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http://www.msnbc.com/news/707050.asp

THE CLOSELY guarded effort at Texas A&M University appears to have met with success sometime late last year. Scientists at the university declined to comment, but several independent experts said people affiliated with the project had claimed success in producing the world’s first cloned companion animal. ‘JUST A RESEARCH CAT’ Details about the cat’s identity remain shrouded in mystery. Keith Randall, a Texas A&M spokesman, said he believed the cloned animal was “just a research cat.” Cat-cloning research groups typically study American shorthairs, buying them from supply houses for as much as $300. Mr. Randall also said the kitten produced by the cloning effort “hasn’t been named.” Cloning research on cats and other species at the university has been funded with more than $3.5 million in investments from John Sperling, the 81-year-old founder of the for-profit University of Phoenix and a financier of progressive causes including ballot initiatives to reform drug laws. Advertisement

Mr. Sperling, who is chairman of Apollo Group Inc., a holding company for a number of philanthropic and business ventures, said in an interview he hoped pet cloning would lead to “an improvement in human life.” He added that the knowledge being gained could be used to replicate socially valuable animals, such as search-and-rescue dogs. The company formed by Mr. Sperling in 1997 to support the Texas cloning effort, Genetic Savings & Clone Inc., based in College Station, Texas, plans to offer the technology first to wealthy individuals seeking to replace beloved animal companions. Mr. Sperling said the company wouldn’t make the technology available to the public until it proves reliable. A success at Texas A&M, also in College Station, would add felines to a growing list of species that have been cloned, including cattle, goats, sheep, pigs and mice. In cloning, a cell from an adult animal is transferred inside an egg, and manipulated to form an embryo. The embryo is brought to term inside a surrogate mother. Cat cloning is also likely to put a warm and fuzzy face on cloning science, which has been dogged by controversy. Next month, for instance, the U.S. Senate is expected to debate the embattled issue of cloning humans and human embryos for research. Pet cloning could change that debate, says Richard Denniston, an embryologist at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La., as it would “put it out in everybody’s living room, so to speak.” Mark Westhusin, who leads the cloning effort at Texas A&M, declined to comment on the question of the cloned cat. Before any official announcement is made, he said, “we would have to have a live animal first, a healthy animal. And then we would do the DNA analysis, and confirm that it was a clone.” Cloning efforts at Texas A&M got a major boost in 1998, after Mr. Sperling began supporting the lab’s efforts. “We did a survey of all the academic departments that were capable, and we chose A&M because they seemed to be the best scientists,” said Mr. Sperling, a former professor. Genetic Savings & Clone is headed by CEO Lou Hawthorne, an entrepreneur and artist in the San Francisco Bay area. The company originally intended to clone an elderly dog named Missy. But canine cloning has proved technically difficult, and the Missy effort appears to have been overtaken by CopyCat, which got under way in 1999. • Sign up for a two-week free trial of The Online Journal. In exchange for financing the Texas A&M project, Genetic Savings & Clone has an option to exclusively license any pet-cloning technology developed by the school, Mr. Sperling said. ‘A WAY TO REVIVE THE PET’ Mr. Sperling and other enthusiasts are convinced pet cloning is going to be a viable business. “There are so many people that would do this, I am just totally convinced,” said Betsy Dresser, who leads a separate cat-cloning effort of the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans. “Sit on an airplane sometime and talk to people whose Fluffy has cancer, or whose Fluffy just died,” Dr. Dresser said. “This is the way to revive the pet in their minds.” News from the WSJ Wall Street Journal stories on MSNBC • Click here to bookmark Dr. Dresser said her hope was that advances in domestic cats would lead to cloning of endangered felines, such as tigers. At Audubon, she said, efforts are already under way to clone big cats and exotic species such as the Southeast Asian fishing cat. She said her group was actively trying to clone house cats but “we look at it as a tool for saving endangered species.” Many pet owners have been preparing in advance for the cloning era. Dr. Denniston, who also runs the privately held cloning firm Lazaron Biotechnologies, said several hundred pet owners have already paid the firm $700 plus $10 per month to store cells from their pet cats, dogs and llamas in liquid nitrogen, should cloning in these species become a reality. Pet cloning riles some groups. The Humane Society of the U.S. is opposed to it, said Brian Sodergren, who studies the exploitation and abuse of companion animals for the group. “In the face of the overwhelming pet population, there is not a need to breed or clone new pets,” he said. Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

Answers

now here is one that NEEDS to be cloned!!

Dan leaves EARLY in the morning.....I sometimes get up, sometimes not....I got up later, went through the garage, worked in the barn, went to check on shed kitties, and came in ..made my coffee, loved all the other kitties, went and sat in the Sunroom, did up some dishes, and finally thought, "I'll check email" then go upstairs to work in the office...

I kept hearing this mornful cat cry..I looked and looked and looked and looked...

sounded muffled...I'd go up the steps into the living room, and nothing....

I asked the other kitties, WHO IS Crying??? of course they understood immediately momma was scared and looking for a distressed kittie.

this is no lie...4 of them went and sat at the front door...and I faintly heard a small me-oooow.

I opened the door and out shot Chance...he had been pressed between the 2 doors since Dan left for work!!!

(he is fine, headed right for the kittie box!!!)

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

LOL

Miss Kitty has some sort of ability to hide in my parents house. We looked all over for her one day. Flashlights and moving furniture and calling her and rattling the food dish... she was not in that house. We gave up, figuring she managed to get out and roam the neighborhood.

At dinner time she nonchalantly walked into the kitchen.

She hadn't gotten out, apparently. So she either found a secret place to hide, or she can make herself invisible. I have decided to never worry about her again. Not worth the aggravation.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

Yes--cats can make themselves invisible. They CAN. Deaf too.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

boy! I hear that!!!

-- Anonymous, February 15, 2002

By the way, this cloning crap is a bad idea. There are WAY too many unwanted kitties in need of homes, as pointed out above. What will come out of this is a dependable lab animal that can be used in all kinds of experiments and that will cost less than $300 a pop from a supply house. Results will be virtually error-free because all subjects are genetically the same. Horrible idea. With all the modern advancements we keep hearing about, you'd think they could do away with a lot of animal experimentation.

-- Anonymous, February 15, 2002