Cloning?

[ChameleonAlley]

Just curious if you all have ever heard any talk of this in the reptile industry? I know that there are all kinds of ethical questions of the issue, but I was listening to NPR the other day and they were talking about how the FDA was about to approve the cloning of salmon for consumption. They said that they could "prove" that it would not hurt the people that consumed the fish. Cloning has already been done with soy beans and patented, and there is all kinds of messing with genetics to grow chickens a certain way and corn a certain way. Do you think this will ever be introduced to the reptile pet industry? I can see people wanting to have exact replicas of certain reptiles they see. Again, I know there would be all sorts of ethical issues involved in this, but do you think this could ever be brought to this industry?

 

[ColorCham427]

I hope so!!! I would love to have an exact looking screamer that are rarely produced!!! lol

Edit: oh and my answer is no. Most likely not. Black market anyone?

 

[ChameleonAlley]

Ha, yeah, it seems the reptile industry is so heavily based upon the "look" color combinations of a certain species. Since it's been used in animals that we consume, and seems to be growing in popularity for that use, I could see it being introduced to this industry. The industry might not be large enough though for it to be something that people would mess with. Producing cloned fish could potentially feed hundreds of thousands of people where maybe a thousand? or so might be interested in a cloned pet. Weird to think it could be possible, though. People are actually patenting gene patterns in produce. That's so weird.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I think it will definitely be done eventually. They've cloned at least 14 species already, did you know the first one might have been a tadpole? Controversial as to if it really happened, but it's close to a reptile! All it takes is an interest and lots of money. Someone just cloned their horse because they didn't want another horse, they wanted another THAT horse. Just for pleasure riding, nothing fancy. If you have the money bring it to A&M and I'm sure our researchers would love the challenge!

 

[jannb]

I'm not sure about reptiles but they showed on our news a while back where this lady in West Palm Beach loved her dog so much that she had him cloned so after he passed she'd still have him with her and the cost over $100,000.

 

[stevenelvin]

I think it will. But I would never have it done to one of my deceased animals. Even though it would be physically identical to the original, they would not have the same experiences in life and therefore it wouldn't have the same personality.

Think about identical twins. They are physical replicas of eachother, but they do not have identical behaviours when faced with the same situations.

 

[Rockalita]

I think it will. But I would never have it done to one of my deceased animals. Even though it would be physically identical to the original, they would not have the same experiences in life and therefore it wouldn't have the same personality.

Think about identical twins. They are physical replicas of eachother, but they do not have identical behaviours when faced with the same situations.

I totally agree it might be harder that your reptile looks exactly like your previous beloved pet but doesnt act the same!