British Couple Spends Almost $100,000 To Clone Dead Dog

British Couple Spends Almost $100,000 To Clone Dead Dog

On December 26, 2015 a Yorkshire, United Kingdom couple announced the birth of two new puppies they are looking forward to adding to their family – puppies that were cloned from their deceased boxer, Dylan.

Laura Jacques, 29, and Richard Remde, 43, felt what many pet parents feel when their beloved Dylan passed away at age 8 from a brain tumor. It’s a hard time to be without your fur kid, and many people who have suffered the loss of a dog feel they would do anything to get them back. However, this couple made a decision few pet parents make (or could afford to make, even if they wanted to). They decided to clone their beloved boxer. They sent Dylan’s DNA samples to a laboratory in South Korea called Sooam Biotech Research Foundation. The research foundation offers a commercial dog cloning service for roughly $100,000 per procedure, according to the Guardian.

Sooam Biotech is the only lab of its kind in the world. You may recognize the name if you recall the Louisiana couple who hired Sooam Biotech to clone their aging dog, Melvin.

The laboratory has now successfully cloned hundreds of dogs, but Dylan is reportedly the oldest sample from which they were able to complete a successful clone. Sources say the previous record for oldest sample was held by a dog whose DNA sample was taken after being deceased for 5 days. Dylan had been deceased for more than 2 weeks before his sample was received, CBS News reports.

Continue to page 2 to see the puppies and get the full story.

Page 2 Here

The puppies were born to surrogate mothers. The first was born via cesarean birth and named “Chance” after a dog in Jacques’s favorite movie, Homeward Bound. The second puppy had a natural birth and was named “Shadow” after the wise golden retriever in the Disney movie.

Jacques and Remde have created a Twitter account @WeLovedDylan to share their story and keep the general public updated on the progress of the two puppies. They tweet from Dylan’s point of view. Shortly after the birth of the puppies, the couple tweeted a picture of themselves with one of Sooam Biotech’s main researchers, Hwang Woo-suk.

The couple tells the Guardian that they plan to adopt both puppies and surrogate mothers once the quarantine period is over in July. The four new additions to the family would join the couple’s existing 4 dogs for a total of 8 dogs and 11 other animals housed at their Yorkshire home, making for a total of 19 pets.

It’s quite the controversy in the dog world. Some side with the couple, arguing they would do the same thing if they could to get a piece of their beloved fur kids back. Others argue the money would better be spent saving dogs who already need homes in overpopulated shelters. What do you think? Would you do it? Tell us in the comments below!

By: Bill Geist

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