SAN JOSE, Calif. — Everyone has that one pet in life with whom they fall in love at first sight — or first scratch.
For San Francisco resident Wyatt Boumedine, that was Zine, his white cat with a raccoon-like tail who would constantly growl and claw at his owner. But Boumedine adored him. When Zine died from cancer in 2016, he was devastated.
But just before he passed, Boumedine discovered Texas-based ViaGen Pets, the only U.S-based firm to offer commercial cloning of dogs and cats. For $25,000 — the company’s price for cat cloning in 2016 — Boumedine could have a copy of his beloved pet.
The French native knew his bond with Zine couldn’t be replicated with another cat — even a genetically identical one. But if there was some way he could keep a part of Zine alive with him, then perhaps cloning was worth a try.
One year later, Boumedine has been able to obtain two clones of Zine through ViaGen. He appropriately named them Zine Jr. and Zinou — the latter combining Zine’s name with a French word to express affection.
“Every time I see them, I’m very happy,” he said. “I absolutely do not regret doing that.”
Boumedine joins a rising number of owners across the United States who are taking advantage of a 21st-century scientific marvel: pet cloning, or the process of creating an exact genetic replica of another organism. But there is a backlash, too, from those who think the practice is morally wrong.
Animal cloning was once considered to be a science-fiction fantasy, but then came Dolly the sheep in 1996 — the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell — and suddenly the concept became an obtainable and profitable reality. After cloning Dolly, scientists began to expand their palette to include mice, cows and horses. But it was cats and dogs, the most popular pets in the United Staes, that caught the public’s attention.
High-profile celebrities like Barbra Streisand and Paris Hilton began to get their pooches cloned — and dropped around $50,000 to do so. As the industry became more widely known, and the cloning technology more accessible, everyday pet owners like Boumedine considered paying the price.
The number of pet-cloning requests has grown recently, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to ViaGen, which offers dog and cat cloning for $50,000. “That time spent at home during COVID provided more opportunities for our clients to continue building unique and special bonds with their beloved pets,” spokesperson Lauren Aston said.
But public opinion surrounding cloning animals has remained unchanged in the last 20 years. According to a 2023 Gallup Poll, 61 percent of Americans believe cloning animals is morally wrong, which is only 2 percent lower than it was in 2001. Their disapproval stems from factors including animal exploitation during the cloning process (a surrogate animal is used to birth the clone) and the ethics associated with producing a living creature through artificial means.
In the cloning process, tissue samples like pieces of skin or muscle are taken from a cat or dog. Scientists separate the tissue to extract the cells containing the pet’s genetic material. The DNA is then cryopreserved before being injected into an egg cell that creates the embryo. From there, the embryo — or several of them also containing the DNA — is implanted into a surrogate animal. About nine weeks later, the average term for a pregnancy for dogs and cats, the clone is born.
Usually, only one or even two embryos will come to term; any more than that is rare — just like in real life, according to Ron Gillespie, owner of PerPetuate. Based in Massachusetts, PerPetuate is one of the world’s first pet genetic-preservation companies. It helped prepare Zine’s cells for cloning.
“It’s all about Mother Nature and the surrogate mother,” Gillespie said. “Wyatt was lucky; most clients are guaranteed one cloned puppy or kitten.”
Cloned animals may share the same genetic material as the original, but their environment also plays an important role in how their personalities will turn out, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Boumedine said the twins are “95 percent similar” to Zine in behavior, but are more sociable because he owns other cats the pair can constantly play with, including their surrogate mother, whom he adopted from ViaGen, and three other adopted cats.
The difference serves as a reminder that the twins can’t truly replace Zine, who is forever memorialized in a painting that sits on Boumedine’s mantel.
“It’s healthy they have little differences,” he said. “It’s good reminders they are clones.”
Although Boumedine was set on cloning Zine, others are hesitant to take that step. Julia Pedroza of San Francisco loved her two rescue dogs, Layla and Finnegan. When they both passed away a few years ago from cancer, Pedroza and her husband sent their tissues to PerPetuate to have the genetic material extracted and preserved. They pay a storage fee of $120 a year to hold the DNA in the company’s labs.
Pedroza said she won’t clone her dogs, citing ethical concerns with the procedure, but just knowing their DNA is saved and the option is available offers her peace of mind.
“It provides some comfort,” she said.
