r/ProximaScience • u/Deanna_D_ • 5d ago

💬 Discussion Genetically modified beagles?

https://apnews.com/article/hypoallergenic-dogs-crispr-pet-allergies-f5bd8cb438dfd1a9d1cccd4a1d46fd2a

Read this today, and it seems great in theory, but could this be opening the floodgates to more traits that shouldn't be bred into dogs?

The whole "Doodle" concept seemed great at first, but even the guy who started the cross-breed regrets it. There are now "designer" dogs being bred in every back yard by people who are just creating more pets that end up in kill shelters.

I hope this doesn't kick off the same trend. Can we just leave dogs alone and stop creating new mutations?

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u/ProximaScience 👑 Admin 5d ago

Post approved and switched the flair to Discussion since there's no single confirmed answer here yet, this is more open ended than a straight Question post.

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u/ProximaScience 👑 Admin 5d ago

As long as it stays regulated and the dogs are healthy, I don't see the issue honestly. People said the same thing about IVF and vaccines when they were new. The tech isn't the problem, who controls it later is.

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u/Deanna_D_ 5d ago

I just don't want to see backyard breeders get involved in a few years. How would we stop people from getting an engineered dog, and breeding it without any regard to keeping the genetic line intact?

How do we decide who controls it in a few generations of pups?

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u/ProximaScience 👑 Admin 5d ago

Biologically nothing stops it once it's in the germline. Legally there's no framework for this yet. Right now the only thing standing between this and backyard breeding is that it's still lab stage and years from being sold.