Cloning is an assisted reproductive technology that allows livestock breeders to create identical twins of their best animals. This breeding technique does not change the genetic makeup of the animal. The most common procedure used today is known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which makes it possible to produce many animals from a single donor. SCNT involves transferring the genetic information from one animal into an empty oocyte, or egg.

While cheaper, 'healthier' food may sound like a good thing, the important question to ask is, how should it be accomplished? The answer is not by cloning animals. Animal cloning raises concerns on numerous levels and there is simply no need to clone animals for food. The remarkable inefficiency of cloning poses serious threats to animal welfare, as does engineering these animals for ever more intensive production, which is already associated with great animal cruelty and suffering.

Animal cloning has been rigorously studied for decades, since the earliest research on embryo splitting in the late seventies and early eighties. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has analyzed numerous scientific studies on the subject, conducted over 30 years and encompassing several generations and large families of livestock. Cloning enhances animal wellbeing, and is no more invasive than other accepted forms of assisted reproduction such as in vitro fertilization.

While there may be no direct harm to the original animal, many other animals are exploited as 'production units.' In the cloning laboratory, female cats are injected with hormones to synchronize their reproductive states and they undergo multiple surgeries to implant cloned embryos and extract fetuses. The odds are against the kittens' survival. Feline cloning techniques are so new that no one yet knows the long-term consequences.

Cloning is the term commonly used to refer to a procedure known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), the procedure which was first used to create Dolly the sheep in 1996. In SCNT, the nucleus (which contains the genetic material of an animal) is removed from an unfertilized egg and replaced with the nucleus of an adult (somatic) cell from the donor animal to be cloned, ultimately resulting in an animal that is an almost exact genetic copy of the donor (though some differences remain).

While it is up to each individual to determine their viewpoint on different technologies, the major world religions do not have an issue with livestock cloning. The Catholic Church, in its “Reflections on Cloning,” says “there is a place for research, including cloning, in the vegetable and animal kingdoms.” On the whole, leading Muslim and Jewish thinkers also agree that cloning is acceptable to meet standards of kosher and halal.

Clone International employs the patented Nuclear Transfer Technology developed by the Roslin Institute in Scotland, that produced Dolly, the sheep.

Therapeutic cloning" or somatic cell nuclear transfer, is a process where the nucleus of an unfertilized egg is removed and replaced with the nucleus of an adult cell, such as a skin cell. The resulting embryo is a genetic match to the donor of the adult skin cell. Cloning, in theory, could be used in two ways: for reproductive purposes or to create stem cells that can be used in therapy. Reproductive cloning in animals is difficult to accomplish and its safety is unproven.

Reproductive cloning uses the same technology as SCNT but with a goal of creating a fetus. The technology was used to create “Dolly” the sheep. Reproductive cloning of humans is against the law in California and many other States.