A firm in South Korea, RNL Bio is going to clone an American woman’s dead pitbull named Booger – for $50,000. Since this is the first cloning, the California woman will get a $100,000 discount (from the normal price of $150,000.) The cloning will be done at Seoul National University. This is the first commercial cloning of a pet. (A non-commercial cloning was done of an Afghan dog, Snuppy, in 2005.)
Booger’s owner saved tissue from his ear and the cells are being implanted into 8 female dogs.
Many Westerners are willing to clone their pets even at the high price.
SNU researchers expect to receive orders for specialist dogs such as drug and bomb sniffer dogs. As a matter of fact, last summer they signed an initial deal with the customs service to clone drug-sniffing dogs. They hope that the capacity will be increased in the hope that 100 “companion dogs” can be cloned from next year, and eventually 500 dogs annually. Could people be far off?
