Commercial Dog Cloning (Update) - Best Friends Again Program

We’ve told you about luxury pet cloning services in Asia, but now a California based biotech startup, BioArts International, has launched the Best Friends Again Program, a commercial dog cloning program. They received their worldwide license with exclusive rights to commercialise dog and cat cloning using the same technique used to produce Dolly, the first cloned sheep.

Five cloning slots are to be auctioned off for interested pet owners. Starting bids range from $100,000- $180,000, which is not cheap, but for some, price is no obstacle if they can get their beloved pets back in some form. The company is apparently collaborating with the South Korean cloning team lead by the disgraced senior scientist, Hwang Woo-Suk. According to BioArts International, the Korean team, with better technology, have improved the dog cloning success rate since the very first dog clone, Snuppy, was produced in 2005.

There is concern among the scientific community because animal clones are flawed. Dolly the sheep had numerous health problems and died young. The US Humane Society is also concerned about animal suffering. Even if the clones were perfect and no animal suffered any illnesses, clones are exactly that - carbon copies of a dear pet. They will look identical but the clones will not have the personality traits of the original which so endeared them to their owners.

Here’s more on cloning:

Cloning Dead Pets - $150,000 For Fido 2

This is a huge breakthrough in the realm of science and discovery, but it’s also thrilling news for animal lovers. It’s not something we’re likely to see in the U.S. for a while for ethical reasons, but a South Korean company is going to begin cloning pets for $150,000. RNL Bio created Snuppy, the… [More]

Cloning Cancer Sniffing Dogs - Making More Marines

The world’s first cancer sniffing dog is set to save more lives.  The black Labrador known as Marine is to be cloned in South Korea at the end of this month. Marine was first trained to sniff human cancer cells in the St. Sugar Cancer Sniffing Dog Training Centre, Japan. Unfortunately, Marine c… [More]