World's first cloned dog

Big news around the world today, Thursday August 4, is the first ever cloned dog. His name is Snuppy, short for Seoul National University Puppy . He has made the front page of the International Herald Tribune, USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, UK's The Guardian, Ontario's Hamilton Spectator, Melbourne's Herald Sun and many others.

Gina Kolata's article, which appeared on the front page of the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, says that the group who created Snuppy have no intention of cloning pets.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/03/news/clone.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/science/04clone.html

But the front page story in USA Today, headed, "Another cloning 'first': A dog" (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2005-08-03-dog-clone_x.htm ) tells us: "Genetic Savings & Clone, a California firm that sells cloned cats for $32,000, heralded the advance in a statement: 'We expect to provide cloning services to the owners of exceptional dogs around the world.' That article goes on to report that biologist Martin Stephens of the U.S. Humane Society has "grave concerns" and "notes that millions of dogs await adoption in the nation's animal shelters."

The Los Angeles Times front page story tells us that Woo Suk Hwang, a lead researcher, "said his group's primary aim was to develop genetically identical laboratory dogs for the study of animal and human diseases." (http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-sci-dogclone4aug04,1,6438989.story)

And the article on page 2 of the International Herald Tribune, by Choe Sang-Hun, says, "With human cloning ruled out as unethical, scientists have been racing to master cloning of other animals, hoping that some day this would help them find cures for human diseases."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/03/news/korea.php

This story, in virtually every paper on the front page of many, opens the door for animal friendly letters to the editor. You may wish to write about companion animal overpopulation. Or you might question the assumption that all animal research is ethical and express regret that scientists are figuring out ways to do more experiments on dogs rather than devoting themselves to the promising fields of testing that do not involve animals.

Here are links for letters to the editor for the papers cited above:
International Herald Tribune: letters [at] iht.com New York Times: letters [at] nytimes.com USA Today: http://asp.usatoday.com/marketing/feedback/feedback-online.aspx?type=18
Los Angeles Times: letters [at] latimes.com

But your letter to your local paper has the best chance of being published. Some of the smaller papers publish close to 100% of the letters they receive. You'll find links to over 700 articles about Snuppy, probably including the one from your local paper, at http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=snuppy&ie=UTF-8&filter=0. Or just go to your paper's website (go to http://www.Google.com to find it) and put Snuppy in your paper's search engine. If you have any trouble finding the correct email address for a letter to your editor, don't hesitate to ask me for help.

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.


(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)