Woman pays $70,000 for clone of her former cat

Little Nicky the cloned cat. Picture / Reuters

NEW YORK - It may not be strictly true that a cat can have nine lives, but, as a woman in Texas can now testify, a second incarnation is no longer out of reach.

The trick, brought about by new advances in the science of cloning, does not come cheaply - or without considerable controversy.

The woman, who has released her first name only for fear of harassment by anti-cloning activists, paid US$50,000 ($70,012) for a clone of her former cat, which she had owned for 17 years before it died last year.

She has called it 'Little Nicky' after her first fluffy friend, who was simply Nicky.

It is thought to be the first pet-to-order case every transacted and has already been widely condemned by animal rights activists as well as lobbyists against animal cloning.

"He is identical. His personality is the same," the owner, Julie, told The Associated Press. She is the first client to receive a copy-cat kitten from a programme called "Nine Lives Extravaganza" offered by the California-based company, Genetics Savings and Clone.

The firm says that it has already has five takers hoping to receive cloned versions of their dead cats.

Customers supply DNA tissue to the company when their cats die. In turn, the geneticists collect ovaries from thousands of vets around the country who carry out spaying of other cats for use in conception of the cloned versions.

Critics say Little Nicky may open the doors to a new market in cloned pets of all kinds. Indeed, the California company says it plans to unveil its first cloned dog in the spring.

"It's morally problematic and a little reprehensible," complained David Magnus, co-director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University. "For US$50,000, she could have provided homes for a lot of strays."

- THE INDEPENDENT