Barbra Streisand was barking up the wrong tree when she decided to have her dog cloned, as far as PETA is concerned.
Following a report that Streisand had her Coton du Tulear dog Samantha cloned, resulting in new pooches Miss Scarlett and Miss Violet, the animal-rights organization came out against the decision, stating that they would “love to have talked her out of cloning.”
In a statement provided to TheWrap on Tuesday, the organization pointed out the drawbacks to animal cloning and noted that it’s “not fair to” the animals.
“We all want our beloved dogs to live forever, but while it may sound like a good idea, cloning doesn’t achieve that — instead, it creates a new and different dog who has only the physical characteristics of the original. Animals’ personalities, quirks, and very ‘essence’ simply cannot be replicated, and when you consider that millions of wonderful adoptable dogs are languishing in animal shelters every year or dying in terrifying ways when abandoned, you realize that cloning adds to the homeless-animal population crisis,” PETA’s statement reads.
“And because cloning has a high failure rate, many dogs are caged and tormented for every birth that actually occurs–so that’s not fair to them, despite the best intentions. We feel Barbra’s grief at losing her beloved dog but would also love to have talked her out of cloning.”
A Variety story reported that Streisand had the dogs cloned from cells retrieved from Samantha’s mouth and stomach, prior to Samantha’s 2017 death.
“They have different personalities,” Streisand told Variety. “I’m waiting for them to get older so I can see if they have her [Samantha’s] brown eyes and seriousness.”
Watch video of Streisand with the original Samantha below.