Five For The Price Of One
I’ve reported on a few cloning stories but this one is a little different. The person who had their dog cloned was the winner of “The Golden Clone Giveaway” contest by California firm BioArts International. The firm held a contest to find the world’s most “cloneworthy” dog.
James Symington was the winner and his dog Trakr was cloned. Trakr was a search and rescue dog who helped find people in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. He found the last human survivor in the rubble of the twin towers.
Symington, a former Canadian police officer, choked back tears as he formally took possession of the five descendants of his beloved German shepherd named Trakr, who died in April.
“We’re here to celebrate that Trakr’s legacy lives on in these five beautiful puppies,” he told reporters. “If they have the same attributes Trakr did, then hopefully they’ll develop into world class search and rescue dogs.”
Symington and Trakr arrived at the site of the World Trade Center collapse, commonly referred to as Ground Zero, on September 12, 2001 and were one of the first K9 search and rescue teams on the scene.
“Trakr was an extraordinary search and rescue dog. His work at Ground Zero was the culmination of his career,” Symington said.
BioArts International, which says it offers the world’s first commercial dog cloning service, partnered with South Korea’s SooAm Biotech Research Foundation to clone Trakr under the direction of scientist Hwang Woo-Suk.
Hawthorne defended the right of people to clone their dogs instead of obtaining new pets from rescue shelters.
“I think 99 percent of the time people should get their pets from shelters,” he told AFP.
“But can we agree though that one percent of the time if you have a one in a million dog and you have the money to pay for it, you should be able to go to either a breeder or a cloner?”
Hawthorne said Trakr had been chosen for cloning because of his heroics on 9/11. “We received many very touching submissions to our contest, describing some truly amazing dogs,” he said. “But Trakr’s story blew us away.”
“I respect that cloning’s not for everyone. But there are few dogs that are born with extraordinary abilities and Trakr was one of those dogs,” he said.”I look forward to the day that these puppies can follow in Trakr’s footsteps and play an important role in other rescues, like Trakr did.”
Due to the fact that cloning is extremely expensive, about $144,000 per dog, it is cost prohibitive for the average person. I can’t see dog lovers everywhere running out to get their dog cloned, but it still raises some interesting questions.
Is it right to clone a dog? Will the clones really have the same traits and qualities as the original dog? Will the clones have health or psychological issues? Give me a bark, share your thoughts.
*Photo courtesy PRNewsFoto
I do not support cloning of any thing human, especially dogs when there are lives lost everyday and shelters over compasity, but as for this time and with the fact that this dog, Trakr was one of the rescue dogs from 9/11, I think I’d have to give it a go ahead. I just hope the genes in these pups that produced them is all Trakr was and they will carry on in their for father’s footsteps and be as good as he was.
I still don’t spupport cloning just trying to get your companion pet that is just that, a pet back. Trakr being a rescue search dog is different. I had a German Shepard, Princess who was pretty much my life, and lived to be almost 14 years old before I had to have her put to sleep because of a stroke, She probably the most wonderful dog I ever owned, but I’d never think of cloning her. Any dog with the same love, training and attention can be as wonderful as the one before. My Shepard/mix male Tipper is so much like her and my Rotti Jody I had that it is almost like he is a reincarntion of them. I got him as a small puppy while both Princess and Jody were still alive. Maybe growing up around them he took on a lot of their traits after they were gone. And my other two are wonderful dogs too.
I would clone my dog,
each to their own!
Maybe I really don’t know. I don’t know if it would be right or wrong
i understand people not want to lose their dog, but im sick of people complaining about breeders and people buying from breeders, when in my opinion this is 1000 times worse.
I love my dogs and knowing that one day they will be gone is almost unbearable for me. But cloning them? If it were possible, along with Homer and Nero, would I clone my beloved grandmother? No. Why not? Because like humans, dogs have a soul, they are unique characters and not manufactured products. To me cloning is turning a companion or family member into a thing. Dolly is broke, let’s get a new one and it better be the same. That’s not love but sick obsession.
For the average person, I would say it is absolutely not right to clone a dog. Especially, if you are just looking to get that dog back. It won’t be the same dog because you cannot replicate all the experiences that the first dog had, so it will be different no matter what you do. Why not get a new pet and love it for itself? However, in the case of Trakr it seems like this man is looking for a characteristic, not the same dog. He wants to train them for Search and Rescue. I would also advocate cloning for better Seeing Eye, Hearing Ear and Service Dogs. These dogs have special capabilities that would greatly reduce the number of pups that don’t make it. I also have no problems going to a breeder, provided they are reputable. People who advocate shelters only are generally very rabid and don’t take into consideration that some people cannot/will not gamble that much. When I got my dog I went to every shelter within a 100 mile radius and no one had what I was looking for (VERY large, VERY protective and short-haired). I ended up getting my girl from a lady on a farm and I don’t see how that is a bad thing and I don’t think anyone has the right to villify me for doing so.
i don’t care about the reason i still think its sick. There is no garantee they will all be good search and rescue dogs as they are genetickly the same not mentally
I don’t believe anything should be cloned. I agree with another reader, each person and animal has a soul. You can not duplicate that. Genetically they will be the same, but mentally they will not. They will have their own memories, and experiences. This man seems to only want the working abilities of the original dog, so maybe that will work for him. It will be interesting to see how these pups turn out. But it seems a little creepy to me!
Just because you can PAY for something doesn’t make it something that should be ALLOWABLE!!!
anywhere in the world!!!!
This IS the problem!
This IS the reason living humans are thrown away!
This IS the reason living dogs are shot and left!
Thia IS the reason children are starving in the streets!
This IS the reason cats are found frozen in a ball !
Thia IS the reason sweet dogs are used as bait for dog fights and are ripped apart!
This IS the reason abortion on demand pretends the baby is not murdered!
This IS the reason every day hundreds of dogs are found in cages having never seen the light.
This IS the reason foster children are locked in cages and no one knows where they are and the state never checks up on them!!!!!
PEOPLE WAKE UP: WE HAVE ARRIVED….do you have………
……money……..
it was the answer all along…who has it controls if you as a living being lives or dies, gets created or exterminated…when man becomes the god, we are all heading to hell.