New Science
New bioengineering techniques can significantly enhance an animal’s existing traits, yielding super-size salmon, parasite-resistant cattle, blue roses and, in the case of AviGenics Corporation, an “avian transgenesis and cloning technology” company, muscle-bound super-chickens. But that’s just the beginning.
A privately funded “Missyplicity Project” is underway at Texas A&M University. It is attempting to clone the favorite mongrel dog of a wealthy Silicon Valley couple. The team, sensing a market opportunity, has rolled out a lower-cost service for the less affluent. It provides storage, not cloning, of your pet’s DNA using the same state-of-the-art technology as the Missyplicity Project. Presumably, it will allow you to reconstitute the animal later when cloning becomes cheap and easy. They call this side business “Genetic Savings & Clone.”
As noted, traits can be transferred between species and then can be reproduced en masse via cloning. Long experience with dog breeding has shown that genetic manipulation can modify animal behavior. Soon any developmental limits will be statutory, not technical. While behavioral training can create a single “bad” dog, genetic manipulation can create a species of “bad” dogs. That is a huge difference in scale and potential impact. On top of this, breeding took years of effort; however, with the advances of bioengineering, even an amateur may be able to make a batch of “bad” dogs in a few weeks. New sciences will lower the bar on not only how fast it can be done but who can do it.
Additionally, animal breeders will have significant financial incentives to follow this path. Unlike crossbreeding, new genetic combinations can be patented. Transgenetic techniques may cure genetic diseases such as hemophilia and hip dysplasia, but the big money will be in creating new kinds of creatures. Many researchers comment on dogs’ extraordinary genetic plasticity, possibly due to their high chromosome count (78 to our 46). This, along with our predisposition to manipulate this species, will keep dogs in the forefront of genetic innovation.
Following the lead of the successful Human Genome Project is the Dog Genome Mapping Project. A collaboration of scientists from UC Berkeley, the University of Oregon, and the Hutchinson Cancer Center are working to locate “the genes causing disease and those controlling morphology and behavior.” Morphology is the branch of biology dealing with form and structure. Eliminating selective breeding handicaps will open whole new directions only our science fiction has explored.
New Kinds of New Dogs
A starting place for genetic enhancement will likely be the expansion of existing canine features and traits. This would exploit the limits of dogs’ current physical characteristics. Toy dogs are among the leaders in today’s companion dog role, and are hot sellers. Chihuahuas and poodles are small, but imagine them reduced to the size of a mouse, from five pounds down to less than an ounce. With roughly a hundred fold reduction in size, the bones of these micro-dogs would be extraordinarily fragile. But novelty and portability will create a market for these tiny creatures.
Speed has always fascinating to the American public. Every year millions are wagered on greyhound races. Today’s greyhound can reach forty-five miles per hour on the track. Add a bit more muscle and lung capacity, and the result could be a dog with the speed of a cheetah, say around seventy miles per hour. Bone breakage, again, would have to be solved, but with the money at stake in the dog racing business, someone will try.
Back to the issue of size. Great Danes now top out at 160 pounds. In breeding and owning circles alike, the larger ones are highly prized. To fulfill this need for extreme size, a ‘Super Dane’ is easy to imagine. At twice its normal size, such a ‘Super Dane’ would weigh in close to a lion. With manipulation of behavioral traits such as aggressiveness through genetic engineering, the phrase “guard dog” could take on a whole new meaning.
Eco-Patches and Beyond
It is imaginable that dogs could be developed to fill holes in local eco-systems. One possible use would be in environments where non-native animals have been introduced, such as rabbits in Australia or carp in the United States. Specialized dogs with enhanced predatory skills (fins?) could solve these long-standing eco-problems. One can easily imagine dogs engineered to replace people in certain high-risk positions, such as military tunnel rats, search-and-rescue teams, or bomb squads. We’ve tried using dolphins to place underwater mines, so why not dogs? Beyond that, it’s possible that a genetically altered dog might also supplement or replace expensive electronic equipment in certain applications, say in a nuclear reactor. Highly mobile animals with the ability to see or hear into ultra-high frequencies could provide early warning of high radiation levels. After all, we used canaries in mining operations for years. The ethics of putting such animals at risk are just being debated.
Beyond enhancement there is the strange world of transspecies modification. Imagine Border collies with wool instead of hair, or Labradors with true webbed feet, or winged whippets that may or may not be capable of flight. Functionality doesn’t drive the market; style does. Opportunities will be everywhere. Color matching to this fall’s styles, your school’s colors, or favorite hue is achievable. It’s not hard to imagine both human and canines on the runways of Paris. A reporter on the Kac K-9 story suggested creating dogs that glow when petted, sort of visual purring.
As a side issue, a challenge for newly transformed dogs will be the lack of “equipment knowledge.” That is, they will have no instinctual understanding of how to use features we may choose to give them. Teaching newly enhanced transgenetic creatures how to survive their unique capabilities may be a major challenge.
Business and Law
Being able to patent biological creations will encourage most large-scale commercial breeders to produce their own modifications. However, the increasingly easy methods of genetic engineering will allow individuals to construct things Dr. Moreau would recognize. A flood of highly innovative but tragically dysfunctional creatures could result. Disturbingly, gene transfers between animals and plants are possible; it’s conceivable that we could create macabre animals that bear fruit or have flowers for our amusement. At least among animals transferred traits are variations on existing themes such as size or strength. Plants differ so much (think about bark) that such transfers could drive a creature, with no possibility of instinctively understanding its new traits, to a sort of animal insanity.
As bioengineering technology become easier, the mentality that created “puppy mills” seems ripe to exploit this new science. Our society has had little success curbing the abuses of these high volume dog manufacturers. New biologically-based puppy mills have the potential to create even greater horrors.
Currently, there are no laws against the creation of transgenetic animals. The FDA has laid claim to the legal authority to regulate products derived from transgenetic animals. They are fully engaged with the safety of foods with transgenetic components, the potential impact of these products and their production processes on the environment, and the safety of test animals. The last of these focuses on administering drugs, not the viability of resultant animals. There is very little debate on the question of our ethical right to create these new dogs, perhaps because of our long history of manipulating their genes.
The Ethical Debate
There are debates going on inside and outside the scientific community concerning bioengineering. The discussions center on human consumption of bioengineered plants and animals, as well as the safety of the ecosystem. Organizations’ ranging from the ‘Artists for Responsible Genetics’ to the ‘Natural Law Party’ have sprung up, demanding labeling and, in some cases, bans on the whole science. There is not much discussion about the welfare of the animals except for those used in scientific development and testing.
The broader potential of genetic engineering is now just being considered by most animal advocacy groups. The National Humane Education Society, an animal advocacy group headquartered in Leesburg, Virgina, has taken a position opposing such work, but only within a narrow framework, food development. Believing that it is “inherently cruel to alter an animal’s genes to produce healthier food for humans when these genetic engineering attempts do, in fact, subject animals to pain and suffering,” they are responding the food industry’s highly visible recent press. However, they do not speak to the broader potential for genetic manipulation that seems to be brewing in the future.
We have engaged in the genetic manipulation of animals and plants through most of our history. Much of this has been done for “good” purposes such as food production. Today even that purpose is being challenged, due to concerns for possible effects on the ecosystem. A new and more profound problem has arrived with the approach of a time when anybody will be able to develop something new very quickly and with very personal goals.
Can controls limit the harm to animals during an invention process? Should there be requirements for the ongoing welfare of animals that don’t “work out”? Today, breeders often arrange adoption for less than perfect results. Significant deformities may make transgenetic failures unadoptable. Animals with negative social attributes, perhaps bred exclusively to kill, are just as easy to make as any other. Is this exploitation a form of abuse? Is it ethical? Should it be illegal? Some European countries have laws against cosmetic surgery for animals. On the other hand, history suggests we generally feel we have a “right” to build such creatures.