Americans are obsessed with identity, not just identity politics. They want to know who they are and where they’ve come from, and millions of them have paid to find out.
With the best-known DNA testing companies, 23andMe and Ancestry, you can discover your heritage broken down into hundreds of regions across the world for $99. The trend has recently exploded: According to the MIT Technology Review, more people purchased DNA tests in 2018 than in all previous years combined, bringing the total number of users over 26 million.
DNA tests have become a fun piece of trivia — “Who knew I was part Spanish?” — and a way to prove or disprove ethnic associations. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., found the results were not what she wanted. Others hope to prove they have enough of a particular heritage to join certain clubs or take advantage of certain opportunities.
Experts have questioned the security of letting companies have all of our genetic data, especially after law enforcement used some companies’ genetic information to search for the relatives of criminals with DNA profiles. Much as it is on the Internet, one makes a privacy trade-off.
But the trend may finally have gone too far. You can now buy a DNA test for your dog.
It may never have occurred to you that you’d like to know whether Fluffy was 11.8 percent Great Pyrenees or Max was 14.5 percent Australian cattle dog. But there’s no need to settle for the archaic term “mutt.” You can tell your friends exactly where your pup came from.
The Embark Dog DNA Test allows you to learn about your pet’s breed, health, ancestry, and relatives. It even made Oprah Winfrey’s 2018 list of favorite things. For $129, you discover only the dog’s breed. But for the trifling price of $199, you learn comprehensive health and breed data. And yes, that is twice the price of a single ancestry test for a human being.
Knowledge of your furry best friend may be helpful to know if they’re prone to certain health problems. But, more than a hundred dollars on dog trivia? If you loved Maggie as a mutt, you’ll still love her now that you know she’s 23.7 percent Maltese.
Ancestry tests, both human and canine, may not be very accurate. Customers have reported finding results that belied what they already knew about their heritage, and results depend on the company’s interpretation of various patterns in your genome.
Whether you send in your own vial of spit or swab your dog’s mouth, you’ll learn something. But a DNA test won’t tell you the only thing that matters about your dog, which is whether he’ll wag his tail to greet you at the end of the day.
