Could We Create a Giant Domestic Cat? The Science, Future Technology, Safety and Ethics of Genetically Enlarged Cats
Could We Create a Giant Domestic Cat? Science, Future Technology, Safety and Ethics of Genetically Enlarged Cats By Ronen Kolton Yehuda (MKR: Messiah King RKY) Abstract Could future biotechnology create a domestic cat that is several times larger than an ordinary house cat while preserving the familiar appearance, coat, behavior and social character of Felis catus ? The question becomes much more complex when we imagine not only moderately enlarged cats of 12–30 kg, but animals reaching 60, 100, 200 or even 300 kg—body masses comparable with large wild felids—and, at the most speculative extreme, perhaps 300–500 kg. Creating such animals would not simply involve making a cat grow more. Body mass, bone loading, muscle strength, organ function, metabolism and heat balance do not all scale in the same way. A healthy enlarged cat would therefore need progressively different proportions and internal anatomy as its size increased. Several relevant technologies already exist. Scientists can s...