Paris Hilton lost her dog, so she cloned it

Paris Hilton lost her dog, so she cloned him not once, but twice. And he is not the only public figure who has done so. Barbra Streisand was one of the first to clone petsbut the cases of Javier Milei or the American football player Tom Brady are also known. That’s how it is the pet cloning market.

A nail clone pulls out another nail

The loss of a pet is a very painful experiencefor many people as hard as losing a family member. Science is already looking for ways to extend the life of dogsbut at the moment living as long as humans seems far away.

Nor you can make your dog or cat live foreverbut if you have money you can resort to cloning. This is what Barbra Streisand did when her dog Samantha died in 2017. And if one clone was not enough, she asked for two to be made. Paris Hilton also resorted to cloning after her chihuahua Diamond was lost in 2022. Like Streisand, she also cloned her twice.

If we look only at the number of clones, Javier Milei, current president of Argentina, has gone too far. In 2017 he cloned his English mastiff Conan not one, but five timesalthough one of the puppies died shortly after.

The most recent case involved Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who confessed in the magazine People Magazine that his current dog Junie is a clone of Lua, his previous dog who died in 2023.

Personality is not cloned

There are several companies that are dedicated to cloning pets. The most famous is the American Travel Petswho was in charge of making clones for Paris Hilton, Barbra Streisand and Javier Milei. Tom Brady did it through the startup Colossal Biosciencesdedicated to “de-extinction.” And be careful, because In Marbella there is also a clinic that is dedicated to cloning dogs and cats.

The process begins with the pet tissue collectionwhich should be done either while the pet is still alive or immediately after its death. Using these cells, they create embryos that are implanted in a surrogate mother.

The resulting animals are genetically identical to the original, but that does not mean they will behave the same. Barbra Streisand admitted in an interview in Varietythat The clones had different personalities to that of his dog Samantha. On its website, Viagen says the result “shares your dog’s DNA and often the same intelligence, temperament and appearance.” Emphasis on that “often.”

How much does this cost

You’ve probably been wondering since you read the headline. Travel Cobra $50,000 to clone dogs or cats and $85,000 in the case of horses. These are high figures for most people, but a few years ago it cost twice as much.

There are no figures, but in this report from The Atlantic They assured that companies like Viagen they have a waiting list and thousands of clones of pets, but also horses or cattle, have already been produced. A striking example is that of polo player Adolfo Cambiasowho has more than 100 clones of his best mare.

Although feasible, animal cloning raises ethical questions, mainly about the well-being of the animals involved in the processboth the clones themselves and the mothers in whom they implant the embryos. It is well known that purebred females, both dogs and cats, are often exploited and subjected to continuous pregnancies and then sell the puppies. The difference here is that they create clones from implanted embryos.

On the other hand, there is the question of purchasing animals, in this case clones, when the shelters are saturated with animals waiting for an adoption. Only in Spain it is estimated that 33 pets are abandoned per hour.

Finally, a personal contribution, it will be a year soon since my kitten Piñón died. We had a very special bond and his loss was very traumatic because he was still very young. I miss it as if it were the first day, but it would never occur to me to put my grief above the well-being of other animals.

Image | Paris Hilton, Instagram

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