Embryo transfer, IVF, and cloning technologies used in livestock and companion animal breeding raise welfare concerns for animals used in these procedures.
Assisted reproductive technologies in animals create welfare costs at every stage of the process. Donor animals undergo hormonal superovulation that causes physiological stress and repeated veterinary interventions. Embryo recipients experience invasive transfer procedures and may have increased pregnancy complications. Cloning has extremely low success rates — most cloned embryos fail to develop, and surviving clones have elevated rates of cardiovascular, respiratory, and immune problems. The welfare costs of these technologies must be weighed against their claimed benefits, including genetic preservation, which often do not justify the scale of animal suffering involved.