Animals suffer from cloning warns EU

13 April 2012

Dolly the cloned sheep: EU ethics experts say farming cloned livestock should be banned

Animal welfare campaigners welcomed the call from the European Group on Ethics.

RSPCA scientist Dr Nikki Osborne said: "Cloning causes untold suffering but is purely commercial. The cost in welfare in no way justifies any perceived benefits."

The ethics group wants safety and welfare conditions on any decision to accept clone farm food. But they are so strict they could make it too difficult to farm clones commercially.

The report was triggered after the Daily Mail revealed last January that a clone farm calf called Dundee Paradise had been born on a Shropshire farm.

Cloning breeding stock could create monster pigs and supersize cows.

But the technology means many cloned offspring die just before or soon after birth. Some have malformed lungs, hearts and kidneys.

The ethics group said: "Considering the suffering, we do not see arguments to justify production of food from clones and their offspring."

Food safety chiefs in Europe and the U.S. both, however, recently announced their support for clone farming and food.

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