Cats cloned to glow red_I'm so furious

[HowietheGreat]

Cloned cats that glow?! - Cosmic Log - msnbc.com

To quote Jurassic Park, "The question isn't if we could do it, the question is if we should do it." We are meddling in ground that we know so little about and in our arrogance we attempt to justify our research as being the better good. How many kittens died a possibly terrible death to create this. I can only imagine the long term effects. So what if they are cloned????? They still experiance pain, still have their parents instincts,can still experiance affection...it's WRONG.

[Alusdra]

Well... probably no kittens died, unless you expand your definition to embryos. So far as experiments go this was probably pretty benign.

While sort of pointless... how cool is that? If I could somehow go back to before I was born and splice fluorescent genes into my DNA, I totally would. I don't know why they didn't use hairless cats, though, then the whole body would glow. Well, I mean, it does anyway, but then you would be able to see it. I suppose you could shave them, but that would be even more silly.

They had some fish being sold a few years back that were spliced with the same/ a similar gene and I really wanted one (I knew someone who had one), but they stopped selling them for whatever reason.

[thalestral]

I'd imagine a lot died as it's highly unlikely they got things "right" first time around. Not to mention all the smaller animals, including guinea pigs, that the experiment had already used.

[deathnotronic]

I saw the news clip. That is pretty cool, I have to say. I wish I glowed in the dark. I think it'd be hilarious to see my glow-in-the-dark piggies running around.

I'm kind of worried as to what will happen to them now. Are they going to be raised as normal kitties? I doubt it. They'll probably be tested over and over again, which is sad.

[Squeeking Piggy]

Agreed,though would make Hide-n-Seek even harder. :P

[awesimity]

In Cali, you can buy hypoallergenic cats, I would love to do that, but they are 2grand and there is a 2yr waiting list (last tme I looked). That makes sense to me, but glowing cats, whats the point????? Who wants to curl up next to a lightbulb everynight!

[Tophica]

Even if it is cool its just pointless. Humans do stupid things all the time, the cats were fine as they were, why do we always have to interfere with animals and plants to try and make them 'better'. I mean, what are you supposed to do with glowing cats? What difference does it make except that you can show them off.

[landhermie]

That is sick! We already have too many cats and kittens in the world! Why more? If this ever goes right, people will want glowing cats! I can only imagine what kind of internal problems they have and how many other animals they've done it to.

[Macha]

A few points:
1) I think man is playing god far too much w/ that kind of stuff.
2) As has been pointed out in the article, South Korea doesn't have a great track record w/ cloning-remember their claim to creating cloned human embryos? The scientist involved with that is still involved in legal issues over fraud.
3) Looking at the picture in that article, if I saw that in the middle of the night, it would scare the snot out of me.

[Fluffy_Guinea]

I personally think that is very cool but I also think they shouldn't have did it for many reasons.

Here are my reasons.
1. Many animals probably died in the making of them.

2. They could have internal problems which could be very painful.

3. What if one of them got lost how would they hunt since they glow at night when most cats hunt they wouldn't even be able to get near their prey and they wouldn't find food and starve if nobody ever found them or bothered to take them to a shelter or try to find a home for them.

4. Like Landhermie said cats are very overpopulated already and we don't need anymore.

5. Most of them will be impulse buys and many of them will end up negelcted or abandoned.

6. Breeders will overbreed them adding to the overpopulation problem and many will be euthinized due to it.

7. Or they will be adopted right away because they are cool and other perfectly beautiful cats won't be.

Those are my reasons and I do think we humans need to stop playing god cats are beautiful the way they are. Why do we need to change them? How many cats died in the making of them and the smaller animals before them? It's terrible and I hope those cats aren't in pain as they could have internal problems.

[HowietheGreat]

Right now they are limited to science for future "cancer research" and such. I love the vet Dr. Michael W Fox and his quote that we will be the cause of our own "genetic apocalypse." He's brillant. I can't comment on it being cool. I find it horrifying.

[LonePig]

Why does so much money get wasted on nonsense such as this, when it could be going towards more productive things. That's what I find infuriating.

[TwoOfaKind]

I saw that in the news the other day and I was sad to see the clip. Yes, while I think it's an interesting concept, I don't think that it goes much beyond that. I think that the risks far outweigh any benefit, and using an animal for something that really is not for the greater good, well that's absurd

[Calliso]

From what the article said this sounds like it is just one step with much greater steps in the future in mind. From what it sounds like the goal isn;t to mass produce glowing cats or whatever but to make more profound genetic changes. Genetics changes that could actually help research. But sometimes you gotta start with small seemingly useless and pointless changes in order to even begin to think about the bigger changes. But yeah not reallly necessarily defending this..as I am not sure how I feel myself on genetic manipulation myself just trying to explain how this might be just more then a simple throwing away of money to create novelty cats.

[babybunny]

They only glow under UV light and they were injected with a virus for them to be able glow. There is no telling what other effects the virus may have. One can only hope the UV exposure is limited as well. =\

[Mommy Of One]

I think that all these expieriments need to stop.
Man is getting carried away with science and playing god too much.
Honestly, they are going to test on these cats, why didn't they spare all the other animals lives in the cloning process and if they have to test, then test on computers or at the very least normal cats. This is horrifying. I can only imagine, in the future when someone wants another animal they will simply clone one. Or clone deceased pets as if it is something normal.
I can't say that I think this is cool at all.