A woman from British Columbia has spent $50,000 to obtain two clones of her beloved deceased pet cat.
Woman Gets Two Clones of Dead Pet Cat
Kris Stewart of British Columbia had a ragdoll cat, Bear, who died at five years of age. A car hit Bear in January 2022, leading to Bear's death.
Stewart's new cats, Honey Bear and Bear Bear, are the genetic twins of her beloved cat companion. The two clones came after a series of two failed attempts.
Both kittens were created through a process known as somatic cell cloning, which involves the transfer of the nucleus of one cell of Bear into another new egg cell.
This egg was then implanted to a surrogate mother, who birthed the kittens with zero of her own DNA and 100% of Bear's.
For such a procedure, Stewart contracted ViaGen, a Texas-based firm that claims to be the global leader in cloning beloved animals.
The two genetic twins were born by their surrogate mother on January 10. They then spent two months at the New York facility of ViaGen.
Just this week, Stewart was given the go signal to bring them home. Stewart shares that both of them seem like Bear and that they are sassy and bold. She explains that her deceased cat was quite intelligent and rambunctious.
Animal Cloning
Aside from cloning cats, ViaGen also offers to clone horses. The cloning process for cats and dogs costs $50,000, while the procedure for horses costs $85,000.
When it comes to technology, ViaGen makes use of somatic cell nuclear transfer to create a pet clone. This technique was also used for the famous Dolly the Sheep.
Somatic cell cloning, or somatic cell nuclear transfer, is quite a simple concept that is hard to execute. The process involves extracting the DNA out of a donor's cell. In this case, it is a body cell. Then, another egg has its DNA taken away in order to be replaced with the DNA of the donor. The modified egg then gets implanted into a surrogate mother for birth.
Upon birth, the baby is genetically the same as the animal that donated the body cell. It does not have any genetic links with its surrogate mother.
In several cases, cloned animals do not live through birth. In fact, according to bioethicist Kerry Bowman from the University of Toronto, this number does not exceed 5% of cloned animals. Cloned animals typically have a shorter life expectancy and may also have some abnormalities, such as enlarged organs.
However, those who are born healthy usually end up doing well.
As for the case of Honey Bear and Bear Bear, though they are Bear's genetic twins, this does not ensure that their personalities will be the same.
Nevertheless, Stewart expresses being thrilled with her two new cat clones.
RELATED ARTICLE: China Successfully Clones First Tibetan Goats Using Same Procedure in Cloning Dolly the Sheep
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