I wonder if cloning would recreate the animal’s personality – its uniqueness?

Well you've hit on the old nature/nurture question there jseal....certainly it has been proven with cats that their 'friendliness' has genetic links as studies have proven that kittens fathered by a 'people-friendly' tom usually inherit this trait, despite the fact that tom cats rarely hang around to nurture and raise their offspring.

As for other aspects of personality, who can say? From a personal point of view, the cats I've had have always been raised with litter mates or another kitten, which is something you'd not be able to recreate were you to clone the animal. I imagine a clone of one of mine would have a very different relationship with the surviving older cat than it would have if they'd been raised together from kittens.

Loulabelle,

Yes mam. That’s what I was approaching. If identical human twins who are raised apart, whose nurture is the different, develop distinct personalities, why would one expect other animals to be different? As the context within which the cloned cats were raised would be different, I would expect that the cloned would be a “different” cat from the parent.

I'm wonderful!






In very small doses. :roflmao:

Exactly my point...I am sad for the loss, grateful for whatever time I had with them...but I would no more want a clone of a pet than I would want to have a clone of a family member lost too soon...eeesh, just the thought is kinda creeping me out...

& in my own smartass way, in my other post I was suggesting that with too many homeless animals out there already, it seems so perverse to spend so much money & waste good resources to make more...