The scientists tried 79 times before they got it right. Monkey after monkey was made to live in distressing conditions and then die after a few days. The PR people don’t tell us the names of those babies

The provoking photo of the two cloned monkeys, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, says it all. Look at them clinging to each other nervously, their wide eyes both beautiful and haunting. What have these babies seen in the laboratory where they were created? How has it been for them to have the scientists picking and poking at them? Look into their eyes.

The expensive PR machine behind the project has presented news of the first cloned monkeys as a “breakthrough”. It’s like Doctor Frankenstein has turned spin doctor. But what are the bits they’re not telling us?

Whatever you think of the ethics, the practice of animal cloning leads to enormous suffering for animals. Painful, grotesque deformities and early deaths are very much the norm – 96 per cent do not survive beyond six months.

Many cloned animals have faulty or suppressed immune systems and they suffer from a string of health issues including heart failure, respiratory difficulties, and structural disabilities.

The team that created Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua admits there was “much failure before we found a way to successfully clone a monkey”. In fact, they tried 79 times before they got it right. Monkey after monkey was made to live in distressing conditions and then die after a few days. The PR people don’t tell us the names of those babies.

Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua were cloned using the same technique that created Dolly the Sheep in 1996. Dolly was the first time scientists had successfully cloned a mammal from an adult cell, taken from the udder.

Again, scientists were quick to brag about their “success”, and again they weren’t so quick to mention the dark side. Dolly was the sole surviving adult from 277 cloning attempts and she lived a peculiar, stunted life that was plagued from beginning to end by a string of health problems, including premature arthritis. She died of lung cancer.