Inside the UK lab where you can clone your PETS: Shropshire clinic has reproduced everything from sausage dogs to Suffolk Punch horses – as desperate owners splash out thousands to bring their animals back

Whether it’s a cat, a dog or even the family horse, the death of a pet can cause a powerful feeling of grief.

But if you have thousands of euros to spare, you can use advanced cloning technology to bring your animal ‘back from the dead’.

Gemini Genetics, a cloning company based in Shropshire, can take DNA from a deceased pet to make a genetically identical copy in the laboratory.

Over a quarter of a century ago Dolly the sheep became the first cloned mammal, the company now clones everything from sausage dogs to Suffolk Punch horses.

And the technology has proven popular with the rich and famous, including Barbra Streisand, who has cloned her beloved dog Samantha twice.

In the photo Gem, a cloned horse that often pulls ‘funny faces’ according to the company’s social media

In the company’s laboratories, DNA is extracted from the tissue sample, grown, amplified and cryogenically stored in liquid nitrogen

According to The mirrorthe entire process costs somewhere between £38,000 and £59,000 ($50,000 and $80,000) and takes up to a year.

“The first thing people think of when they hear the word ‘cloning’ is Dolly the sheep,” said lab manager Lucy Morgan..

“But the technology is now a million miles away from Dolly.

‘There is a taboo on cloning, because it is still a relatively new science.

“But just as our cell phones have evolved over the past 20 years, so has the technology around cloning.”

Gemini Genetics was founded in 2019 and operates from a ‘nondescript’ building on a farm just south of Whitchurch in Shropshire.

The company has a Cocker Spaniel clone on site named Gem, who started life as a piece of ear tissue from another dog.

There is also a cloned horse with the same name in the paddock that often makes ‘funny faces’ according to the company’s social media.

The company has a Cocker Spaniel clone on site named Gem (pictured), who started life as a piece of ear tissue from another dog

Gemini Genetics was founded in 2019 and operates from a ‘nondescript’ building on a farm in Shropshire

Gemini Genetics, just south of Whitchurch, started as a company specializing in artificial insemination for breeding show horses

What is somatic cell nuclear transfer?

The UK company says: ‘We provide a leading genetic conservation service, in partnership with the leading pet cloning company, ViaGen Pets’

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a technology used in cloning.

This technique involves taking a body cell, such as a skin cell, and transferring its DNA to an egg cell from which the nucleus has been removed.

Somatic cells contain the genetic information about how an organism is built, but cannot produce new organisms. Therefore, the technique involves the transfer of DNA to an egg cell.

If the transfer is successful, the process will lead to a complete reprogramming of the genetic material in the nucleus, allowing the egg to divide and form a cloned embryo, which will be provided with a healthy placenta to grow in.

Gemini Genetics’ process is similar to other commonly used cloning methods known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).

Firstly, tissue samples are taken from the dead pet within five days of death – meaning relatives must act quickly.

In the company’s laboratories, DNA is extracted from the tissue sample, grown, amplified and cryogenically stored in liquid nitrogen.

But because cloning is banned under EU regulations, the samples must then be sent to a partner laboratory in Texas owned by ViaGen Pets, which offers the service to surviving relatives.

In the new laboratory, the DNA is transferred to a ‘donor’ egg cell from which the nucleus (and therefore the genetic material) has been removed.

If the transfer is successful, the process will lead to a complete reprogramming of the genetic material in the nucleus, allowing the egg to divide and form a cloned embryo.

This embryo is carried by a foster mother and fertilized during the entire gestation period, which for a horse is 11 to 12 months.

The animals are born and weaned in the US before being returned to Britain to their new owners.

But if you don’t quite have $38,000 to spare, the company lets interested parties complete the first step for much less.

For £600, the pet’s DNA can be extracted and cryogenically stored – allowing the pet to be preserved ‘until you are ready to decide whether to return it’.

“They’ll be as they were the day they were frozen, whether that’s 10, 20, 30 or 40 years from now when you come to thaw them,” Morgan said.

Among the customers is Kelly Anderson, who owns a cat named Belle, cloned from the DNA of her deceased cat, Chai.

Gem the cocker spaniel (pictured) became the first cloned dog to climb to the top of Mount Snowdon

Ms Anderson spent $25,000 on cloning her dead cat because she believed the pet was her soulmate.

‘A lot of people think I wanted to bring my cat back from the dead, but that wasn’t the case at all. I just wanted to continue a piece of my cat,” she said.

‘Although: ‘I’m definitely not rich – I’m a poor dog trainer – so I took out a loan.

“I wanted to be very careful that I treated Belle as an individual and not just as a copy.”

Meanwhile, dog owners Ian Clague and partner Dominika Sojka hope to clone their husky chow pup Bijoux, who was found dead by the roadside in June.

“It changed the feeling of sadness to the hope that maybe we can recover her,” Clague, 62, told The Mirror.

Currently, Gemini Genetics only clones cats, dogs and horses and claims to be the only laboratory in Europe to do so.

Biologically, her new cat Belle (left) is part of Chai (right) because they share the same DNA through the cloning process

But there are also tanks on site containing the DNA of zoo animals, including elephants, rhinos and small tropical frogs.

Scientists around the world store DNA from species so that they can be brought back to life if a catastrophic extinction event occurs.

Since the birth of Dolly the sheep in 1996, mammals cloned by various teams include cows and mice in 1998, goats in 1999, pigs in 2000, cats and rabbits in 2002, rats and horses in 2003, and dogs in 2005.

But because of their genetic similarity to humans, the broader ambition of certain scientists has been to clone other primates, such as chimpanzees and monkeys.

This could eventually lead to the cloning of people or human body parts, although many experts have raised ethical concerns about this.

According to the RSPCA, there are still serious ethical and welfare issues surrounding cloning technology, regardless of the species.

Dolly the sheep (pictured) was born in July 1996 at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. It was created from a breast cell of a six-year-old sheep.

‘There is so much more to an animal than just its DNA,’ an RSPCA spokesperson told MailOnline.

‘A cloned animal will never be an exact copy of the original pet, either in appearance or behavior, and clones will have different life experiences, resulting in animals with different personalities.

‘Animal cloning requires procedures that cause pain and anxiety, with high failure and mortality rates, and animals often suffer from physical conditions such as tumors, pneumonia and abnormal growth patterns.

“We encourage anyone looking for a new pet to become part of their family to adopt one of the thousands of animals in shelters looking for their forever homes.”