Cloning is Kind of Weird, But Here are Five Cute Pet Clones!
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LANCELOT ENCOREOne of the more famous cases of pet cloning involves Edgar and Nina Otto and their dog, Lancelot. In 2009, clone puppy Lancelot Encore was born in a South Korean lab after the Ottos won an auction to have their pet cloned by BioArts, a Californian biotech firm.And their winning bid? $155,000. They've come under fire for Lancelot Encore's price tag, but they say they'd happily make the decision again. Today, their pup thrives and has even fathered several offspring of his own, which the Ottos sell through their website.
MIRA & MISSY TOOThese Border Collie/Husky mixes are Mira and Missy Too, the clones of Lou Hawthorne's beloved family dog, Missy. And who is Lou Hawthorne? Only the guy who founded Genetic Savings & Clone, the company that brought Little Nicky into this world. Hawthorne started the company to continue attempts to clone Missy that failed during a research project at Texas A&M called the "Missyplicity Project."Although GS&C too failed after only succeeding at feline clones, Hawthorne finally got to continue Missy's bloodline with the help of Dr. Woo Suk Hwang at Seoul National University. Mira especially resembles the original Missy, Hawthorne told John Woestendiek of ohmidog!, especially "her love of broccoli and her tendency to steal my socks."
COPYCATUnlike the other animals on this list, CopyCat wasn't brought into this world to serve as a pet. Instead, she was created at the Texas A&M Reproductive Science Laboratory—as part of the Missyplicity Project!—to help further research behind reproductive cloning science. And that was 11 years ago, making her a bit of an oldster and the first cloned cat ever!But all those years ago, lead scientist Dr. Duane Kraemer and his wife Shirley took a shine to little CC and took her to live on their farm. Since then, she's given birth to several kittens, most of which have been happy, healthy, and free of problems that can arise from reproductive cloning.
JOYCE BERNANN MCKINNEY'S PIT BULL PUPPIESHer story may not look sinister on the surface, but Bernann McKinney has a pretty sordid history. She gained notoriety in 2008 when she received five clones of her pit bull, Booger. She was the first paying customer for puppy clones, so the media was excited—but after some initial coverage, people in Britain started to notice something. That Bernann McKinney? She was the Joyce Bernann McKinney of the infamous "Mormon sex in chains" case.In 1977, McKinney abducted a young Mormon missionary in England, held him captive at a cottage, and freed him shortly thereafter. After being charged, she and her co-conspirator fled for the U.S. where extradition failed. In 2010, filmmaker Errol Morris released a documentary, Tabloid, about the media coverage surrounding McKinney's case. Where is she now? Living quietly in the North Carolina mountains, presumably with her five pit pulls.