Animal obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2003:

Dolly,  6,  the sheep who was the world’s first cloned
mammal,  was euthanized due to an incurable lung disease and chronic
arthritis  on February 14 at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian,
Scotland,  her lifelong home.  Produced from an udder cell from a
six-year-old ewe,  Dolly was born in July 1996 and named after the
singer Dolly Parton.  At age two she showed signs of premature aging,
and by her death she appeared to be twice her chronological age.
Similar effects have now been seen in all mammals cloned to date.
Researchers now believe that cloned animals are the biological age of
the cells they were made from–a major setback to the theory that
cloning might enable humans to practice self-perpetuation,  as each
clone would in effect be born at the same biological age as the cell
source,  and all would reach elderly decrepitude at the same time.
Dolly’s death “highlights more than ever the foolishness of those who
want to legalize human reproductive cloning,” said Alan Colman,  one
of the scientists whose work produced her.

GHR-KO 11C,  a dwarf mouse who lived four years,  11 months,
and three weeks,  equivalent to 180 to 200 years in human terms,
died on January 15 at Southern Illinois University.  The next oldest
mouse ever raised at Southern Illinois U. died at four years,  three
months,  said physiology researcher Andzej Bartke.  GHR-KO 11C was
genetically engineered for nonresponse to a growth hormone.  He was
put into a longevity study when Bartke and others noticed that he had
outlived all the other mice of his generation.
Matilda,  3,  the first Australian cloned sheep,  who gave
birth to triplets at only nine months old,  died suddenly of unknown
cause on February 6 at the Turret-field Research Centre,  north of
Adelaide.

Canus,  39,  the male whooping crane credited with saving his
species,  died in January at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in
Maryland.  Only 42 whooping cranes were known to exist in 1964 when
Canadian Wildlife Service scientists Ernie Kuyt and Nick Novakowski
found him downed with a dislocated wing in a marsh at Wood Buffalo
National Park,  Alberta.  After receiving veterinary care in
Edmonton,  Canus was sent to start a captive breeding program in
Patuxent.  There he became sire,  grandsire,  and great grandsire to
186 descendents,  including Lucky,  the first wild whooping crane
chick to fledge in the U.S. in 60 years.  His remains were
repatriated to a museum in Fort Smith,  Northwest Territories,
Canada.

King,  8,  a Percheron horse kept by northern Alberta
resident Evelyn Presisniuk,  known for pulling sleighloads of
children at Churchill Square in Edmonton each Christmas season,  on
January 26 became the fifth known victim of a serial killer who had
already killed one other horse and wounded three more in three weeks
of drive-by attacks.

Freeloader,  7,  a bucking bull used in the Wrangler National
Finals Rodeo,  was euthanized on December 12,  2002,  after suffering
a broken back during a ride by Colby Yates of Arizona,  a 26-year pro
bullrider.