Scientists consider dogs among the most difficult animals to clone because they have an unusual reproductive biology, more so than humans. But the company behind the auctions, BioArts International, maintains that the technology is ready, and it is calling the dog cloning project Best Friends Again. It has scheduled the auctions for June 18.
BioArts says it has licensed patents issued in the 1990s after researchers in Scotland cloned Dolly the sheep.
BioArts also arranged a partnership with the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea. BioArts says one of the principal scientists there is Hwang Woo Suk, who in 2005 was involved in cloning a male Afghan hound. He and his Korean colleagues named that dog Snuppy, for Seoul National University puppy.
A team led by Dr. Hwang reported in 2004 that it had made cloned human embryos and stem cells. But those claims were found to be fraudulent.
“I know the association with Dr. Hwang is going to be controversial,” Lou Hawthorne, the chief executive of BioArts, said in a telephone interview on Friday. “One of the contradictions of Dr. Hwang is that he made mistakes on his human stem-cell research, and he’s the first to admit that.”
But he said Dr. Hwang’s dog-cloning work had been independently verified. “Our main concern is simply he’s the best when it comes to dog cloning,” Mr. Hawthorne said, “and for that reason it behooves us to work with him.”
Mr. Hawthorne had hoped to clone a dog — a dog named Missy — since the 1990s. He was the chief executive of another company, Genetic Savings & Clone, which did extensive research on cloning dogs but concentrated on the commercial potential of cloning customers’ cats, something it offered to do for $50,000 apiece.
But he said Genetic Savings shut down in 2006 after giving “some pricey refunds” to customers who had paid to have their cats cloned.
“The technology was not refined,” Mr. Hawthorne said, “and rather than keep an operation that was burning through several million a year, keep that going, we decided, shut that down, focus on technology and launch a new company when the time seemed right.”
His new company, BioArts, began work last fall to clone Missy, he said, who was three-quarters border collie and one-quarter husky.
Missy died in 2002 at age 15. But Mr. Hawthorne had taken genetic samples from Missy in 1997, and had more taken after she died.
In December, he said, a clone was born, Mira. Two other clones of Missy, Chin-Gu and Sarang, were born in February, he said. Tests by the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, indicated that the three dogs were clones, not just relatives.
As for the auctions, Mr. Hawthorne said the bidding would start at $100,000. He said that was a starting price, not a minimum, and could drop.
He said that the opening and closing times for the auctions would be staggered, to reach potential customers in different time zones, and that the starting bids for the later auctions would be higher “to steer people to participate in the earlier auctions if they can, and avoid a phenomenon of everyone waiting to see how they go.”
He said that BioArts would not spend the money “unless and until we deliver a cloned dog that they sign off on,” and that the company would guarantee the resemblance between the customer’s dog and the clone.
“We let that be subjective,” Mr. Hawthorne said. “If the client doesn’t feel it’s extremely high, comparable to identical twins,” the client can ask for his or her money back
He also said that BioArts would guarantee the cloned dog’s health for a year, and that a veterinarian would examine and approve the dog before it was delivered to its new owners.
Mr. Hawthorne said cloning techniques had become more efficient over the years. He said 1 percent to 4 percent of embryo transfers now result in a puppy, and the survival rate of the puppies is greater than 80 percent. “That’s within the range of what conventional dog breeders expect,” he said.
But Dr. Robert Lanza, the chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology, a biotech company with laboratories in Worcester, Mass., voiced concern when a reporter described Best Friends Again.
“If anyone thinks they’re going to get Fluffy back,” Dr. Lanza said, “they’re gravely mistaken.” A cloned dog is “likely to be a totally unknown dog, just as if you went to the pound and adopted another, unknown animal.”
The dog won't remember being your previous dog, won't have the same "personality" since it will grow up with different things around him.....so why bother? And at that cost! Just go spend a few hundred on a new dog. Why spend thousands on the same dog...which won't react like the same dog. Stupid.
“...Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!”
The dog won't remember being your previous dog, won't have the same "personality" since it will grow up with different things around him.....so why bother? And at that cost! Just go spend a few hundred on a new dog. Why spend thousands on the same dog...which won't react like the same dog. Stupid.
I'd imagine some people will do just because they can.
I suppose some of the things I spend my money on could be considered stupid by others too.
....I buy one anti-gravity machine and I'm branded for life.
Quote: of course they will... hell, some idiot out there paid like $27,000 for a grilled cheese sandwich with the face of Jesus on it.
Did he eat it? I would open up a jar of dill pickles and go to town (some people like salsa, tomato soup or potato chips....I'm a pickle guy with my grilled cheese).
“...Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!”
lol, I dunno about you, but I wouldn't sit down and eat a cheese sandwich that has sat waiting through an eBay aution and the rigors of whatever shipping method they used
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
I guess what I think is that just because something can be done doesn't mean that it should be done. We are "dog people" and a day doesn't go by that I don't think about and miss our lost ones ... but I just think that cloning a beloved pet is the same as denying the existence of their individual essence ... call it their "soul" if you like ... I think animals have it if they loved, and were loved.
Quote: I would never clone anything. It just screams of a Steven King book.
No that's definitely not a Stephen King book Jules. There is an author that did a novel about cloning and what happens to the cloned boys over a 25-30 year span....basically their life. Ken Follet I believe is the author. He's done some excellent novels and that one is beyond excellent. It takes you on a cloning journey that many folks believe shouldn't even be thought about. Personally, cloning isn't something that would interest me when it comes to my pets. Now if there were a way to use the technology to heal folks then that's a different story, right now all it is is a novelty for the rich. jmo
You guys can knock cloning all you want, but the opportunities it allows to help study early development is amazing. I think it's a great tool to help us further understand many different aspects of biology from neuroscience to immunology. You may not like the idea of human cloning, but that is far from what were dealing with. There's nothing wrong with two organisms sharing the identical DNA ...
But, it is kind of stupid to pay someone 50 grand to clone your dog. Like someone said above, it wont remember you or any of it's training. It'll be just like buying a new puppy; one that you could normally get for much cheaper. I dont know, call me old fashioned, but i like the fact that the dogs I've owned have been different from one another.
Quote: You guys can knock cloning all you want, but the opportunities it allows to help study early development is amazing. I think it's a great tool to help us further understand many different aspects of biology from neuroscience to immunology
The value here cannot be overstated, I think.
One of the primary tenets of scientific research is having controlled, repeatable experiments with as few variables as you can possibly engineer into the equation. Cloning finally gives that controlled structure to the biologist and biochemists that they have never before had. Reactions to things, growth rates, and anything else that you can think of can be tested and viewed in a completely isolated and controlled environment with a recreatable test environment. That is HUGE.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
If cloning were cheap and convenient, I would have liked to have my old horse cloned. He was one of a kind and if I had met him when he were younger and could give him proper training at an early age, we would have gone far in the show ring. I'd like another just like him, if could be done cheaply.
For animals like dogs, I don't really see a need to clone them. It wouldn't be the same even if their dna were the same.
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