Despite the high cost, the number of people cloning their cats and dogs is increasing day by day. Retired New York police officer John Mendola decided to clone his beloved dog when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. While on duty in Long Island in 2006, the police station was surrounded by a small, dirty street in the street. The dog was brought.” His fur was matted, he couldn’t even brush… and his teeth were bad, yet he was absolutely adorable and grateful.” After work that day, Mendola told his colleagues he was going to take the white and brown-haired dog home and that he needed a shelter. “It was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life,” says the 52-year-old officer. The Shih Apso type dog loved children and playing. Mendola chose her princess, inspired by Disney characters. Ten years later, when Princess was diagnosed with cancer in 2016, Mendola immediately called Viagen, a Texas-based company that was the first and only company in the United States to commercially clone dogs and cats.
Mendola says he knows the process from the South Korean documentary he watched. The country that cloned dogs for the first time in the world in 2005 is the leader in this field today. She received tissue samples from Viagen Princess before she died in 2017. A year later, two clones of puppies were born from a surrogate mother dog using this genetic material. The offspring were genetically identical to the Princess. Mendola named them after Disney characters Princess Ariel and Princess Jasmine. She also does as the princess does.” Cloning pets is controversial, but despite its high cost, it is growing in popularity. They charge $50,000 for cloning a dog, $30,000 for a cat, and $85,000 for a horse. Even if that cost is too much for most of us. announced that it has cloned or plans to clone many famous dogs in recent years.
How to Clone?
World-famous singer Barbra Streisand announced in 2018 that she used Viagen to clone two puppies from her pet, Samantha. There are different cloning techniques, but in the most used method, the cell nucleus from the animal you want to clone is injected into a donor egg whose genetic material has been removed. The egg is transformed into an embryo in a laboratory environment. The embryo is then implanted in the womb of a surrogate mother. Viagen boss Blake Russell says the genetic material of the animal you want to clone can be stored almost indefinitely before the cloning process takes place. This happens by keeping the material at very low temperatures or by cryopreservation. He states that the company cares about the health of every dog and cat it works with, and their work complies with all US laws.
However, animal-loving organizations have significant concerns about the industry. For example, some scientific studies suggest that cloned animals are more susceptible to the disease. Another point of criticism is that the success rate of the sector is not high. There are many clones that are not born fit and healthy. A 2018 report from Columbia University in New York shows that the average success rate was just 20 percent. Animal health expert Penny Hawkins says the process can be painful and distressing for female animals whose eggs are donated and pregnant women are surrogate mothers. says that an animal can never be an exact replica of the original animal when it comes to behavior. “There’s so much more to an animal than DNA, and cloned animals will inevitably result in different life experiences, which will result in different personalities.” Last year, a Viagen official said that 25 percent of an animal’s personality is formed by its upbringing or diet. “We recommend anyone looking for a new pet to be a part of their family to adopt one of the thousands of animals looking for a home in a shelter,” Hawkins said. said. The clone is also thought to trigger an abandoned animal population crisis. Geneticist Andrew Hessel says pet cloning can cause little ethical concern when done responsibly. It says it’s open.
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