Source: Sergey Sukhnev / EyeEm / Getty
British couple, Laura Jacques and Richard Remde loved their eight year old dog, a boxer named Dylan. Six months ago, the canine died of a heart attack. Even though the couple has a total of 15 other animals including 4 dogs, they couldn’t stand to part with Dylan.
Jacques and Remde took a skin sample from their furry friend and flew to South Korean where a Biotech Research Foundation called Sooam was able to create two puppy clones of Dylan.
In the past 10 years, Sooam has successfully cloned approximately 700 dogs. The Telegraph outlines the cloning process:
“…Scientists take a donor egg from a female dog and remove the nucleus holding the genetic material which gives an animal its characteristics and personality. Dylan’s DNA was then placed into the egg which was given electric shocks to trigger cell division. The egg was then implanted into a surrogate female dog.”
This procedure is usually done within five days of the dogs death. Dylan’s situation was unique due to the fact that the scientists did not receive the skin sample until 12 days after the dog’s death but were still able to create viable embryos.
The first puppy, named Chance has already been born via surrogate and the second dog, which will be named Shadow is expected to be born today.
The cloning procedure costs nearly $100,000. The expense does not alleviate the possible health risks including birth defects.
“There is also a body of evidence that cloned animals frequently suffer physical ailments such as tumors, pneumonia and abnormal growth patterns,” said a spokesman for the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.)
Human cloning is currently illegal. Beauties, do you love your pets enough to have them cloned? Is the cost associated with the procedure worth it? Let us know what you think!
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