Animal Cloning In Frankenstein's Cat

Throughout Emily Anthes’ book Frankenstein’s Cat, the topic of animal experimentation assembles the entire book. The chapter “Double Trouble” displays the topic of cloning. The chapter talks about Dolly, the first animal to successfully be cloned, a cloned cat named CC, and even a South Korean puppy. The chapters describes the process of how the animal cloning became possible, and how many trails the scientist went through before the cloning became successful. With the success of cloning also comes the complete failures. Hundreds of animals died in the process of cloning, but as long as success comes, scientists continue to make those sacrifices. This chapter also focuses on cloning to replace a dead pet; however, the pet might not develop

the same personality as the deceased pet. The possibility of making a copy of the animal thrives in the head of pet owners, and by giving scientist some DNA of a recent pet, the scientists develop the DNA into a living copy of that dead pet. Eventually a company, PerPETuate, established a way to store an animal’s cells until the science provides clear results of a higher success rate. PerPetuate takes cells from living pets, and they store the cells until the success rates rises to a more suitable percentage (56-79). By focusing on the development and advancements of cloning, Emily Anthes overlooks the deeper problem of the destruction of animal welfare and the insensitivity of humans demonstrated through cloning.
Although cloning experiments provided success, the failure percentage provides evidence to discontinue these cruel experiments.

To develop one living organism through the process of cloning, close to hundreds of organisms die in the process. In fact, during the process of making Dolly, the scientists went through 277 trials to create a clone, and only 29 trials demonstrated the characteristics to possibly survive. Out of all 277 trails and 29 possible survivalist, only Dolly survived (Anthes 62). So by wanting cloning to be successful, scientist completely avoiding animal welfare. The scientist slaughter 276 organism without considering animal welfare. South Korea took the experiments to a new extreme in the process of cloning a dog. The South Koreans experimented on 1,095 clones by putting them into 123 dogs. By the end of all of their trials, only one dog survived (Anthes 71). Through this example, the extreme slaughter of 1,094 dog displays the protection that animals need from ultimate death established through the means of cloning. If cloning somehow proves not to become more successful in the future, the number of dying animals will rise at a phenomenal rate. By taking a deeper look at the numbers, the successful cloning of one animal might be based entirely on lucky, and new scientific ways may not deem

possible.
Most animals cannot surpass the early trials of cloning, several of the deaths occur either before or after birth.

Even though natural born animals present a higher survival rate, cloned sheep and cows show different results. Even if the cloned cows and sheep show a positive sign of survival, most of the cloned animals’ die either in the womb or after the clone exits the womb. (Anthes 63). Through this example, death dominates the choices of these cloned animals, and scientists continue the experiments for the benefits of humans. By focusing on human needs, the scientists pretend that animal welfare means absolutely nothing, but animals deserve safety just like humans. If scientists truly believe that cloning meets moral standards, than how come scientists cannot find a more effective way to decrease the failure rate of

cloning?
Along with animal welfare, cloning presents human insensitivity towards animals, particularly in pet. Along with cloning, pet owners developed a way to believe in immortality for their pet. By allowing cloning, the pet’s life reoccurs an infinite amount of times (Anthes 60). Through cloning, a copy might bring happiness to the owner, but the pet will not be the same animal the owner remembers. The attitude of the copy represents that of a different animal. Not only will the current pet be different, but the owner disrespects the memory of the deceased pet. The owner displays an amble amount of insensitivity by replacing a loved pet, for personal benefits, with a copy. By getting a new pet, the owner will always remember memories of the old pet instead of trying to figure out which pet was the clone.
During the entire chapter of “Double Trouble”, Anthes provides examples of cloning, and she demonstrates the advancements of cloning. The truth comes with the negatives of the experiments. Animal welfare provides to be important, and to destroy animal welfare for the idea of cloning proves to be despicable. Scientists need to learn when to draw the line because they seem to be reaching for unreachable goals. Also, pet owners need to learn to let go and not dishonor their deceased pet. Cloning may represent importance to the scientific for and to pet owners, but animal welfare conquers the wants of insensitive humans.