Thanks to a landmark ruling in Texas, U. S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson ordered the American Quarter Horse Association, the world's largest horse breeding and registry organization to allow cloned horses.
Another Secretariat or Seabiscuit? Controversy over cloned horses
A landmark ruling in Texas by U. S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson orders the American Quarter Horse Association, the world's largest horse breeding and registry organization to allow cloned horses.
According to Jason Abraham, who won the lawsuit, cloning is simply the latest in a long line of advances, from transfer of embryos to the use of frozen sperm to intracytoplasmic sperm injection. According to Abraham, these techniques allow breeders to avoid genetic dead ends and preserve valued traits.
The American Quarter Horse Association is against the cloning according to their spokesman, Tom Persechino, "It's not strictly for breeding purposes."
In addition, clones don't have parents and cloning is not breeding. "Cloning doesn't improve the breed; it just makes Xerox copies of the same horses," according to the groups position paper.
Citing backers of the cloning technology, NBC News predicts that cloning will spread to rodeo competitions like barrel racing and reining, polo matches and equestrian events leading up to the 2014 Olympics.