So who says you can't live forever? A European company, Cryzootech, has announced the Sept. 18 birth of the clone of Calvaro 5, the top-ranked jumper (now deceased) of Swiss rider Villi Melliger. Calvaro 5 died in 2003.
It actually took 5 years to clone this horse successfully. The first embryos were obtained in 2005 but the first pregnancy was not achieved until 2005. Unfortunately that foal was born premature and died. A new attempt occurred in 2007 and the first clone was born in August of this year. The new baby is the second clone of the champion horse who won silver medals in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic games in show jumping.
The first horse cloned by this company was born in 2003. According to The Horse.com, "Cryozootech founder, Eric Palmer, approached Melliger with the idea of cloning Calvaro in 2002, but because the process was so new, Melliger declined Palmer's offer." He relented after the first clone was born and allowed Melliger to take a DNA sample just before Calvaro died.
No word on how much this process costs or whether or not the cloned horses are healthy enough to compete in show jumping. It all sounds very eerie to me and filled with ethical nightmares. And as much as I would love to clone certain aspects of my beloved beasts, there is something to be said for starting over that honors the ones that have left this earth.
What do you think?
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1 comment:
Assuming you can clone whatever it was that made the animal a champion, it'd pretty much be the end of equine competition.
Imagine how boring horse racing would be if every horse was Secretariat.
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