History made as first ever pet dog cloned
“This is a miracle,” said Bernann McKinney from Hollywood in California, hugging five clones of Booger at Seoul National University’s veterinary school in South Korea.
RNL Bio, the company which arranged the re-creation of Booger through his refrigerated ear tissue, said the event was the world’s first commercial cloning of a pet dog.
“It is a miracle for me because I was able to smile again, laugh again and just feel alive again,” McKinney, a 58-year-old movie scriptwriter told a news conference in the South Korea capital to show off the week-old black puppies — all of whose names include the word Booger.
They are the work of the biotech firm RNL Bio, affiliated with the South Korean lab which produced the world’s first cloned dog and is staffed with former associates of disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk.
McKinney sold her house in the United States to raise the $50,000 for RNL scientists to turn skin cells taken from Booger before he died two years ago into embryos carried by two surrogate dogs for two months until giving birth to the puppies last week.
“I had to make sacrifices and I dream of the day, some day when everyone can afford to clone their pet because losing a pet is a terrible, terrible loss to anyone.”
After rescuing him from a shelter 12 years ago, Booger had become an indispensable part of her life, said the 57-year-old Californian.
Dogs are considered one of the more difficult mammals to clone because their reproductive cycle includes difficult-to-predict ovulations.
The five clones were born on July 28, said Ra Jeong-Chan of RNL Bio, which has launched a commercial dog cloning service in co-operation with Seoul National University (SNU) scientists.
“They are perfectly the same as their daddy. I am in heaven here. I am a happy person,” McKinney said, recalling her years with Booger who saved her life by chasing off a ferocious mastiff which bit her severely.
She said she would consider training some of the pups as service dogs for the handicapped or elderly when they arrive at her home in September.
McKinney said she had contacted South Korean experts after a US company failed to re-create Booger.
The operation was launched in May by a SNU team led by Professor Lee Byeong-Chun.
He played a key role in creating the world’s first cloned dog on a non-commercial basis in 2005.
Ra’s company originally charged $150,000 to clone Booger, but agreed to come down to $50,000 to celebrate what it calls the first commercial deal for a pet dog.
Ra said Booger’s case opens the way for global commercial cloning services for pet lovers.
Hwang has been on trial for more than two years on charges of breaking the law on research ethics and for misusing state funds and private donations.
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