California Wants to Ban Gene-Edited Pets, Because of Course It Does

Author: Josie Zayner (Pirate Wires, “The Industry”) URL: https://piratewires.substack.com/p/california-wants-to-ban-gene-edited One-line: Years after California pursued her for gene-editing herself, Josie Zayner, founder of a company that now gene-edits animals, argues that the state’s AB 1382 would ban gene-edited pets with no evidence the technology causes harm. In her view the bill cuts off a key source of funding for animal gene-editing research and ignores the real genetic damage done by conventional breeding.

Key claims

• The bill: AB 1382, “Ethics over Aesthetics.” It was introduced by Republican assemblywoman Leticia Castillo, passed the assembly 73–0, and is awaiting a senate vote. It would ban the sale of transgenic gene-edited pets, specifically animals edited for “cosmetic” reasons, without defining “cosmetic.” The stated reason is that gene editing “undermine[s] an animal’s health and will contribute to an out-of-control pet population.” The bill’s authors cite a WIRED article about Zayner’s company, and the judiciary committee calls the industry “ethically suspect.”
• California has targeted Zayner before. She came to the Bay Area as a genetic engineering scientist at NASA after grad school at UChicago. She then founded The ODIN in an Oakland garage, selling DIY at-home CRISPR kits. The California Medical Board and Department of Consumer Affairs investigated her for “practicing medicine without a license” after she gene-edited herself. The FDA went after her gene-edited fluorescent beer yeast, and the FBI questioned her about biosecurity. She was cleared of all charges.
• SB 180 was the precedent. In 2019, Republican state senator Ling Ling Chang wrote SB 180, the first law regulating amateur gene editing. When journalists asked who it would affect, Chang’s office sent them a link to Zayner’s kit on Amazon. Chang lost re-election in 2020, and Zayner moved her family and company to Austin in 2021.
• Her current company gene-edits animals. In 2024 she started the Embryo Corporation (formerly the LA project), which designs animals using genetic breeding predictions, reproductive technology and gene editing. She says it was the first team in the world to directly gene-edit horse embryos, has achieved “breakthroughs in scalable in-oviduct gene editing,” and holds some of the largest genetic datasets in the world.
• Pet sales pay for the science. Politicians see a glowing cat or rabbit as pointless; Zayner sees “a way to fund development of technology and our understanding of biology.” Banning gene-edited pet sales in California “would cut off one of the largest sources of revenue” for animal gene-editing companies.
• Breeding is the real animal-health problem. Breeding for looks causes inbreeding, bulldogs that can’t breathe properly, and Dalmatians with deafness, blindness and sometimes fatal kidney stones. She calls breeding “inherently imprecise” and says it “creates gene slop,” while editing can be “as precise as a single DNA letter.” She says the bill “contains no concrete health protections for animals” and names no specific health risk from gene editing.
• The same technology behind sickle-cell and cystic-fibrosis treatments is the one that gets over-regulated. Zayner blames politicians who assume any biotech will lead to a pandemic. She argues that anyone regulating biotech “in your AI model or government agency or state” shares responsibility for the benefits that never arrive.

Notable quotes

“Shall I compare thee to a California politician? Thou art more lovely, more temperate, and less willing to put me in jail for genetic engineering.”

“The judiciary committee calls the PhD scientist-filled gene-edited pet industry ‘ethically suspect,’ which is rich coming from California politicians.”

“I did what any sane person repeatedly targeted by the state of California would do: I moved myself, my family, and my company to Austin, TX in 2021.”

“But a politician hears ‘cosmetic gene editing’ and thinks a glowing cat or rabbit is pointless — when we see it as a way to fund development of technology and our understanding of biology.”

“There is a false dichotomy that ‘natural’ is good and ‘human-influenced’ is bad, but the reality is, breeding naturally causes random changes that can’t be predicted in genomes. It is inherently imprecise and creates gene slop.”

“Biology is scary to people because they don’t understand it. No one really completely understands it, tbh. It’s the only technology on this planet we cannot create from scratch. That also makes it the most powerful technology we know of.”

“If you’re going to regulate biotech in your AI model or government agency or state, you are complicit in the harm you’re causing by holding back what this technology can do to benefit animal and human life alike.”

How it connects

• Gene Editing — the technology the proposed ban targets. The piece argues it is more precise than breeding, down to a single DNA letter.
• Biotech — Zayner’s broader point: biology gets regulated on fear of a pandemic rather than on evidence.
• Regulation — AB 1382 and SB 180 are two California bills aimed at the same founder seven years apart. The new bill names no specific harm.
• California — the state government Zayner says pursued her through two agencies and two bills.
• California Diaspora — Zayner moved herself, her family and her company to Austin in 2021 because of it.
• Austin — where she moved and where the Embryo Corporation now operates.
• Precautionary Principle — the bill bans a technology because of feared harms, with no evidence those harms exist. Zayner counts the benefits that never happen as harms too.
• Josie Zayner — the author: former NASA genetic engineer and founder of The ODIN and the Embryo Corporation.
• Pirate Wires — the publication. The piece ran in its “The Industry” section.
• Mike Solana — this page previously credited Solana as the author in error. The byline is Zayner’s; the piece ran in Pirate Wires.
• Wired (Magazine) — the bill’s authors cite a WIRED article about Zayner’s company as justification.
• Colossal Biosciences — another company engineering animal genomes, and the closest comparison in the wiki for a commercial animal gene-editing company.