Clonning Doggies?!

In the "don't do this at home" file, a California woman (of course California!) is a happy camper after South Korean doctors successfully cloned her beloved pit bull terrier, Booger http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,397923,00.html.
Now one may say, what is wrong with that? It is not human cloning after all, right?
Well, the fact that the woman, Bernan McKinney, sold her home and paid the South Korean company, RNL Bio, $50,000 bucks. And, that was a discount because she helped with publicity and was the company's first cloning customer. The usual price is $150,000.
Now, there no stronger dog lover than Mrs. rightviewfromtheleftcoast and myself. After all, we took Scout, the Wonder Dog, on our recent weekend in San Diego. But we would never think about cloning her. She is unique as is. I do not think that there would be another one like her. Or five, as in the case of the cloned Booger.
There is a seemingly unnatural bond that Miss McKinney had with the deceased Booger. In reading the article, there are many admirable things about Booger and how he cared for, in a dog way, Miss McKinney after injuries left her without the use of her left hand and in a wheelchair.
What Miss McKinney had not done is gotten over the demise of Booger and realized that there are so many dogs that are alive and would love to be in a home with such a loving person.
Miss McKinney reminds me of those who so yearn for "their" own child that they take very unusual measures such as freezing embryos, sperm and the like. Many turn to surrogate mothers. The overwhelming majority of those people are doing the right thing in their mind and want to transfer their love to a child of their own.
The problem is that there are so many children that would love to be adopted. These children are already feeling unwanted. And, when one or two adults are fixated on continuing a "bloodline", it makes wonderful, living children feel doubly unwanted.
Now, dogs do not have the same feelings as people, but the principal is the same. Dogs not adopted out of the pounds and or animal shelters are put to death. While there is a rise of "no-kill" shelters, there are just not enough. And, many a dog and of course cats, are being put to death every day in the United States.
Yet, Miss McKinney sells her home, pays $50,000 to clone a dog in the hope that she can continue a co-dependent relationship.
It is exactly what would happen if humans were cloned.
Parents who may grieve over the untimely death of a child would try to take the dead child's cells in the hopes that some witch doctor can replicate that child and everything could go on as if nothing had happened.
That is why there must be regulations on ALL cloning and no human cloning.
Nothing will replace Booger, no matter what Miss McKinney believes and or thinks. Booger was a special dog but a one-of-a-kind. There can be five cloned Boogers, but the one and only is in the great doggie beyond.
Cloning in all forms is man's attempt to cheat death. Pure and simple.
However, we are just beginning to show just enough acceptance with someone like Miss McKinney that it may be in our lifetimes that there will be a consensus and acceptance of cloning humans. And the potential for so much bad to come out of it.
I wish Miss McKinney well, but hope that powers to be will look at this not as a good thing, but something that will have tragic consequences that we have no idea about.