Re: Dogs - the real poop

["Stephanie M. Thorson" <smt2@st-andrews.ac.uk>]

Poster: "Stephanie M. Thorson" <smt2@st-andrews.ac.uk>

On Thu, 27 Feb 1997, Falcone al Rasool ibn Muhajir wrote:

> This is rather atopical, yet has anyone considered how many breeders are
> considering cloning as a breakthrough technology for their profession?
> 
> Scary, huh.

Cloning is actually beside the point for dog breeders - at least for the
kind of breeders you'd want to buy a dog from.  See, every time I sit down
with a set of pedigrees and think about to whom to breed my darling girls,
I'm trying to breed a litter that will be *better* than either of the
parents.  If I just clone one of my dogs, I haven't achieved anything, 
except another dog exactly like one I've already got - NOT the point.

Now, for the livestock industry, where the point is to produce a lot of
animals cheaply, or for puppy farmers, who don't give a sweet honk what
kind of dogs they breed or who buys them so long as all the cheques clear,
then yeah, maybe cloning is a potential breakthrough.  I suspect it will
be a long time, however, before cloning is cheap enough to be a practical
application in animal husbandry. 

Alianora
*****************************************************************************
Stephanie M. Thorson			|  SCA: Lady Alianora Munro
Dept. of Scottish History		|  Clan White Wing
University of St Andrews		|  Tarkhan, Khanate Red Lion

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