成本不低！但宠物克隆热度不减......

在2006年，门多拉在纽约长岛的一个车站值班时，在机缘巧合之下收养了一只流浪狗。当心爱的宠物狗被诊断出患有晚期癌症时，他决定去克隆它。

The cloning of pets is controversial, but growing in popularity despite its continuing high cost.

克隆宠物是有争议的，但尽管费用居高不下，它仍然越来越受欢迎。

Blake Russell, pictured here with a horse clone, says genetic material can be safely stored for many years

Blake Russell, the president of Viagen，which is the first and only US firm to offer commercial cloning of dogs and cats, says the genetic material of the animal you wish to clone can be stored almost indefinitely before the cloning process takes place. This is thanks to the use of very low frozen temperatures, or cryopreservation."

Viagen公司是美国唯一一家提供商业克隆猫狗的公司。该公司总裁布莱克·拉塞尔表示，在克隆之前，由于使用了非常低的冷冻温度，或冷冻保存，你想要克隆的动物的遗传物质几乎可以无限期地储存。

The cloning process starts in a laboratory

The firm charges $50,000 to clone a dog, $30,000 for a cat, and $85,000 for a horse. That cost is obviously out of the range of most of us.

克隆一只狗的费用为5万美元，克隆一只猫的费用为3万美元，克隆一匹马的费用为8.5万美元。这个成本显然超出了大多数人的承受范围。

Viagen says it is now cloning "more and more pets every year", and has cloned "hundreds" since it first opened for business in 2015.

Viagen公司称，他们“每年正克隆越来越多的宠物”。自2015年开业以来，该公司已经克隆了“数百只”宠物。 

A number of famous people have revealed in recent years that they have had their dogs cloned, or were planning to do so. Back in 2018, Barbra Streisand disclosed that she had used Viagen to clone two puppies from her former pet Samantha.

近年来，一些名人也透露已经或者正在计划克隆自己的宠物狗。早在2018年，芭芭拉·史翠珊就透露，她曾通过Viagen公司从她以前的宠物萨曼珊身上克隆了两只小狗。

Barbra Streisand pictured with her former dog Samantha in 2006

Yet animal welfare organisations have significant concerns about the sector. For example, a number of scientific studies have suggested that cloned animals are more prone to disease. Other critics point to the industry's high failure rate.

然而，动物福利组织认为该行业存在重大担忧。例如，许多科学研究表明，克隆动物更容易患病。其他批评者则指出该行业的失败率很高。

One 2018 report by Columbia University in New York put the average success rate at just 20%. This means that you need numerous surrogate mums to allow for multiple attempts.

纽约哥伦比亚大学2018年的一份报告显示，克隆的平均成功率仅为20%。这意味着，需要大量作为代孕母亲的动物来进行多次尝试。

Penny Hawkins, an animal welfare expert at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, says it can be painful and distressing for the female animals that have their eggs removed for donation, and for those that are prepared for surrogate pregnancy.

英国皇家防止虐待动物协会（RSPCA）的动物福利专家佩妮·霍金斯表示，对于被取卵进行捐赠的雌性动物，以及那些作为准代孕母亲的动物来说，高失败率意味着它们的苦难。

Additionally, a cloned animal is never going to be an exact copy of the original pet, predominantly when it comes to behaviour, she says. "There is so much more to an animal than their DNA, and cloned animals will inevitably have different life experiences, resulting in animals with different personalities."

此外，她认为克隆的动物永远不可能完全复制原始宠物，特别是在行为方面。“对动物来说，除了DNA之外，还有很多东西会影响它们，克隆动物将不可避免地拥有不同的生活经历，这会导致动物形成不同的个性。”

Elisa Allen, director of animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), wants people to get a rescue dog instead of a clone.

动物生存权力组织的善待动物组织（Peta）主任伊丽莎·艾伦表示，她更希望人们能得到一只救助犬，而不是克隆犬。

"Animals' personalities, quirks, and very essence simply cannot be replicated," she says. "And when you consider that millions of wonderful, adoptable dogs and cats are languishing in animal shelters every year or dying in terrifying ways after being abandoned, you realize that cloning adds to the homeless-animal overpopulation crisis. "

她说：“动物的个性、癖好和本质是无法复制的。当你考虑到每年有数以百万计乖巧可爱、可领养的狗和猫在动物收容所里苦苦挣扎，或在被遗弃后以可怕的方式死去，你就会意识到克隆加剧了无家可归动物的过剩危机。”

Geneticist, Andrew Hessel, counters that pet cloning comes with very few ethical concerns, if it is done responsibly. "Someone might say 'why clone animals, when there are all these other animals available for adoption?'," he says. "Yet, you can make the same argument with human children. Why have your own child when there are all these children available for adoption? And pets also become members of the family."

而遗传学家安德鲁·海瑟尔反驳说，如果以负责任的方式进行，宠物克隆很少会有道德问题。“有人可能会说‘既然有这么多其他动物可供收养，为什么还要克隆动物？’然而，你可以对人类的孩子提出同样的论点。既然有这么多的孩子可供收养，为什么还要有自己的孩子？而且宠物也会成为家庭的成员。”

cryopreservation: n. 低温贮藏

例: To study the methods of mouse embryo cryopreservation. 

目的探讨小鼠胚胎冷冻保存方法。

surrogate: adj. 替代的，代理的

例：

Identifiers may use surrogate keys. 

标识符可能使用代理键。

replicate  v. 重复，复制

例：

He invited her to his laboratory to see if she could replicate the experiment. 

他邀请她到他的实验室看她能否复制该实验。