The cruelty of cloning endangered animals

Dolly the Sheep (deceased) with British embryologist Professor Sir Ian Wilmut, who has called for a biobank to save endangered animals. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

Harvesting the eggs, sperm and tissue of endangered animals for future cloning is a good plot for a horror film, but not reality (Report, 5 July). We need to spend time and resources on saving existing animals whose natural habitats are fast disappearing, rather than trying to resurrect them. Cloning animals after they’ve vanished from nature is fraught with problems, such as severe birth defects, premature degenerative diseases and poor immunity. If wild animals were cloned, they would likely end up in zoos, denied the opportunity to do almost anything natural and enjoyable, just like the polar bears, elephants and other animals currently kept captive. It is inarguably urgent to save threatened species’ habitats, but inflicting pain and torture is not the answer. If Dolly has taught us one thing, it’s that cloning animals belongs only in sci-fi stories.
Jennifer White
London

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