Famous folk as diverse as Barbra Streisand and Javier Milei (the Argentinean president) have had their pets cloned — and you could too, at a cost of around U.S. $50K. Some folk even clone existing pets in order to have a spare ready to go when their first animal crosses the rainbow bridge. Air Mail takes a look at how it works, who's doing it, and how owners say their literal copycats compare to the originals. Would you ever clone your pet? [Story may be paywalled]
@CultureDesk I can’t think about pet cloning without thinking about the first commercially cloned dog, Booger. Booger’s original was stolen from an animal shelter by a former beauty queen, Joyce McKinney, who had been convicted of kidnapping a Mormon man she was in love with, then escaped authorities in disguise as a mime, and later persuaded a teenager to steal a prosthetic leg for her 3-legged horse. She abandoned the Booger puppies in South Korea.
@jencmars Good grief. "McKinney is also wanted in Tennessee, where she is accused of convincing a 15-year-old to break into a house so that she could buy a prosthetic leg for her three-legged horse." And a quick Google shows she's still making headlines.
93% of voters in this poll said that they wouldn't clone their pet, and commenters agreed. @bloodykneelers said it best: "You replace a lightbulb, you do not replace a person. Pets are persons. They are individuals, with feelings, experiences, etc." @jencmars sent us — and numerous others — down an internet rabbit hole when he told us about Booger, the first commercially cloned dog, the original of which was stolen by a former beauty queen who was also a kidnapper who persuaded a teen to steal money to buy a prosthetic leg for her horse. Read more about her here.
You replace a lightbulb, you do not replace a person.
Pets are persons. They are individuals, with feelings, experiences, etc.
I have a dog. I love her more than I love any human in my life. The mere idea of losing her gives me nightmares.
But I also respect her individuality.
I think people like Milei are dangerous, because he's in a position to affect the lives of millions, and he seems to lack the basic understanding of what a person is. (Everything he's doing right now confirms this.)