Scientists at Texas A&M University said on Thursday they had used a grant from Genetic Savings and Clone to done a house cat, and presented the result, a two-month- old kitten they called cc:, short for carbon copy. The Humane Society of the United States objected instantly, saying there are already too many unwanted cats and dogs in the US. "What is the compelling social purpose behind this experimental practice?" asked Wayne Pacelle. senior vice president of the group. Lou Hawthorne, chief executive officer of Genetic Savings and Clone, says it is not too different from championship breeding. He said millions of homeless cats and dogs destroyed at shelters each year may benefit from the research. "It takes eggs to'make clones, hundreds if not thousands of eggs. Where do we get those eggs? From spay clinics. What do we give them in exchange for those eggs? We give them money. They will spay hundreds of times more cats with the money we give them than each single clone we make," he said. 

The first project was called Missyplidty - aimed at making a copy of a much-loved longhaired mongrel called Missy. But it is hard to clone a dog. Duane Kraemer, a cloning expert at Texas A&M, says dog eggs are difficult to get and nurture. "The dog reproductive cycle is much more complex," he added.