Couple spends $155,000 to clone dead dog
 

Here's the article. I tried making it a link, but I didn't know how to. Below is the article. I thought it was interesting. I love animals, but I wouldn't shell out $155,000 to clone a dead pet.

By Michael Inbar
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 1 hour, 10 minutes ago

The miracle of life made an encore for Edgar and Nina Otto. A year after their beloved yellow Labrador retriever, Lancelot, died of cancer, the Florida couple welcomed a cloned copy into their home Tuesday. They’ve dubbed their doggie double “Lancelot Encore.”
Speaking live with Al Roker via satellite on TODAY Wednesday, Edgar Otto said that it only took the 10-week-old puppy a few hours to assume his forebear’s place of preeminence in the family’s large menagerie, which includes nine other dogs.
“This morning, when the pack runs from the bedroom into the kitchen, he led the pack, which the old Lancelot did,” Edgar told Roker. “This is a puppy, 10 weeks old, and he led the pack!”

Nina added, “We noticed that he bonded immediately, within an hour, with every other pet in the house.”

Springing into auction
To be sure, the Ottos love their animals. On their 12-acre spread in West Boca, Fla., the couple tend to four birds, 10 cats and six sheep along with their kennel’s worth of pooches.
But Lancelot always occupied a special place in their hearts: Edgar called Lancelot “an unbelievable, humanlike dog, a true companion.” Thus the Ottos had the foresight to have DNA frozen from Lancelot six years ago.
Then, last June — six months after Lance’s death — they learned the Northern California biotech firm BioArts International was holding a dog-cloning auction. They threw their hat in the ring, and won.
The cloning didn’t come cheap — the Ottos shelled out $155,000 for the opportunity. But it worked. BioArts partnered with Dr. Hwang S Woo-Suk, of the South Korea biotech research firm Sooam, to bring a second Lancelot into the Otto household.
An egg containing the late Lancelot’s DNA was placed in a Korean dog to create Lancelot Encore. Once the pup was able to leave his birth mother and go out on his own, he was flown from South Korea to San Francisco before finally making his way to Miami International Airport, where the Ottos were pacing with anticipation.

Spitting image
“He came out of the chute and he actually ran to us, so it was amazing,” Nina Otto told Roker. “He looked just like my original Lancelot, so I was thrilled. I had been getting updates and pictures over the past 10 weeks, but the real thing is what I wanted to see.”

I tried to post the video, but I don't know how.

not the exact link but just more info for you:

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/na...gType=natsouth

and here is your video link

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/261848...92683#28892683

Wouldn't the same thing happen to a clone?

As soon as I saw that the couple in question was from Florida, I stopped reading.

Florida is the crazy state!

Thanks Daemon. How did you link the video? I'm not sure what I was doing wrong.

I don't know. Possibly, I guess. But then again it may not, because cancer is usually the result of genetic damage that happens over a lifetime, which is why most cases occur in people over sixty. It's the same with most pets. It usually starts when one of the cells starts to grow in an uncontrolled way. Since their dog was cloned, then it's pretty much starting its life over again. I'm thinking they would just have to limit gene damage by maybe avoiding some of the things that may have caused the dog to get cancer in the first place.

lol this made me laugh. Maybe it's the hurricanes.

cut n paste ;)

i'm confused. yes, the puppy has the original dog's dna - but that doesn't mean he'll have the same temperment or memories and actually BE the same dog, does it?

I did that, but it didn't work.

$155,500K? They could have adopted another dog from the ASPCA for $150. I mean, do you, but it must be nice to have money like that.

Copy the URL. In the message box for your response, click on the hyperlink button: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/im...createlink.gif. Paste the URL as prompted. Click "OK."

And these people are nuts.

Not the same memories but I don't see why the temperament wouldn't be the same.

Depends on how much temperament is influenced by "nature" and how much by "nurture."

I can think of a lot more important things to spend that much money on.

I'll just stick to letting you guys do the linking. I have no clue what you just posted.

And yeah, I would have to agree here.

ETA: I love animals but they had a zoo. That's too many.

Me too. That would pay for all four years of my education.

It's not my money or my place to judge how others spend their personal funds. I would give anything to clone one of my deceased dogs but I don't have the money.

yes, and every other organic being that lives long enough

It wouldn't be exactly the same dog though. In some cases coat color isn't even exact.

LOL. Translation:

Copy the website address for the page to which you want to link -- the part up at the top of your browser window that (usually) begins "http:// . . . ."

Go back to where you're typing in your GC message/response. Put your curser where you want to put in the link. Then look up at the toolbar immediately above where you're typing, and find the button that looks like this: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/im...createlink.gif.

Click on that button.

A little box will open up. In the part where there is a curser flashing, paste the website address you just copied.

Click "OK."

You have now placed the code for the link in your post. Keep typing until you have finished what you want to say.

When you hit "Preview Post" or "Submit Post," you'll be able to see and click on the link you just created.

I got it. I think?:o Thanks MC, but I think you forgot. I'm the girl who almost lost her computer to a virus that I thought was some kind of antivirus software. Remember me? :)

LOL. No, I remembered. I'm just the eternal optimist.

This makes sense, but it's also genetically based.

lol I don't know why, but that gave me the giggles.:)

MC...I have to thank you also...I was reading ur response and was wondering where in heck all these options were and decided to go to my control panel and only then realized that my editor box was in BASIC mode and not STANDARD mode....didn't know I had so many options!

Thanks!!!

I think there was a story on This American Life a while back about a family who had this bull that was like a pet bull that they rented out for parties.

They had him cloned. New bull had nowhere near the temperament of original bull. I do believe someone got seriously injured.

That amout of money is also a life insurance policy. Or grad school.

Vet school for me.:)

Ummm. Dr. Woo-Suk is up for scientific fraud for illegally cloning human embryos... Not only did he use some of female lab worker's eggs, the DNA that was "allegedly" put into them could not prove that the DNA used was clone... Typical, one uses a tag or a readily know marker.

So maybe the dog is a clone, but I am sorry but South Korea's QC protocols leave something to be desired... I'd trust the folks in Singapore or Beijing, China and definitely Chiba, Japan or even the Delhi University...

So basically the spent $115K on a dog they could of got for ~$150...

I remember these people! They called Suze Orman on her "Can I Afford It?" segment to ask if they could afford to clone the dog. Their financial situation was solid enough for Suze to give her blessing... I guess they didn't waste any time after getting the green light from her. I don't understand it, but far be it from me to judge others and how they want to spend their $$$.

and let's not forget...they already have 9 dogs...so what happens if one of the others die? Will they clone those dogs too?

Was Pet Cemetary not a lesson?