From Joyce D'Silva, Compassion in World Farming
It is extraordinary that you devoted so many pages to animal cloning while failing to acknowledge the suffering it causes (Instant Expert, 7 August).
About 20 per cent of cloned calves die during or shortly after birth, and an additional 15 per cent before weaning, according to the European Commission’s Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE). Many are born with deficiencies such as malformed cardiovascular or pulmonary systems or low levels of immunity.
Furthermore, farmers are likely to use cloning to produce huge numbers of the highest-yielding meat and dairy animals, whose metabolisms are already stretched to breaking point. EGE has said that it has doubts whether cloning animals to supply food is ethically justified. Is it time to call a halt?
Godalming, Surrey, UK
