At first glance, Gem is simply a very happy spaniel. With a plush toy in her mouth, she is the embodiment of joy. But her straightforward demeanour belies the complexities of her origins. Because Gem is not your typical dog: she is a clone.
Ever since Dolly the sheep – the first mammal to be cloned using an adult cell – was revealed to the world in 1996, debate has raged over the potential for the technology and its ethical implications.
Yet the menagerie of animals cloned by researchers has continued to grow, from “Snuppy” the Afghan hound puppy to sheep, piglets, mice, cows, and even macaque monkeys.
Now the technology has moved into a new, commercial market: pets.
“Gem is actually a present from one of our clients, because she’s a clone of a working cocker spaniel,” says Lucy Morgan, the manager of the UK-based company Gemini Genetics.
“We get photos and things [from owners] but actually having a cloned pet that I can remember the day that her original skin sample came in … yeah, she’s really quite special,” Morgan adds.
Pet cloning has becoming big business in the US, with Barbra Streisand and Paris Hilton among its early adopters.
Yet cloning animals is banned in the UK, except for research purposes. Even then, Home Office approval is required.
As a result, Gemini Genetics does not conduct cloning itself – but it does facilitate the process, and has done so for about 30 such animals so far.
Based in Shropshire, the company comprises a small laboratory space housed within a complex shared with other companies including Stallion AI Services – an equine semen storage and distribution centre that, among other activities, works with rare breeds.
Morgan – who previously worked for Stallion – said the origins of Gemini Genetics lay in this work: the only way to preserve a female line is by freezing skin samples – tissue that contains 100% of the donor’s DNA profile.
Morgan and colleagues later decided to branch out, realising the approach could also be used to clone endangered species, as well as companion animals.
The clients, Morgan says, are largely the owners of non-pedigree dogs – lovable pets that are either facing the end of their life or have already died.
“[Owners are] not wanting to create a carbon copy of their original or, if they phone us with that expectation, we talk them through the process and explain this isn’t about creating a carbon copy of the original pet,” Morgan says.
“Most cats and dogs are neutered, so when they do pass away, you haven’t got a son or a daughter or a brother or a sister, whichever way you want to look at it, to carry on that connection with them. And so that’s where the cloning comes in.”
The first step is for a vet to take a tissue sample from the animal to be cloned – a 2cm square from the ear of a deceased pet, or a 6mm round sample from the chest, neck or inner thigh of a living one. This is sent to Gemini Genetics, where cells are cultured to check the DNA is viable for cloning.
These cultured cells, with the original tissue, are then cryogenically stored on-site, ready for the go-ahead from the client for them to be shipped to the US. There, a company called ViaGen creates the clone.
The cloning process itself is known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), and involves taking an egg from a female donor, removing its nucleus, and introducing an adult cell from the animal that is to be cloned. When an electric impulse is applied, the cell and the egg fuse and the embryo begins to develop. This is then implanted into a surrogate mother, where it gestates until birth.
The upshot is a twin of the original animal, which can be brought back to the UK under the same regulations that apply to pets conceived in the traditional way.
The role of Gemeni Genetics might seem like little more than a middle-man, but it tackles the time-sensitive side of the process. As Morgan notes, once stored at -196C the animal’s samples can be preserved for an indefinite period, while the use of specialised liquid nitrogen shipping containers drastically increases the time a sample can be in transit while remaining viable for cloning.
Nothing about the process is cheap: it costs £1,600 for Gemini Genetics to bank and culture a sample, or £2,200 if the second step is carried out at a later date, with a storage fee of £12 a month. The production of the clone by ViaGen costs about $50,000 (£42,000) for a dog or cat and $85,000 (£68,000) for a horse.
But just as identical twins have very different characters, cloned pets can be different, too.
“Behaviour has got an environmental part to it as well,” says Morgan. “Obviously the original pet has passed away, so it’s by no means a reincarnation. And 99% of our clients get that,” she says, noting the team make sure clients fully understand the information before proceeding.
Clones can even look different: markings, for example, can vary from those of the “original”.
But cloning is not always about an emotional connection to a beloved pet. In some cases it is more a matter of business.
Behind Gemini Genetics is a block of pristine stables, within which is a large, immaculate grey stallion. This, says Morgan, is Murka’s Gem. And he, too, is a clone from ViaGen, produced before Gemini Genetics was established.
Murka’s Gem’s “original” was Gem Twist, a famous show jumper who, as a gelding, could not sire his own offspring because he had been castrated – a common practice in competition horses. But cloning has removed that obstacle.
“They made two clones, and one is Murka’s Gem, who stands with us. The other one is a clone called Gemini, which stands at a stud in France,” says Morgan.
“[Murka’s Gem] is able to breed on behalf of the original horse, basically.”
Morgan says not everyone in the horse world is enthusiastic about the rise of clones, with some seeing it as counter to the idea that breeding is about moving equine genetics forwards. However, others have embraced the technology.
In October, Chilli Morning IV – a clone of Chilli Morning, a hugely successful eventing stallion– scooped the seven-year-old world champion title at the Mondial du Lion equestrian event. Another clone of the same horse came sixth.
As well as enabling the bloodline of a gelding to continue, Morgan says the approach offers a way to secure genetic diversity, noting horse breeders tend to focus on producing a favoured type.
“But actually we might, in 10 years’ time, find that the horse type that we had back then, we actually want to reintroduce,” she says.
But whereas clones are kicking up dust in the horse world, things are different in canine spheres. That, says Morgan, could be because horse breeders are already much more familiar with using assisted reproduction techniques.
Bill Lambert of the UK Kennel Club says the world-famous dog show Crufts is not currently set up to accommodate clones.
“It would be very difficult to register a [cloned] dog under our current regulations, because a dog has to have a pedigree, parents, a family tree, and it has to be has to have a date of birth,” he says.
Morgan is in favour of a shift in legislation around animal cloning, saying that while the US has developed the technology, existing laws have left the UK lagging behind.
“I think cloning will have an increasing role in conservation in the future,” she says. “So by not having it available over here, it may become a hurdle to future conservation needs.”
ViaGen have already cloned a number of animals, including the endangered black-footed ferret.
But others are staunchly opposed to the idea of making cloning more accessible in the UK.
“Losing a beloved pet can be heartbreaking, and owners may feel tempted to turn to cloning in order to replicate the special, emotional bond they have had,” says Dr Joanna Ilska, genetics research manager at the UK Kennel Club.
“However, there are significant welfare implications involved in this invasive procedure, and an owner’s grief should not be placed above the welfare of the dogs involved – both the puppies and the bitch used to carry the embryos.”
Elizabeth Mullineaux, president of the British Veterinary Association agrees.
“Commercial cloning is not currently legal in the UK, and given the ethical and welfare considerations we would not support exporting the process with a view to re-importing the cloned pet,” she says.
Mullineaux and Ilska both add there is no guarantee that the cloned animal will look or behave in the same way as the original, a point echoed by Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, the head of stem cell biology and developmental genetics at the Francis Crick Institute in London.
“In my view, the only justifications for cloning an animal are to try to replicate one that is of high value for non-emotional reasons, [such as the] ability to run fast, be a good sniffer dog, have high milk or meat productivity. Or for types of research where it is useful to reduce variability between animals,” he says.
“If the intention is to try to replace a lost loved pet, whether cat, dog, horse or whatever, then cloning is very unwise. Why not find a different animal that deserves your love?”
