Expensive and outrageous: who needs dog clones and why

From a recent interview with Barbara Streisand to the Variety publishing house, netizens learned that the singer twice cloned her late dog of the rare breed Coton de Tulear. Commentators have actively begun to discuss whether it is ethical to clone a living being, and just spend a lot of money on such a luxury. Actor Tom Hardy, for example, is known for helping homeless puppies find a new home from time to time.

The technology, which used to be considered part of science fiction, has been actively developing for several decades — however, so far only on animals — and continues to cause controversy in society, but nevertheless finds its application.

Cloning of animals began to develop back in the 2000s - the technology has long been used in agriculture, and cloned horses, for example, even participate in polo — the cost of each "copy" is from 500 to 800 thousand dollars. The consumer market has developed slowly due to ethical biases in the States where these companies are based, as well as the high cost of the procedure.

The South Korean company Sooam for a long time remained almost the only one in the market of commercial cloning of dogs — for 10 years it sold about 700 clones. She also delivered two clones to Russia in 2017 — the Belgian shepherds Tom and Jack then entered service in one of the divisions of the Federal Penitentiary Service in Yakutia.

The American company ViaGen, which entered the market relatively recently, has already produced about a hundred pets and has saved thousands of genetic samples that it will be able to use in the future.

To date, such a pleasure costs several tens of thousands of dollars, or rather — 50 thousand for a dog and 25 thousand for a cat. Probably, as technology develops, services will become more accessible, but today it is a niche market. According to one of the directors of ViaGen, cloning represents the next stage of progress in animal husbandry after breeding. According to him, it is even more effective, since it allows you to transfer all 100% of the genes.

The company recognizes that a cloned pet may have differences in the course of development — after all, the behavior and character are already influenced by both the owners and the environment. So it is not a fact that the owners can count on the eternal preservation of the unique personality of their smaller brothers.

By the way, Barbra Streisand admitted to reporters that the character of her newly minted pets is already different from the "original".

As a result of the singer's order, two copies of her deceased dog Samantha were born — Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett. Now they live in her house together with another dog of the same breed named Miss Fanny, who was born naturally.