IKR

And now I need a question. Donkeys are hard working beast who would probably prefer not to work and just graze in a wilderness. If we breed or clone an animal for hard work is it cruel? I am thinking gene technology in a few years where we can have a gm donkey that hardly feels pain and will happily work itself to death.

A mule?

I guess the question is about ethics and the rights of other living things. A chicken bred to lay an egg everyday is pretty astonishing. It is and treated like a chicken sized egg manufacturing unit. As this stuff gets more advanced where at the limits.

AwesomeO said:

And now I need a question. Donkeys are hard working beast who would probably prefer not to work and just graze in a wilderness. If we breed or clone an animal for hard work is it cruel? I am thinking gene technology in a few years where we can have a gm donkey that hardly feels pain and will happily work itself to death.

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I would not like my child to enrol in the military unless we were under attack.

tauto said:

AwesomeO said:

And now I need a question. Donkeys are hard working beast who would probably prefer not to work and just graze in a wilderness. If we breed or clone an animal for hard work is it cruel? I am thinking gene technology in a few years where we can have a gm donkey that hardly feels pain and will happily work itself to death.

—-

I would not like my child to enrol in the military unless we were under attack.

tony’s got a big plan for a big military cemetry

AwesomeO said:

I guess the question is about ethics and the rights of other living things. A chicken bred to lay an egg everyday is pretty astonishing. It is and treated like a chicken sized egg manufacturing unit. As this stuff gets more advanced where at the limits.

We’ve been doing it with mules for centuries. A mule is considered less stubborn and more easily managed than a donkey, but has more stamina and endurance than a horse.

party_pants said:

AwesomeO said:

I guess the question is about ethics and the rights of other living things. A chicken bred to lay an egg everyday is pretty astonishing. It is and treated like a chicken sized egg manufacturing unit. As this stuff gets more advanced where at the limits.

We’ve been doing it with mules for centuries. A mule is considered less stubborn and more easily managed than a donkey, but has more stamina and endurance than a horse.

I know we have been. I am looking at the next 50 years. Gene technology is everywhere and we now have a super donkey that the third world loves, it will work itself to death.

Getting close to breeding twitching autonomous muscle.

if you are doing gm then i reckon you would run into ethical issues and find it hard to get the ok to do the research. just general breeding, like chooks, you don’t have those issues.

AwesomeO said:

And now I need a question. Donkeys are hard working beast who would probably prefer not to work and just graze in a wilderness. If we breed or clone an animal for hard work is it cruel? I am thinking gene technology in a few years where we can have a gm donkey that hardly feels pain and will happily work itself to death.

Isn’t that called a ‘ute’?

AwesomeO said:

party_pants said:

AwesomeO said:

I guess the question is about ethics and the rights of other living things. A chicken bred to lay an egg everyday is pretty astonishing. It is and treated like a chicken sized egg manufacturing unit. As this stuff gets more advanced where at the limits.

We’ve been doing it with mules for centuries. A mule is considered less stubborn and more easily managed than a donkey, but has more stamina and endurance than a horse.

I know we have been. I am looking at the next 50 years. Gene technology is everywhere and we now have a super donkey that the third world loves, it will work itself to death.

Getting close to breeding twitching autonomous muscle.

I get what you’re saying, but I don’t consider the ethics of it to be any more serious than breeding a mule.

stumpy_seahorse said:

AwesomeO said:

And now I need a question. Donkeys are hard working beast who would probably prefer not to work and just graze in a wilderness. If we breed or clone an animal for hard work is it cruel? I am thinking gene technology in a few years where we can have a gm donkey that hardly feels pain and will happily work itself to death.

Isn’t that called a ‘ute’?

Yes, but this ute doesn’t need foundries and runs on grass .

About ten years ago I was at a SSSF trivia night in Sydney. One question was, what is a female donkey called?

I answered, fairly loudly, “Jenny”, and a woman at the table next to ours snorted beer out her nose.

When the host read out the answers, Jenny being correct, she turned to me and murmured, “I thought you were talking about an ex girlfriend”.

seems like sleight of grammar

Ok. The situation here is very simple. Donkeys were the first mammals that were cloned for commercial gain. No it isn’t cruel.

They were cloned because donkey racing is a major sport in some places, as important as horse racing is in Australia, and a lot of money changes hands. The donkey clones that I saw on TV were considered a failure, the cloning process worked perfectly and the donkey clones physically resembled their parent, but they weren’t winning any races – they didn’t have the same “will to win” as the original.

donkeys or mules?

mollwollfumble said:

Ok. The situation here is very simple. Donkeys were the first mammals that were cloned for commercial gain. No it isn’t cruel.

It may not be cruel now, but what happens when we can modify animals? It may not be cruel to be a four legged chicken, it may be entirely happy with its extra legs and accelerated metabolism that means its matures ready for eating in a few weeks, but it doesn’t sound right to me.

I am thinking more of the future of cloning not as things are now.

from googling it is mules that are cloned for racing. or were.

JudgeMental said:

from googling it is mules that are cloned for racing. or were.

So it wasn’t fast asses they were betting on?

I wish ethics was always as simple as ‘No, it’s not cruel’. With no reasoning given.

poikilotherm said:

I wish ethics was always as simple as ‘No, it’s not cruel’. With no reasoning given.

I accept and understand it is not clear. A modified animal not knowing any different maybe perfectly content and happy with its lot, so from the animals perspective not cruel, and we have been modifying animals by breeding since forever.

AwesomeO said:

poikilotherm said:

I wish ethics was always as simple as ‘No, it’s not cruel’. With no reasoning given.

I accept and understand it is not clear. A modified animal not knowing any different maybe perfectly content and happy with its lot, so from the animals perspective not cruel, and we have been modifying animals by breeding since forever.

But how can you rate cruelty on one perspective? A human slave born into a slave family knows nothing different, yet it’s pretty hard to argue that’s not cruel.

as i said earlier, some gm may be more ethically problematic to get through a committee than others.

where now there is cloning in yesteryear there was breeding

poikilotherm said:

AwesomeO said:

poikilotherm said:

I wish ethics was always as simple as ‘No, it’s not cruel’. With no reasoning given.

I accept and understand it is not clear. A modified animal not knowing any different maybe perfectly content and happy with its lot, so from the animals perspective not cruel, and we have been modifying animals by breeding since forever.

But how can you rate cruelty on one perspective? A human slave born into a slave family knows nothing different, yet it’s pretty hard to argue that’s not cruel.

some humans, others not so much

cloning has been around for ages in the plant field. every time you do a cutting.

JudgeMental said:

cloning has been around for ages in the plant field. every time you do a cutting.

Plants have feelings too!

/jk