Scientists at Sooam Biotech, a suburban company near Seoul, South Korea, have developed the technology to create clones of our furry, canine friends.
The Dupont family made the choice to clone their dog, Melvin, a Catahoula leopard dog, because “[Melvin] was different…Of all the dogs [Philip Dupont] had, [Melvin] was completely different.” The family recalls stories about how Melvin found lost car keys in the tall grass and how he used to babysit their grandson all by himself in the backyard.
When Melvin began to show his age, the Duponts turned to Sooam Biotech to clone Melvin. At the cool price of $100,000, the family sent Melvin’s skin cells to the lab. It is the only lab in the world that is cloning dogs. So far, it has cloned about 600 dogs. The first cloned puppy died of distemper, but the next two clones, Ken and Henry, survived and now live with the Duponts.
For the most part, the cloned dogs have been for grieving pet owners. Some have been for police agencies looking for special skills, such as bomb-sniffing.
However, Insoo Hyun, a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University, states that “you really do need to take very seriously the health and well-being of all the dogs that would be involved in the process.” He also stated that most cloned animals end up pretty sickly.
However, the Dupont family claims that Ken and Henry seem perfectly healthy. In addition, the family noted that the dogs did not suffer from what they saw at the lab when they picked up Henry and Ken. Philip Dupont said that the lab staff told him that after the dogs have served as donors or surrogates, “they’re fixed up and go to new homes.” However, Sooam Biotech did not confirm nor deny this assertion.
While I understand the comfort of always having “your dog,” cloning is unnatural and inherently strange if you ask me. Yes, Ken and Henry are clones of Melvin, but they’re not exact. They have the same genome as Melvin, but are not perfect copies. They have their own unique behaviors.
It’s like a taxidermy gone extreme. Death is hard, but it’s a part of life. Your dog is one of a kind and there is no way to replicate him or her—that’s life.
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