Got a Dead Dog? Clone It!

Posted by Alex in Animal, Science & Tech on August 7, 2008 at 2:33 pm


When it came to her dog, death didn’t stop Bernann McKinney. When Bernann McKinney’s pit bull Booger - who saved her life when she was attacked by another dog - died two years ago, the California woman decided to clone the dog:

Her quest to have Booger live on in puppy clones raised eyebrows and also raised the ire of ethics activists. But McKinney doesn’t see what the fuss is about. “Actually, the cloning process isn’t much different than in vitro fertilization,” she says. “Basically, DNA is taken out and the DNA is inserted into a surrogate mother dog, who then has the babies very normally.”

The five little canine clones cost McKinney dearly — she sold her home to pay the $50,000 fee for the process. And that was actually a bargain-basement rate: RNL offered McKinney a discount from the $150,000 it planned to charge for the service, believing her case will be a boon for business. The firm expects to clone up to 100 dogs in the next year.

Link

(Photo: Jin Han Hong / AP)




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COMMENT

19 comments to "Got a Dead Dog? Clone It!"

  1. misshaight
    August 7th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

    Meanwhile, a homeless puppy waits for a home in a shelter somewhere…

  2. ted
    August 7th, 2008 at 5:16 pm

    That lady wouldn’t have adopted a homeless puppy in a shelter, anyways.
    It’s her money - let her waste it as she sees fit.

  3. Goober
    August 7th, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    Meanwhile, it turns out this woman has been on the run from the law on a kidnapping charge from the Uk 30 years ago.

    http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24144138-2703,00.ht ml

  4. Faye Doneaway
    August 7th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    The lady says Booger was “a little stray dog I found by the side of the road.” Given the influence of environment in how a dog turns out, are these pampered pups likely to have the same temperament as dad? If she is attacked by another dog she’d better hope so…

  5. bean
    August 7th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24144138-2703,00.ht ml

    Some sites are IDing this women as a famous sex-criminal…

  6. jenny
    August 7th, 2008 at 6:17 pm

    if they don’t make it so that you HAVE to neuter these dogs, we’re gonna be in big trouble eventually with so much of the same genetics running around
    plus, what in the world do they do with the other identical puppies in that litter?
    god, i’m usually not with these kinds of things, but i’m so against this, it’s just taking things too far

  7. Lea
    August 7th, 2008 at 7:47 pm

    This is stupid. Millions of animals are in shelters waiting for homes…
    Yes, the dog will be biologically the same as her previous dog, but it won’t have the same personality.
    This one may not want to save her life.

  8. Lea
    August 7th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

    Whoa. way to make the headlines. again. This woman’s nuts!

  9. ted
    August 7th, 2008 at 8:08 pm

    But, come on. Haven’t we all wanted to kidnap one of those door-to-door religious types? I’m thinking lawn statues…

  10. Jill Harness
    August 7th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

    It’s not going to have the same personality or anything, so what’s the point. My dog is my favorite little guy ever. But if he died, a dog that looked exactly like him and yet, wasn’t him…that would break my heart whenever I looked at him.

  11. Homer J. Simpson
    August 7th, 2008 at 9:44 pm

    Wouldn’t these cloned dogs probably have something wrong with them sort of like Dolly the sheep, who, IIRC, lived only about half of the normal lifespan of a sheep?

  12. JC
    August 7th, 2008 at 11:51 pm

    The acceptance of nature is cheaper.

  13. Warenwirtschaft
    August 8th, 2008 at 2:38 am

    How could people clone dogs, or what else? I think that’s not okay. What would you think or even do if you hear, that you’ve been cloned? Would you really accept it? I think not. Animals can’t resist to not be cloned, and that’s the way why it’s easy to clone a dog, but aren’t there not enough dogs in the world, waiting for a home in a shelter?

  14. jenny
    August 8th, 2008 at 6:56 am

    thank you JC, seriously.

  15. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    August 8th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    Only a person so unobservant that they’d never noticed their pet’s personality would want to do this. People (well… smart people) wouldn’t clone a dead child and expect the clone to have the same personality. And yet some people seem to think that animals have so little personality that one dog is as good as the next.

    What a waste of knowledge, resources, and money.

  16. Homer J. Simpson
    August 8th, 2008 at 2:55 pm

    Just saw this over at BoingBoing:

    http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/08/dog-cloner-suspected.html

    Curiouser and curiouser…

  17. Mayor of Kentonville
    August 9th, 2008 at 10:28 am

    Steven King just started another 1000 page opus

  18. watermelonpunch
    August 15th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

    I don’t think it’s the science that is lost on this woman. I think it’s the humanity that’s lost on this woman.
    She’s been accused of plotting crimes with and corrupting a minor. She’s accused of lying, rudeness, making threats, mistreating animals, and kidnapping & raping someone and later stalking him across 2 continents. Masquerading as a deaf mime, a Hollywood writer, a nun, and a brunette, all while fleeing justice as a fugitive from the law.
    Her asserted idea that she was “doing something good” by cloning puppies (as if it’s akin to Mother Teresa caring for the poor & ill), and in her asserted idea that she could “bring Booger back” by cloning, definitely betrays her extremely superficial & meaningless understanding of human emotion & attachment to other people & to pets.
    She likely sees pets as objects, so why shouldn’t one be just the same as another if they’re from “the same mold”? She has a history of not caring about PEOPLE and their rights as individuals, why would she care about the individuality of a dog?

  19. lionheart
    August 26th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

    this is creepy.


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