(www.meowbarkblog.com) — Sad because you know your best friend won’t live as long as you? Never fear — when Fido kicks the bucket, you can just have him cloned thanks to BioArts International and its Best Friends Again project.
The company’s recent press release announcing the delivery of the first cloned dog to its new (old?) family in Florida describes BioArts as
…a biotech company focused on unique, untapped markets in the global companion animal, stem cell and human genomics industries. The Best Friends program is a collaboration between BioArts and the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea, home to the best and most experienced dog cloning team in the world.
BioArts has been granted the sole, worldwide license for the cloning of dogs, cats andendangered species. The license was granted by Start Licensing, Inc. and applies to thesomatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) cloning patents developed at the Roslin Institute for the cloning of Dolly the sheep.
I’m sure the family is thrilled to have a replica of their beloved dog, but “clone” does not equal “same dog,” so I hope their expectations aren’t too high that they will have their very own pet again. Also, don’t cloned animals have shorter lifespans than their non-cloned counterparts?
You can probably tell from my tone that I don’t think cloning pets is a good idea. What’s next? Your kid dies so you clone him and start over?
Would you clone a pet?
Contents © Copyright 2009 Kristen King
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