Who Was the First Cloned Cat? All About CC! (With Photos)


calico tabby cat

I’ve but to have the chance to satisfy a cloned cat in individual. I’ve heard of the phenomenon many occasions through the years, however I’ve by no means personally thought-about having any of my cats cloned. Nonetheless, I’ve all the time puzzled who the primary cloned cat was, how lengthy they lived, and what their high quality of life was like. In the event you’re interested in the identical factor, you’ve come to the precise place!


Meet CC — The First Cloned Cat!

The primary cloned cat was named CC, brief for “Carbon Copy.” The cloning passed off at Texas A&M College, the place researchers took just a few ovary cells from a cat named Rainbow whereas she was being spayed after which implanted the nuclei from the cells into an egg. This resulted within the delivery of CC, the cloned cat, on December 22, 2001!

Though the cloned cat appeared to be wholesome, the scientists who created CC did get a giant shock: She didn’t look something like Rainbow, the cat that she was a clone of. Rainbow was a calico cat that had gray and orange markings, however CC didn’t have any orange markings. Scientists didn’t anticipate this to happen however ultimately decided that the nuclei that they used didn’t embrace the gene liable for creating the orange markings.

What Ever Occurred to CC, the Cloned Cat?

CC the cat lived a protracted and completely satisfied life together with her adopted mother and father, Duane and Shirley Kraemer. She even gave delivery to 4 kittens, three of which survived. This implies she was not solely the primary cloned cat in existence, however she was additionally the primary cloned cat to ever give delivery. CC lived together with her offspring in a specifically designed shed within the yard of Duane and Shirley’s house. She ended up dwelling to a ripe outdated age of 18 years and was wholesome till she was recognized with kidney failure. Sadly, she handed away from the situation on March 3, 2020.

Cat Cloning Is Turning into Mainstream

I used to be conscious that cat cloning has been going down for a few years, however I didn’t notice simply how mainstream it appears to have turn out to be. There are numerous firms on the market, like Gemini Genetics, that promise to clone your cat and create a brand new life with 99.9% genetic similarity, an nearly equivalent look, and the identical basic lifespan and reproductivity talents.

It appears that evidently all you must do is present the corporate with a tissue pattern of your loved one cat, and they’ll ultimately ship you a cloned cat. Cloning isn’t low-cost, although. It sometimes prices 1000’s of {dollars}, so the concept of cloning a cat is probably going out of attain for many individuals. That mentioned, a girl named Kelly in the US cloned her cat not too way back, as did a person named Heung in China.

Controversies Surrounding Cat Cloning

After all, there are just a few controversies surrounding the concept of cloning a cat or any home animal in any respect, for that matter. Ethics are behind a lot of the issues. As an example, many really feel that cloning a cat not directly harms the stray and deserted cats that exist already and are in want.

It’s additionally thought by some those who cloned cats is probably not as wholesome or as lengthy lived as the unique cats from which they have been cloned. However there isn’t a proof to this point that signifies that cloned cats have any well being issues that the unique cats wouldn’t have had. That mentioned, if cloning turns into mainstream within the meals trade, it might trigger extra ache and struggling than is important as a result of there might be many extra animals born and raised in horrible situations simply to be killed for meals.


Closing Ideas

Whereas the concept of cloning cats is intriguing, it appears that there’s nonetheless quite a lot of analysis that must be completed earlier than making the method of cloning a pet extensively accessible to the typical individual. Nonetheless, the one method to know the way cloning would possibly have an effect on an animal or an trade in the long run is to create extra cloned animals and see what occurs.


Featured Picture Credit score: Anne Richard, Shutterstock

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