Did you know that cloned puppies aren’t identical?
January 2, 2009 by Chloe Findlay-Harder
Filed under Pets
There is a fascinating article online from the NY Times about the advances being made in cloning dogs.
Cloning has gone from strictly “sci-fi” to being an option (although a very expensive one) when a beloved pet dies. But how much of a dog’s personality and even appearance will the cloned puppy have? In a quote from the article, the owner of BioArts (who has cloned several dogs) Lou Hawthorne explains some of the differences:
“Mr. Hawthorne sees himself as a cultivator of prodigious talent — from the clones to his team of scientists in South Korea to his 8-year-old son, Skye, who had accompanied him and the dogs on the hike. Skye is in third grade but is already studying high school algebra. Mr. Hawthorne brought along a notebook with a handful of quadratic-equation problems, in case his son got restless.
Last spring, Skye completed a science project, “Cloning Grandma’s Dog” that included a behavioral comparison chart. Among other findings, the study concluded that Mira shares Missy’s fondness for broccoli and “lots of snuggles” — both dogs scored five out of five points in these categories, in addition to the one for “likes long walks.” (“Most dogs do,” Skye noted under “comments.”) Two key matters of variance were “Jumps into cars” (“Clone still learning which car is ours”) and “Hates camera flash” (“Clone did not respond to standard flash”).
Ultimately, Skye determined that Mira looked a lot like Missy but that their behavior was only 77 percent similar. “But that was April,” Mr. Hawthorne said. “I think they’re a lot more similar now.”
It’s common for the cloned puppies to look similar to the source dog, but to have slight differences in coat color, build and even how their ears stand. So how much of the cloned dog actually lives on is uncertain – but as long as there are people will to pay $150, 000 for their clone, it will keep on happening.
As a little bonus, you can also see a “doggy” Christmas gift I made this year – on my craft blog 
image: stock.xchg
