Florida couple clones beloved dog for $155,000

Florida couple clones beloved dog for $155,000


A Florida couple paid $155,000 to have their labrador retriever cloned. They won an auction and were the winners out of five other families. The company that preformed the cloning was BioArts International, which is a biotechnology company. The couple’s lab had died of cancer a year ago and they had its DNA frozen. The clone was hand delivered and is 10 weeks old. They named the clone Lancey. It is the world’s first commercially cloned dog. BioArts has six other families lined up to have their pets cloned as well. The couple already has nine other dogs and said they have had several over the years but, that Sir Lancelot was the most human of any dog they ever had. The couple says that even though the new dog may not have the same personality or physical attributes that the genetic cloning is enough for them. The Humane Society of the United States is against commercial cloning of animals. They say that because of the current overpopulation, cloning may lead to more animals suffering in the long run because of lack of care and funding for these animals. I personally don't really see a problem with cloning in general. I think that if someone really wants to have an animal cloned for a ridiculous amount of money then more power to them. A lot of people are against cloning, but I think that it could have a lot of value if used properly. Cloning may lead to cures for diseases and that’s something I don't think anyone would be complaining about.

I can't believe that people will actually pay that amount of money to have their animal cloned. That's a little crazy, especially given that there really are tons and tons of animals that need homes. I agree with you about if someone wants to spend ridiculous amounts of money to clone their animal than that's what they chose to do but overpopulation of homeless animals will never be okay. I have to be one of the many other people that disagree with you. Also, cloning animals doesn't seem like the solutions to finding cures to diseases because if they use cloned animals to test harmful diseases on than that is very mean! Even though it is a clone it is still just as much an animal.

Wow, this is so hard to believe but it is so amazing. To think that someone would pay that much to have part of the previous pet back. They must have really loved their other dog. I agree with you on the whole cloning thing. I feel like if someone had a pet that they cared deeply for then they are more likely to keep caring for that same pet in a different way than if they went and got a different animal. So their way of dealing with it was to clone the animal that they loved and cared about so they could have some piece of him. That doesn’t mean that they only did it for that reason, I’m sure that they were also curious and I’m pretty sure that they will love the dog that was cloned as much as their previous dog. But one thing that I am worried about is when it comes to cloning humans…I think that will get pretty scary. Either way I don’t feel like anyone would be able to replace their previous pet, they are only going to be able to continue with an animal kind of like their old one.

I think it is wrong to be cloning animals, when like you said there are so many homeless animals. The people who paid that much money must be loaded. I could imagine spending that much money on an animal, especially in this economic situation. I also agree with you that some good can come from cloning through finding cures. I am kind of against cloning because eventually if they do too much cloning the Earth will become overpopulated. I will admit it is interesting that you can take DNA and create a living thing out of it. That is a miracle alone, but we have to be care how we used that miracle.

I agree with you. I think that if someone wants to pay a rediculas amount of money to have their pet cloned then they should. I wouldn't want to do it myself, I would rather keep the money and adopt a dog. The part that doesn't make sense to me is that if they know the dog is going to have different physical features (different colored markings or eye color or whatever) and a different personality, why do they want a clone. I heard that even if you clone something, the cells are the same age and the living object will die at the same time as the original. Oh well who knows.

I am totally against cloning. I believe that it is unethical, even if we are just cloning a dog. The family stated that their new dog might not look or even have the same personality as their old dog. Then why would you clone it? Wouldn’t the point of cloning be to get back what you once lost? Cloning an animal that is dead is like playing God and trying to bring him back to life. It seems along the same lines as summoning the dead. Didn’t the Witches of Salem try the same thing? What ever happened to them?

First, I have recently lost a wonderful dog to cancer that I would have loved to have had live forever. But, even if I could afford such a large amount of money to have her cloned, I would not. She would not be the same dog because the events of her life that made her personality would not be the same. There is also no guarantee that the new dog would not suffer the same fate unless the scientists could also eliminate the fault that caused her cancer, and I would not do that to another Emma.

I also agree with the humane society because there are so many pet animals that need good homes and would benefit from being adopted. I do not think we need to manufacture more animals.

Secondly, there is the science of it. There are problems associated with cloning due to the age of cells used and just plain not knowing everything there is to know about genetics. Yes, science is making leaps and bounds, but there are some areas that really are scary.

I found a really cool website where you can clone a mouse on the computer from the University of Utah. There are also alot of interesting facts on this site about cloning. I hope you enjoy.

Click and Clone

Risks of Cloning

Cloning Myths