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Pros And Cons Of Modifying Domestic Animals

1496 Words6 Pages

Dogs are a result of genetic manipulation already, as they are the products of selective breeding in foxes. This was done to domesticate the wild animals in the hopes of making them more tame and friendly towards humans. Scientists are now attempting to manipulate the species even further in order to satisfy the growing demands from the public. This could have negative impacts on the future of domestic animals.
Modern species of dog have taken genetic manipulation to the extreme. An example of this is the English bulldog. It was originally created for the sport of bull-baiting, and in order for the dog to be able to bite down on the nose of the bull and not let go, its genes were manipulated, causing a wide mouth and short muzzle. As the sport …show more content…

They are used as herders, law enforcement operatives, pets, and have many other roles in society. This has all been done through breeding, and the opportunity to modify the dogs at a genetic level gives humans huge power over designing dogs for their roles in society. Biotechnology would allow us to isolate the genes of behavioural and physical traits in the dog, and “decide whether to switch off these genes, switch them out for new ones, or boost their function.”
Genetically modifying domestic animals is a controversial issue in society, as it has many pros and cons. By assessing both, a clear idea of its effects should be evident.
Genetic manipulation can assist in eradicating the negative side-effects cause by selective breeding, such as the diseases and deformities relevant to a specific breed. Genetic manipulation can be separated into ‘”therapeutic” and “enhancement” . Both raise moral issues, but there is a clear difference between the two. Therapeutic aims to cure or treat conditions in the animals, whereas enhancement aims to improve already healthy …show more content…

FIV results in millions of cats dying annually from AIDS, and this research can stop their suffering as well as humans’. It is not just AIDS, however, that the genetic manipulation of cats can be used to research. There are many other diseases such as Alzheimer's as glaucoma that genetic manipulation can be used to cure.
One of the main issues that comes with genetic manipulation of domestic animals is that we are” undoing what nature has worked to create over millions of years” . Animals are specifically adapted to their environment and, when scientists manipulates the genes of a few species in the ecosystem, the entire balance of the ecosystem might fall apart, causing an unknown number of natural animal species to go extinct.
A moral issue that comes into a picture is that animals should have the right to be free of genetic manipulation. Despite this, the law in both the United States and in Europe (where most of this research takes place) tends to support genetic engineering

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