9/11 hero dog is cloned into 5 puppies
Scientists say they have cloned a German shepherd that helped with search-and-rescue after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Associated Press reports the five puppy clones were delivered to owner James Symington, a retired Canadian police officer, and his wife, who now live in Los Angeles.
Before the dog Trakr died in April at age 16, the couple entered a contest that promised to clone a pet dog for free.
The contest was sponsored by the California company BioArts International. BioArts partnered with a South Korean company led by disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, whose team performed the cloning.
Symington said he drove to New York with Trakr after the World Trade Center collapsed. Trakr helped find one of the last victims of the attack in the rubble. Symington won an essay contest that paid for the cloning by describing the dog's heroism.
"Once in a lifetime, a dog comes along that not only captures the hearts of all he touches but also plays a private role in history," the retired officer, James Symington, wrote in his contest submission.
Symington met Trakr's clones — Trustt, Solace, Valor, Prodigy and Deja vu — for the first time this week.
According to the LA Times, BioArts said in a statement that it partnered with South Korean cloning specialist Hwang Woo-Suk to clone the German shepherd. Woo-Suk is a controversial cloning pioneer who has been accused of faking human cloning evidence.
In a statement released by BioArts, Symington said meeting the new dogs was an emotional experience: "They're identical -- down to the smallest detail. Few dogs are born with exceptional abilities -- Trakr was one of those dogs. And if these puppies have the same attributes as Trakr, I plan on putting them into search and rescue so they can help people the way Trakr did."
The American Society for the Cruelty of Animals is concerned about the cloning, saying, "Our current knowledge of animal cloning indicates that there are important welfare concerns at issue. Reports on the health and condition of mammalian animals produced by cloning have indicated a variety of anatomical and physiological problems."
At top, Five puppies cloned from Trakr, a German Shepherd search-and-rescue dog used to locate Ground Zero survivors after the September 11 attacks. Photo by David McNew/Getty Images. Below, James Symington of Los Angeles holds the pups. To his right is Lou Hawthorne, CEO of BioArts International of Mill Valley, California, whose company sponsored the Golden Clone Giveaway contest that Symington won. Photo by Ben Glass.
Comments
I'm really uncomfortable with the cloning of *any* animal. They may be genetically identical, but those pups aren't Trakr and may not have his search-and-rescue skills. It just doesn't seem justified.
Posted by: Shannon | June 17, 2009 1:28 PM
i agree. Those dogs make look the same but they will never be Trakr. Just think, Mr. Syminton could have adopted 5 homeless dogs instead of selfishly cloning Trakr.
Posted by: Dawn | June 17, 2009 4:47 PM