How to REALLY Love Your Dog

Edgar and Nina Otto really loved their dog. Sir Lancelot. They loved their dog so much that when he passed away from cancer last year they spent one hundred and fifty five thousand dollars to clone him. The clone is named Lancey and is now ten weeks old.

Talk about loving your pets! And having disposable income!

The Ottos have nine other dogs but say that Sir Lancelot had the largest personality. Edgar told CNN that, of all of the dogs he had met in his lifetime, Sir Lancelot was the most human and the idea to have him cloned started to take hold about five years ago.
Almost as a safety precaution, they paid to have Sir Lancelot's DNA frozen.

In defense of the amount of money spent on to have their dog cloned, the Ottos say they have spent far greater amounts of money to help organizations like the Humane Society. Edgar Otto also acknowledges that while the genetics are the same; this dog could end up being quite a lot different than its original. Even if the dog is nothing like its genetic predecessor, the Ottos insist that they will love Lancey just as much as they loved Sir Lancelot.

Progress is still being made in human cloning and there are some, like Lou Hawthorne, who say that cloning dogs is quite a bit more difficult than cloning a human. Lou Hawthorne is the Chief Executive Officer of BioArts International—the company that did the actual cloning of Sir Lancelot.

BioArts receives its cloning services from the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, located in Seoul South Korea. Lancey was "born" on November 18 after Sir Lancelot's DNA was inserted into an egg and given time to mature.

So how did BioArts come into the picture? How did the Ottos go from simply having their beloved pet's DNA frozen to sending it to BioArts and having their dog cloned?

Last year, BioArts, a company based in California's Bay Area, held an auction that offered people the chance to have their pets cloned. The auction lasted for five days and the Ottos won with their outrageous 155,000 dollar bid.

Today Lancey is ten weeks old and is adjusting to his new life in Florida with the Ottos quite nicely. The Ottos say that Lancey is getting along well with their other pets (other dogs, cats and sheep) and they can tell that the essence of Sir Lancelot is alive within his clone.

So what do you think? Do you think cloning is a good idea? Most would agree that human cloning is messing with things that should not be messed with, but what about animals? Everyone has heard of Dolly the sheep—the first successfully cloned animal in 1996. Since Dolly the sheep was cloned cats, ferrets even fruit flies have been cloned. Should people be allowed to clone their pets? Should it cost almost as much as a home? Should it be a competition? What do you think?

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