Custom (made to order) pets through genetic engineering is now a thing.

At least when it comes to miniaturized 33 pound pet pigs coming to market in China

And yes, they can edit the genes to give them different colors and color patterns. It will be interesting to see what companies do when they start doing this with dogs (can you imagine if they made a beagle the size of a mastiff, you might literally suffocate under a tsunami of cuteness and love). :eek:

Looks to me like there’s a potential billion dollar industry here (and not to worry, some of these will likely wind their way into shelters too for those who prefer rescues). I also wonder if this means we might get pet Dragons sometime this century as well (with the wings, horns, fire breathing, and everything), because there may not be that big of a barrier between this and actually creating something never seen before in real life.

Would you get a custom pet one of these days, or would you be one who prefers one brought about through fully naturalistic ways?

I want to be the first to develop a GUI to genetically modify creatures from scratch, then convert your creature to DNA to be grown.

I also want to take over the planet with it.

My sister’s bearded dragon is an asshole. You want that one? It’s close enough, right?

You’d need something like the Kaiju from Pacific Rim to do that (though I think today’s technology is still a ways from doing something like that because there’s no DNA in existence that can do it with minor modifications).

If you created a hybrid chicken/dog, would you legally be able to eat it, or would it still be considered a dog?

On a morbid side note, I’ve read that cannibals considered humans the “long pig” because human flesh tasted just like pork. Weird.

They also made a pug… miniatures are trendy since ages. Also “genetic engineering”.

While cross-breeding has been done for a very long time, it is fairly comical to think that we actually know enough about DNA to custom-build animal species.

Correct, but the story in question isn’t about custom building an animal (because they are simply changing a handful of traits within an existing animal).

However, the custom part is that they can change a few traits related to color according to the wants of the customer. In a sense, the custom pet market would likely start out with companies merely creating custom breeds of domestic species.