Not too long ago, cloning a beloved pet sounded like science fiction.

However, we’re now in an era where the possibility of pet cloning is rising and it reflects not the progression of science, but human discomfort with grief and a willingness to ignore it. 

Grief is unavoidable for pet owners. It’s the price that comes with love. Pet cloning offers an illusion of escape, which is a delay to loss rather than a confrontation of it.

There have been many spotlight cases of high-profile celebrities cloning their pets, such as Tom Brady and Paris Hilton. However, just because celebrities are doing something doesn’t mean you should too.

While still a rather expensive process, costing from $50,000 to $100,000, cloning can create a genetic twin of a living or deceased animal through a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. The process puts DNA from an existing animal’s skin cell into an egg from a donor. The egg is then implanted into a mother and born physically identical, though experts say the personality may not be the same. 

This distinction matters. If a cloned pet brings back only the appearance and not the personality, memories or experiences, then what is the point in bringing them back?

Josiah Vega, a DePaul criminology student, had a similar thought on the matter.

“While the idea of cloning a pet sounds nice because it feels like you get to enjoy your pet for a lot longer than they are supposed to live, I feel it completely goes against the inevitable experience of grief that we all go through at some point,” Vega said. He adds that delaying the grief seems unhealthy.

To him, the concerns extend beyond the timing of grief.

“You can’t recreate or clone the memories that you have experienced with a pet,” he said. “It would be difficult to fully embrace a clone of my dog while knowing that it is not the same dog I have owned for so long.”

I once had a dog, Misty, a Great Pyrenees who was one of the most loyal companions I could ask for. She fought off cancer multiple times, and it was hard seeing her go when the time came. Still, I would never choose to clone her. One of the things that makes life so special is that it ends. Every animal is unique in their own way and when they’re gone, there’s no recreating that. 

Katie Wright, a DePaul senior and film major, thinks pet cloning “crosses a line.”

“When my pet moves on, as badly as I would want them back, it isn’t my place to bring them back,” she said. “They’ve passed and I will always have their memory and their spirit, but it can become unhealthy to linger on their death.”

To Wright, it’s the pet’s unique personality that helps create the connection.

“There is no way to recreate my dog’s sassy, smart and loving personality,” Wright said. “She is literally one of a kind.”

Everybody deals with grief in their own ways, but delaying it by cloning a loved pet is not the way to go.

In hindsight, pet cloning might seem like a scientific miracle, but it puts the focus on the human avoidance of loss. Labs cannot recreate the bond, love, and personality that made a pet unique. Even though it is a costly process, I think that it is selfish to spend so much money just to clone a pet when there are animals in shelters who are in need of a loving home. Why not focus on them instead of trying to recreate a life that cannot be replicated?

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