Cloning favourite pets:
what are we thinking?

IT is quite a few years since the first commercially cloned dog, Missy, made the headlines in world news, and even longer since the first dog, Snuppy, was cloned as an experiment. Since then all has been quiet on the cloning front but in the laboratories it has been business as usual.

Now it seems that cloning is offered by two companies – RNL Bio, which is unlicensed, and BioArts which is licensed. BioArts is based in USA but its cloning research is done in South Korea as it is partnered with Sooam Biotech Research. RNL Bio is based in Seoul, so a court case is scheduled to be held in South Korea.

These two companies will fight out their rights to the dog cloning market. This is a very basic assessment of the whole legal battle which is presently in process. However, there are many side issues which make this a very unusual case. RNL Bio has offered cloning services that are described by BioArts as “Ferrari services at Vauxhall prices” thus bringing the cloning business into disrepute. Obviously RNL Bio has been able to cut prices because it has not had to pay the huge patent and licensing fees.

It seems we need to stand back from inter-laboratory squabbles and look at the big picture. Even at ‘auction price’ the cloning of a dog costs about $155,000. It is a lengthy scientific process to replace DNA in fertile eggs and then transfer them to a surrogate mother. It was never expected to be a cheap option.

RNL Bio has advertised that it is taking orders for cloned “cancer-sniffing” dogs which means that any exceptional service dogs could be cloned after their death (or before their death) – Guide dogs, epilepsy dogs, exceptional athletics dogs such as unbeaten greyhounds or whippets, literally the best of everything.

However, there is just one snag with this. The puppies may be exact clones of their clone parent to look at and may have a duplicate gene structure, but they have been in a different womb, are born to a different bitch who will treat them differently (a mother gives her puppies a HUGE amount of training in those first weeks), and when they no longer need their mother they will go into a different environment.

There is no such thing as a dog that has an auto-switch for cancer detection or epilepsy assistance or anything else, so no matter how good these dogs’ genetic ancestors are at the specified job, they still have to be trained to do that job. And that is one huge task that requires interaction with people who actually do have cancer or epilepsy. The price of such dogs would be prohibitive, and chances are that they would be no better than any other ordinary dog that had been chosen for training because of its positive indications.

The same applies to dogs with super athletics abilities – there is no guarantee that cloned puppies of such dogs will be good athletes. They have the potential, but the completely different environment they are brought up in compared to that of their genetic ancestor makes for different results.

The same even applies to pet dogs. Many people want to have their very loved dog back and opt for cloning and will pay huge prices for that service. But these cloned pups are NOT their dog reincarnated. They will look the same (and of course that may be all that some owners want) but through growing up in a different environment these dogs will develop different personalities, different moods, different likes and dislikes, different favourite toys and play areas, different fears and cautions, in essence they are different dogs and always will be. So can the huge prices demanded for such a service be justified?

In the case of a very rich person who wants his or her loved dog cloned, it probably is justified as long as they realise that it will not be their dog back from the dead. However, personally I think that they could do better if they wanted to get rid of excess money by donating it to a charity like their local dog rescue centre, the SPCA, or any other of their favourite canine charities. And if they greatly desire a new dog why not rescue one?

Again personally, I could not bear to try and replace one of my departed dogs with a look-alike. Each one has had its own personality that has been very special to me and that can not be duplicated through genes. Their personalities were the sum total of their life events and how they handled them as they grew older. There will never be another Kindy, Samantha, Jojo or Ziggy – they were unique and every part of their lives was special.

The next dog I adopt will be special too. It will have a fresh new personality and it will teach me more about what dogs expect from their owners. But I will not expect it to be like my former dogs – it, too, will be unique, individual and will have the opportunity to develop to its full potential. - Liz P