Cross Breeds - Should race horses be cloned?

Should race horses be cloned?

this is for a research project. In your opinion, should race horses be cloned. Would you like to watch the greatest horses of all time (ie War Admirial, Secretariet, Man'O War, Seabiscuit, Curlin, Zenyatta, this list goes on and on...) race and see who would come up on top. This is a theoretical question. But feel free to go in depth as you'd like. All opinions are welcome. Edit- Thanks for the input. I would really appreciate it if someone could give me a valid argument of why it would be a good thing. I am aware that the bad outweighs the good, but I need sources for an argument that supports it. thanks!

Public Comments

Nope. I *hate* horse racing and everything to do with it.
I think that even thought it would be cool to clone horses, that it is very unhumane and cruel to them. Many times the horse and its clone die in the process of being cloned. So, no I do not think horses should be cloned!
No they should not, when you clone something/someone the clone will not come out JUST like the person/thing u cloned. and I think we should just let the great racehorses be what they were, and not change that. If we cloned let's say Barbaro, and the clone turned out to be the complete OPPOSITE of him...the world would be devastated.....AGAIN. So my answer to this is no, no we should not clone racehorses. even if they were amazing, becuz clones are never, NEVER like the person/thing we cloned. This is my opinion.
No. Cloning gives you identical DNA, but it doesn't determine that the clone would have the same talent, heart, personality, etc. that the original horse had. It would be cool to watch all the original horses race against each other, but in reality, the clones are not the original horses and won't perform the same way the originals did. ADD: The only good thing that this could bring is breeding. At least for the horses who died young, such as Barbaro. Charmayne James had her champion barrel racing horse cloned. The original horse, Scamper, was a gelding and so he was unable to be bred. So she cloned him. The clone was named Clayton. Clayton was "created" for the sole purpose of breeding. This is because Scamper was arguabley the greatest barrel horse of all time (10 world championships), and since Scamper is a gelding, he would never be able to pass on that talent. So Clayton was "created" so that Scamper's DNA could be passed on. This is the only possitive thing I can think of that would come out of cloning. Here is a website on Clayton: http://breedtoclayton.com/index.cfm Go to the FAQ, many of your questions will be answered. Yohanson::::::::: Charmayne doesn't plan on ever competing Scamper's clone, Clayton. He's only 4 right now and she says on her website that she only plans on running barrels with him for fun at home. This is because she fears Clayton will always be compared to Scamper, and it would be unfair to Clayton.
I personally hate the whole idea of cloneing, it's takes everything away from being an individual, seabiscuit would never be the same I'd there was 6 of them running around.
No - I think it would ruin the sport of horse racing. If you think about it, they go through a lot to breed winning horses, and a lot of times the one with the best bloodlines will probably take the victory. (Concidering they have no health problems, and are conditioned to the same extent as the other contestants) Because really, If you bred a cross breed horse with a few non-speedy work horses, they would get thier butt whooped by a top-notch, perfectly matched racing-in-the-blood horse. Right?
I agree with Tango, horse racing is extreamly cruel. But no, they shouldn't clone. Not just for the reason stated above, but clones NEVER live as long as the animal does. I mean, they will turn 1-3 years old and die because of something failing. It has been proven with a cow. It's just not safe. EDIT : Well..the only positive thing somebody (not me) would say, is that it would show that our technology is growing that we are able to recreate healthy clones of great race horses? I still hate the idea though...
NO! Even though they were GREAT racehorses and it would be cool to see what would happen, I think having the memories of each horse and their careers is enough, and having one all time champion of CLONES would just not be good enough to tell what the real thing would've been... plus cloning can be unpredictable and I'm not a big fan of it to start with, and since horses are so big thatd be a pretty big deal... I dont think the first thing people would do is clone their racehorses but yeah, I wouldn't want to clone them. It's good to let other horses have their own opportunity
its not that its cruel to them its that it would mess up the way we live we would all be cloned and there would be alot of bad things going on for the environment and the population will grow wich will cause some thing bad in the world
it would be cool but no i would not like it these horses are great for a reason and if you cloned them it would take the excitement out when a new legend arises i think. i love hearing the stories and i loved watching some really great horses race it was a thrill but if they where cloned i dont think i would be as excited to see the clone race basically even though it is cloned it is still not the real thing
As cool as that would be, I don't believe in cloning.
They sh ould not be cloned because your life only comes around once so live it to the fullest and its clone won't have the same memories as the origional horse. I don't really know much about cloning but I think the cloned horse may not have the same athletic abilities.
I'll compare sides. Why it's a bad idea- How many twins do you know compete equally in the same sport/etc? DNA is not the same as talent. Charmayne James cloned her famous horse, Scamper. Though I'm not sure how his training is coming along, I'm excited to see how he turns out. His conformation is the same, but a good barrel horse needs heart. Also, I agree that the point of racing would disappear. Breeding makes it exciting. Cloning would ruin that. Why it's good- If they started cloning racehorses, there might be less retirees, because more horses would be good at racing, since you would only clone the great ones. The races would also be closer. Personally, I don't like the idea. Racing is too based on breeding. Cloning in general, I don't mind, but I like to see it as cool technology, not a replacement to breeding.
Ah, this topic calls for a reference to Dr. Ian Malcolm "I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here: it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility... for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now[pounds table with fists]you're selling it, [pounds table again]you want to sell it!" (from Jurassic Park of course!) Ok, that said, well I obviously disagree but if you need someone to play the devil's advocate: It would increase revenue for tracks as "Secrectariat" would be quite the attraction. More revenue is generally a good thing, and would trickle into taxes and thus betterment of the community. Scientific Advancment--High Dollar industries like the racing industry can afford to innovate, and those innovations eventually can be developed into useful science. A broken leg used to be an immediate death sentence, but partially thanks to the very wealthy owners of racehorses who were able to pay for vets to take huge risks and try new things, many procedures have become more commonplace and available to the masses. So with cloning, of course it is expensive, so a high dollar industry can affor to experiment with it, and who knows what discoveries could lead to things that can better treatments for animals and humans. A better understanding of nature vs. nurture. When we have the exact same gene pool, we have better control of the variables in understanding something--if you have 3 racehorses with the exact same genes, you can test different training and care methods to see which is most successful, without having to consider the predetermined differences in those horses. If you need a solid source to cite for this, just find some resources on the pros and cons of cloning in general and then apply the specific concepts about racehorses on your own. And you should be able to counter these arguments pretty well, though perhaps I should leave that task to you;) Again, playing the devils advocate here, I am not for the cloning of racehorses.