A story about an American woman who paid fifty thousand dollars to have her dog cloned made headlines this week.
The story in short, if you missed it: she lost her dog Booger two years ago. Once dog cloning became available, she sold her home to finance the project to clone her lost pup. About a week ago, two surrogate mothers gave birth to five pit bull puppies — all clones of Booger.
I have mixed feelings about this, to be honest. It’s a lot of money to spend, for one thing. That money could have helped a lot of shelters and rescued a lot of pets. And will those dogs grow up to act, think, and feel exactly like the original did? Will she really end up with five Boogers? Or will each dog develop his own personality, quirks, and mannerisms?
The original Booger was a shelter dog, and was with his owner for twelve years. During that time, he saved her life during a dog attack and evolved into a service dog — despite having no training. One article I read said that the dog would help his (temporarily) wheelchair-bound owner into and out of the house and even take her socks and shoes off.
I’ll admit, Booger sounds like a pretty amazing dog.
The owner plans to keep only three of the five puppies and will be giving the other two to programs that train service dogs for the elderly or disabled.
The company that did the cloning plans to charge $150,000 for the procedure — Booger’s owner got a discount because she’s helping with publicity. When I think about how much good could be done with that money, and how many dogs, cats, and other pets are sitting in shelters or foster homes waiting for forever homes? I can’t imagine a situation where I’d choose to clone one of my pets.
What do you think?