Woman pays $50,000 for TWO clones of her dead cat, created by Texas biotech company that uses a dead pet’s DNA to create genetic twins
Mourning the death of a pet can be a sad and lonely experience, but would you pay a year’s salary to get your furry friend back?
Well, a Canadian woman has done just that. Kris Stewart of British Columbia paid $50,000 for not one but two clones of her late ragdoll cat Bear.
Bear tragically died at the age of five, being hit by a car in January 2022. Her new cats, Bear Bear and Honey Bear, are genetic twins of the beloved pet.
The new kittens were created through somatic cell cloning, in which the nucleus of one of Bear’s cells was transferred to a new egg.
The egg was then implanted into a surrogate mother who gave birth to the kittens that had zero percent of her DNA but 100 percent of Bear’s DNA.
Kris Stewart with Bear Bear and Honey Bear, her new cloned kittens from Texas-based biotech company ViaGen.
Bear, Stewart’s previous cat, died in a traffic accident at the age of five. She wanted him back, so she had him cloned
“I just felt like there was more work to be done for Bear,” Stewart said CBC.
So she enlisted the services of Texas-based company ViaGen, which calls itself “the world leader in cloning the animals we love.”
After Bear Bear and Honey Bear were born to their surrogate mother on January 10 this year, they spent two months at ViaGen’s New York facility.
And Stewart got to take them home this week.
“They both look like Bear,” she said. “These guys are bold and brazen.”
Her late cat was boisterous and very intelligent, she told CBC.
“Bear was the smartest animal I think I ever had, and I’ve had animals since I was two years old,” Stewart explained.
In addition to cats, ViaGen also offers horse cloning.
Dogs and cats cost $50,000, while horses cost $85,000.
According to Stewart’s LinkedIn, she is the CEO of a nursing staffing agency.
This industry has proven to be extremely lucrative since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Weekly rates for travel nurses rose from between $1,000 and $2,000 before the pandemic to between $3,000 and $5,000.
DailyMail.com has reached out to her for comment.
Stewart cuddles her new clone cats Bear Bear and Honey Bear, who just arrived home this week after eight weeks at ViaGen’s facility
Bear, seen here trying to open a door, was extremely smart, according to Kris Stewart. She said she thinks the clones are behaving like he has been doing so far
As for technology, ViaGen uses somatic cell nuclear transfer to create a clone of a pet.
This is the same technique used to produce the famous Scottish sheep Dolly.
Somatic cell cloning, also called somatic cell nuclear transfer or simply nuclear transfer, is simple in concept but difficult in execution.
The DNA is extracted from the cell of a donor, in this case a body cell, as indicated by the word ‘somatic’.
To create somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) clones, scientists take DNA (red circle) from tissue and insert it into eggs (yellow) with the DNA (green) removed. The scientists then turn certain genes on or off to help the cells multiply (right)
The DNA from an egg is then removed and replaced with the donor’s DNA.
This changed egg is then implanted into a surrogate mother.
When the surrogate mother gives birth, the baby is genetically identical to the animal that donated the body cell and has no relationship to her.
Cloned animals often do not survive birth, but animals that are born healthy usually do well.
This was ViaGen’s third attempt at cloning Bear, as the first two attempts had failed.
Although the kittens are genetic twins with Bear, that doesn’t guarantee they will have the same personality as him.
In an extreme example, Texans Ralph and Sandra Fisher cloned their beloved gentle bull named Chance, but the clone bled Ralph twice.
But for now, the entrepreneur says she is ‘excited’ with her new cats.