Cloning can't bring a pet back

I listened to a brief story about pet cloning last night on NPR radio. Two kittens have already been cloned in the US and dogs are next.

Cloning will not bring back a pet that has been lost. Personality, the trait most often sought by a heart-broken pet owner, is a unique thing and cannot be duplicated, even by cloning. So many, many animals are in shelters waiting for a good home, so many are euthanized each year, that cloning will only make worse an already epidemic problem.

I see cloning as another step in a throw-away society. Don't like what you see? We'll change it next time around. Don't worry about death, that pet (or human, down the road) is replaceable.

The HSUS has released a statement on cloning. I imagine many more shelters will be doing the same.