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The Sorcerer's Apprentices have been busy in their workplaces, often buried deep underground, picking apart the components of living beings and rearranging them in ways they hope  might produce a special result that might eventually prove useful, and therefore, profitable.

Animals have long been subjected to manipulation by breeding them to emphasize special traits.  Some of the results are apparent in dogs: bulldogs and Pekinese with noses so flattened they have difficulty breathing; spaniels with drooping ears that pick up dirt and foster infections; dachshunds so elongated they suffer back pain and fractures; and several large breeds like Labradors, Danes and German shepherds which are prone to hip displasia. 

It is as if the weakening traits that Nature would have discarded
through the exacting process of survival were deliberately bred back into animals because humans fancied a certain physical trait that made dogs better serve a special purpose or made their owners seem more special for owning such an animal.

Farm animals have been bred in the same way.  The traits that were brought out had to do with more efficient production of milk, wool, or flesh for human consumption.  As a result we have chickens and turkeys who grow too large and too fast for their legs to support their weight: pigs whose pelvises snap at the slightest strain, merino sheep whose extra folds of skin have to be cut away (without anesthetic) from their hindquarters to reduce soiling and fly strike; calves so large they have to be delivered by Caesarian section; and cows who produce so much milk they can scarcely maneuver their hind legs around their udders.

The latest trend, orchestrated by the Monsanto chemical complex, which profits from the procedure as reported in previous issues of The Civil Abolitionist, has been to dose cows with a genetically manipu-lated growth hormone to still further increase their milk production.

Not content with this, the sorcerers have progressed to tinkering with the basic genetic makeup of animals, transplanting genes from one species to another, including the insertion of human genes into other animals in order to use them for spare parts, the theory being that human recipients will be less likely to reject transplants if the genetic makeup of the animal the organ was taken from contains a bit of human DNA.

Conversely, it has been suggested that humans should be injected with a gene or genes from the animal whose organ(s) they are slated to receive.

Unlike natural mutations which take place by trial and error over millennia, giving species a chance to make adjustments, instant fixes are hit or miss with only the slimmest chance of hitting on viable combinations.

Ligers and Tiglons may be viable in zoos but whether they would be able to survive in the wild is moot.  Tigers have evolved as solitary animals; lions live in a group.

The first transgenic pigs were painfully arthritic.  As yet there is no unbiased information on the condition of later transgenic pigs being bred to supply organs for human transplants.

The world watched and waited after AIDS patient Jeff Getty was injected with baboon bone marrow with the hope it would multiply and provide him with the baboon's lack of susceptibility to the diseases called AIDS.  It didn't take, but his condition improved shortly afterwards, a welcome side effect, but there have been no further general news reports on his condition. So far, the real danger that interspecies transplants could result in unleashing dangerous viruses hasn't happened, but the potential is always there every time bits of different species are mixed.

We have followed the spread of CJD attributed to incorporating sheep offal in cattle feed in Britain.  The disease appears to have spread from cows to humans, cats and minks.  We also remember the deadly swine flu epidemics that appeared to be transmitted from pigs to humans.  It would seem much wiser not to interfere with communities of microorganisms that have evolved in relationship to a particular species over long periods of time.

The phenomenon known as AIDS can best be studied in "infected" individuals who do not get sick and by helping people who are already sick to strengthen their immune systems, rather than by exposing them to potential hordes of new viruses for which they have no immunity.   

- Bina Robinson

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