Going once, twice, three times ...
A California company plans to auction off its dog cloning services next month through a string of online auctions, with the bidding to start at $100,000, the New York Times reported yesterday.
The company, BioArts International, will auction off five dog clonings. It is calling the project "Best Friends Again," and has scheduled the auctions for June 18, according to the Times report. (You can read it here.)
BioArts has arranged a partnership with the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea, where scientists Hwang Woo Suk cloned the first dog, a male Afghan hound, in 2005. He and his Korean colleagues named that dog Snuppy, for Seoul National University puppy.
The company began work last fall to clone its first dog, using genetic samples from his family dog, a border collie-husky mix named Missy who died in 2002. Three clones of Missy have been produced, he said. (That's them with BioArts CEO Lou Hawthorne in the AP photo above.)
The company guarantees a healthy dog that resembles the original. Hawthorne said that BioArts would not spend the money “unless and until we deliver a cloned dog that they sign off on.”
And so technology marches on. It won't be long until it's a matter of heading to the mall to get your pet cloned, or perhaps a drive-thru where you place your order and drop off your dog's tissue sample in the first window, pick up an identical pup at the next. Or perhaps a big warehouse store -- a Clone Depot.
In fact, this pet cloning thing is making headlines often enough that we have created a category for it (see the rightside rail for our categories) -- a place where you can find all our past and future cloning entries. But no duplicates. We promise.
Comments
Does no one remember what happened at the end of Pet Cemetary? Did anyone watch the episode of This American Life where the guy cloned his favorite cow, only to have the cow grow into an angry, hostile version of his beloved cow? I am not convinced we not are meant to do this for fun. Plus, only one out of every two dogs who enter a shelter ever find new families. Dogs aren't sweaters that you buy multiples of when you really like them!
Posted by: Marie | May 22, 2008 11:30 AM
Talk about money being wasted on the rich. When I think of all the animals that could be helped with that much money and yet another greedy person comes along with a stupid idea like the one in this article who probably will get someone to pay a fortune for a cloned animal, it angers me. I also think cloning a 'beloved' pet is selfish. No matter what, it is not one's pet coming back. I absolutely adore my cat who died more than 10 years ago. Would I have cloned her if I could? Absolutely not! Sheesh. It's just not right for many reasons regardless of whether or not it leads to cloning humans and it does kill animals in the process of getting one "they sign off on."
Posted by: Linda | May 22, 2008 8:00 PM
Hey John! As a journalist you know a drive-thru cloning shop is impossible, but it's amazing how many people get ideas like that from science fiction (one of your commenters even cites a sci fi movie to explain why she disapproves of cloning).
Hey Linda, surely not everyone who seeks pet cloning services thinks cloning is for bringing pets back to life! There are other reasons someone might be interested in having a new animal with the same genes as another animal. Think about the reasons why people pay for other assisted reproductive technologies. There are plenty of online resources of information about cloning you can check out; here's one where you can hear a guy talk about his decision to clone his cat: http://www.podnova.com/channel/24475/episode/29/.
Cloning might not interest you, but clearly it's a valuable new option for other people who may love animals every bit as much as you do.
Posted by: bicycleo | May 26, 2008 4:42 PM