Owners of a beloved pet have the option of recreating that animal through cloning, but it’s not cheap.
Melain Rodriguez, a client service manager at Viagen Pets in Austin, Texas, visited the Noon Business Hour on Wednesday to walk consumers through the process. Viagen Pets received some attention when singer-actress Barbara Streisand had the company clone her dog, Samantha.
“We can’t guarantee that the personality is going to be exactly the same,” Rodriguez says of the process. “The DNA is going to be exactly the same, just like an identical twin, and markings can be a little bit different. So, they may not look exactly the same as far as markings, but their body structure should be very similar. And they’re going to have a very similar temperament and intelligence.”
The company provides biopsy kits to clients, who have their veterinarian take skin samples from the pet. For a $1,600 cost, Viagen Pets will create millions of cells from the tissue samples and store them, for decades, if necessary, Rodriquez said. The cells contain the pet’s complete DNA.
For owners ready to move forward with the cloning process, Rodriguez explained, “We’ll use some of these cells. We make cloned embryos, and those embryos go into a surrogate mother, who will gestate and give birth and nurse the cloned animal until they’re weaned.”
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Total cost of cloning is $50,000 per dog; $35,000 for a cat; and $85,000 for a horse, according to the company’s website. Payments may be made in two installments.
Rodriguez notes some owners choose to secure the tissue samples long before their current pets grow old or ill. Some even clone the animal before the original dies, she said.
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