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Copy Cat! Copy Cat!

By Claudia Wallis

She has big green eyes, perky pink ears and fluffy fur that just begs to be stroked. But 8-week-old cc (short for copy cat) is no ordinary kitten. Introduced by Texas scientists in February, she is the world's first cloned cat, the product of a lab experiment.

Cc is one cute calico kitty, but she has sparked controversy.

Cloning is a high-tech way of breeding an animal that is an exact genetic copy of a parent. Scientists have already cloned mice, pigs, goats and sheep. The Texas company that paid for the research that produced cc—Genetic Savings & Clone—hopes to clone people's pets!

To create cc, researchers at Texas A&M University took genes from a female cat named Rainbow and placed them into an egg cell from a cat named Allie. Genes are the chemical instructions that determine what an individual creature is like, from its size to its eye color. The egg developed inside Allie. On December 22, she gave birth to cc, who is genetically the same as Rainbow.

Rainbow looks different from cc, but their genes match.

"It was exciting to witness," says Lou Hawthorne, head of Genetic Savings & Clone. "She's such a cutie."

But not everyone was charmed by cc. "We must question the social purpose here," said Wayne Pacele of the U.S. Humane Society. More than 5 million cats are destroyed each year when shelters can't find homes for them. Why clone more cats? "Just because you are capable of doing [it]," says Pacele, "doesn't mean you should."

Hawthorne is gambling that pet lovers will do almost anything to keep a beloved animal around, even if it means spending thousands to recreate Fluffy or Fido. And even if the clone is not an exact copy. Cc, for example, looks different from Rainbow because a cat's markings are not shaped by genes alone. And who knows if she'll act like Rainbow. Personality—perhaps the most valued trait in a pet—cannot be cloned.

Next: Glory Days