A British couple made headlines for having their beloved pet cloned by a South Korean company – a procedure that costs up to $140,000. However, Laura Jacques, 29 and Richard Remde, 43 could not pass up their only chance to bring back to life their beloved boxer, Dylan, who passed away from a brain tumor after being diagnosed earlier this year.
As they were grieving, the idea to clone their dead dog came when they saw a documentary film about another British woman who had her Dachshund cloned after it passed away.
The road to cloning was not smooth for the couple, however. The first tissue samples they sent did not result in a viable embryo and by the time they were able to get tissue from a second biopsy, it was already two weeks after Dylan had died.
Despite the odds against them, Jacques and Remde decided to go ahead and push the boundaries of the cloning procedure anyway, which involves injecting DNA into a blank dog egg with the original nucleus removed.
Sooam Biotech Research Foundation is the controversial clinic in South Korea that cloned the couple's dog. According to reports, they boast of over 700 successful dog cloning procedures for commercial clients.
“This is the first case we have had where cells have been taken from a dead dog after a very long time. Hopefully it will allow us to extend the time after death that we can take cells for cloning,” said David Kim, one of the scientists who works at Sooam.
Two viable embryos were made from the second batch of tissues taken from Dylan and were placed into surrogate dog mothers. The first of the two pups was born on Boxing Day and was named Chance after one of the dogs in the Disney dog adventure film, “Homeward Bound.”
The second puppy which was expected to be born on Dec. 29 came a day early and will be named after another dog from the same film, Shadow.
Awww, my mate Nathan just woke me up at 5 am, South Korea, and told me my second clone puppy #Shadow is being born! wOOf woof...<3
— Dylan Dog (@WeLovedDylan) December 27, 2015
“I can’t believe how much he looks like Dylan. All the colorings and patterns on his body are in exactly the same places as Dylan had them,” said Jacques after the historic birth of Chance.
The couple hopes to adopt the surrogate mothers who gave birth and will nurse their cloned puppies and plans to take all four dogs back to the U.K. in July after the quarantine period is over.
