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First Commercially Cloned Dog

Lancey Cloned Labrador Dog

[caption id="attachment_385" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="Lancey Cloned Labrador Dog"]cloned dog Labrador Lancey BioArts International[/caption]

The 10-week old Labrador named Lancey is the very first commercially cloned dog from BioArts International via the Best Friends Again program. The new cloned dog owners, Edgar and Nina Otto were one of five families to bid and win an auction held by BioArts International in July for a chance to clone their family dog. According to their website, 4 clones were purchased via auctions and one is available for $180,000!

Best Friends Again offers limited pet cloning services and specialty animals for the general public. If you are not sure what a cloned dog actually is, cloning is the process of creating a new animal that is a genetic duplicate of a pre-existing animal. In other words, my dog Spanky passes away, I send off his DNA and these scientist can re-create Spanky for me.

I am honestly having a hard time contemplating dog cloning for many reasons. One main reason I can see people opting to clone an animal is during their grieving when they have just lost a pet. To just replace it seems like a quick fix to mend a broken heart, and BioArts International walks away with $180,000.

Not to mention the fact a cloned animal is NOT an exact dog as the one you may have had before. he may look the same, but there is no way possible to re-produce the exact same dog with the same personality, ect.

When I was looking over their site, I did find a similar question and here was their reply to it…

Although we’re sensitive to the grief felt by people whose pets have died, most of our clients seek our services while their pets are still alive. Regardless, we help all prospective clients make informed choices based on realistic expectations about cloning. We decline business from people who want us to bring specific pets back to life. Nobody can do that. Our goal is to produce new pets possessing the same genes as previous pets. That’s what our clients want and it’s a service we can realistically perform.

What are your thoughts on dog cloning? Do you think it is a great idea or playing with nature?