First pet dog cloned, firm claims
Tuesday, 05 Aug 2008 11:53
RNL Bio is able to clone beloved pets
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South Korean scientists say they are the first to have successfully cloned a pet dog for a private client.
Bernann McKinney from California spent $50,000 (£25,000) on having her dog Booger commercially cloned.
The company behind the cloning, RNL Bio, says its pet cloning service "has begun in earnest" and encouraged interested pet owners to contact it.
It collaborates with Seoul National University's Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH), for cell therapeutics and animal cloning.
Ms McKinney, who now has five identical copies of Booger, described the pit bull terrier as her "partner and friend".
"They are perfectly the same as their daddy," she added. I am in heaven here. I am a happy person."
The five puppies were created after the scientists used refrigerated ear tissue from Booger to make embryos, which were then implanted into two surrogate mothers.
In April last year the same team cloned puppies from a dog with superior drug sniffing skills to be used in the Korea Customs Services.