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TeaTwo weeks ago, a palliative care Veterinarian Entered our home at our request to keep our sweet, kind, 13-year-old child rescue Pip the dog to sleep. It was a disgusting decision, which still keeps me up at night. It’s scary and heartbreaking to make this choice, but ultimately it’s the last act of love we can offer. dogs We have shared our lives.
Pip was a smooth-coated collie, a breed that is on the vulnerable list because you rarely see them anymore. People would stop us on the street and ask how he was – they had never seen a dog like him before. breed Was popular in the 1970s, but has since fallen out of fashion, although I’m not sure why. they are amazing dogsAnd are even used as assistance animals in some countries. Pip was very special, although every dog owner I know feels exactly the same way about their dog. That’s because our dogs share our lives, our homes, our daily experiences. Losing them may seem beyond comprehension; Learning to live without them may seem impossible.
Yet I have never thought about cloning any of my dogs.
Tom Brady revealed this week that his most recent dog, Junie, is actually a clone of his previous dog, Lua. Given that he is an investor in a biotech company that specializes in cloning pets, this revelation will undoubtedly generate business planting the idea in the minds of many dog owners – if they can afford it.
For grieving owners who are desperate to “get their dog back,” cloning may seem like the answer to their broken hearts. A way to say goodbye without actually saying goodbye forever. But this is not so easy. If we are seriously considering cloning our dogs, we need to pull back the curtain and examine the facts behind this growing industry.
I truly believe that by cloning a dog, we lose the whole point of having a dog with whom we shared our lives – who influenced us so deeply, who became part of the family. That dog was one of a kind, and personally, I would like them to stay that way. I don’t want to dilute what we had by just making a copy.
As a dog behaviorist, I have built my methods on a fundamental belief: that every dog is different. Every dog is unique in its own way, with its own personality, quirks and needs. Whether it’s my own dogs, dogs I’ve fostered, or dogs I work with, each one is different.
And this is what cloning seems to miss.
When your dog enters your life – whether as a rescue or as a puppy – they are with you during a specific phase. My deaf dog Cookie was with us before we had kids, then stayed as our family grew. She was the apple of my eye, my true love. I miss him every day. Whenever I try to watch her videos or pictures I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach.
If someone told me I could clone him and bring him back, would I do it? Absolutely not. I’m not the same person I was when we first met her. My life is different now. She was one of a kind, and I can never get her soul back, even if her body looks the same. And this, to me, is the important part.
By cloning a beloved dog, I believe we do them a disservice. We fail to see him as a person whose memory should be cherished. We ignore the soul within them – the essence that connects us on a deeper level. We ignore the reality that our behavior, our life circumstances, our home environment, our children, our work, our daily routines will all mean that the cloned dog can never be the same dog. It’s impossible, even though they look alike. It’s like picking two puppies from the same litter – they may have similarities, but they are not the same dog. They can never be.
The rise in dog cloning, with more than 1,200 successful pet-cloning procedures globally in 2023, clearly shows that dog owners are interested in the concept. But I would urge anyone considering this to think about the reason behind this trend. Often, the reason is to make the owner feel better. This would not be in the dog’s best interests – it would be to satisfy their need to touch that dog again, to avoid grief. Believe me, I understand this with my whole broken heart. But I still don’t believe this is the way forward.
In the UK, cloning your dog is not legal. One company avoids this by freezing tissue samples and shipping them to the United States for the work to be completed. However, with the fee for breeding a dog from an ear tissue sample being around £45,000, I would argue that there are far better ways in which the money could be spent to improve the breeding and upbringing of our dogs in this country.
Gemini Genetics, the British company that collected the samples, describes the clone as your dog’s “twin.” But as I mentioned, twinning doesn’t mean you’ll get the same dog. It just means that they may look similar in appearance. It’s not the same as if the cloned dog was your real dog, the one you loved and loved.
The wonderful thing about humans is that we can connect so deeply with our dogs, and they with us. It is a pleasure and a privilege that I have dedicated my working life to this, as I feel very strongly about helping humans and dogs live happily together. So if you want to bond deeply, care deeply, love a dog deeply, there are countless dogs around the world who are looking for that love right here, right now, waiting for you.
Louise Glazebrook is a dog behavior expert and bestselling author of ‘The Book Your Dog Wishes You Read’ and ‘Everything Your Puppy Wants You to Know’, published by Orion. www.louiseglazebrook.com