When people have more money than common sense, they will spend obscene amounts on their dogs. I’m not talking about those who send their canine kids to doggy daycare daily or even those who buy designer collars that cost more than all of my jewelry combined. I’m talking about the kind of rich people who take the unethical route: They clone their dogs.
For so long, cloning was just science fiction, but now, if you have enough disposable income, it can be a reality. I have to ask: Why would anyone want to do this?
When their dog, Dylan, died at 8 years old from cancer, Laura Jacques and Richard Remde were heartbroken – so they paid 67,000 British pounds (almost $100,000) to clone him.
Back in June, the devastated couple reached out to Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, a laboratory that offers dog-cloning services to the public for a price tag of roughly $100,000 per procedure.
Sooam Biotech is the only lab of its kind in the world. The laboratory is located in South Korea. You may recognize the name if you recall the Louisiana couple who hired Sooam Biotech to clone their aging dog, Melvin.
The laboratory has now successfully cloned hundreds of dogs, but Dylan is reportedly the oldest sample from which they were able to complete a successful clone. Sources say the previous record for the oldest sample was held by a dog whose DNA sample was taken after being deceased for 5 days. Dylan had been deceased for more than 2 weeks before his sample was received.
So far, Sooam has helped produce over 700 cloned dogs for costumers, using another dog’s DNA. Chance’s samples were taken from Dylan twelve days after he died.
“I’m trying to get my head ’round the fact that this puppy has 100% of the same DNA as Dylan,” said Jacques. “It’s quite confusing, but I’m telling myself that Chance is just like one of Dylan’s puppies.”
“The whole thing just feels surreal,” Jacques told The Guardian. “I lost all sense of time. I have no idea how long everything took, the whole thing made me feel very disoriented. I was just clinging on to Richard for about an hour and a half after Chance was born.”
When there are countless dogs being put down every year because they can’t find homes, it makes the thought of cloning a beloved deceased pet a bit questionable.
In U.S. shelters alone, each year about 1.2 million unwanted dogs are euthanized. Only 1 out of every 10 dogs who are born will find permanent homes.
It’s certainly understandable that the loss of a pet is a terrible tragedy, and grief is hard on us all. But given the number of dogs waiting for a loving home – not to mention the astronomical cost of cloning – perhaps this heartbroken couple should have taken a chance on a dog waiting in a shelter.
And while Chance is certainly a beautiful little puppy, we know that the animals we love are never truly replaceable.
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: AWM, InsideEdition, The Guardian
Thomas Cooper