to replace an animal I had a unique bond with. Sure, they might look exactly the same or very close but the same way all of our life experiences contribute to the individual we become, the same is true for the animal. They wouldn't be the same individual and may have entirely different personalities. All you're really paying for is for an animal that looks identical, not one that would behave in the exact same way or have the same sort of bond your dying/deceased pet did. I think being able to see that exact thing in the animal would be depressing too. Knowing that that animal is gone and your attempt to recreate it for - let's be honest - selfish reasons are all in vain. It'd always be second best to the initial bond.

2. Lots of cats/dogs are strays and in shelters and need homes much more badly. It's irresponsible imo to clone an animal (again, for an entirely selfish reason) when there are thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of animals who are unique individuals who are already alive and need you badly to give them the home they deserve.

3. It's entirely unethical. This process is happening primarily in China because main-land Europe and NA have banned the procedure (iirc) where they use 'host' mothers to produce the litters. Any that are wrong end up culled. The amount of individuals that die to produce one alike the inspiration for the clone is unreal and disgusting. It should also be noted that the mother is effectively just a host being forced to be constantly pregnant until she is no longer of use and ends up killed. These animals are almost always incredibly neglected and abused.

[Angelx3]

We had a had a dog that was neutered as a side effect of an operation she had as a juvenile, she grew up healthy tho and we really loved her but did regret that she couldn't have a litter.
Back then the cloning was relatively new and was a hot topic for most pet owners and we did consider it as well. We just thought that the clone would be like her child and not really wanting a carboncopy "clone".
This was like 9 years ago or something and we didn't do it because of the obviously high cost and that there was not a lot of info back then on the topic of pet cloning.

But I can imagine that people might have problems with this "unnatural" process but honestly the process of transplanting eggs/cloning is used in a lot of other areas as well, cow/horse breeders have been using this cloning technique for years.

This does not mean however that I support the way the cloning of dogs is done nowadays as mentioned by the above poster, with the mass breeding for profit in and horrible conditions.