$50,000 Cloned Kitten Truly Isn't One of a Kind

A Texas woman who said she paid $50,000 to a Northern California biotech company received an 8-week-old clone of her dead cat, Nicky, the first known sale of a cloned pet.

Genetic Savings & Clone Inc., based in Sausalito, handed over Little Nicky, a Maine coon cat, this month at a company holiday party in San Francisco.

"He is identical. I have not been able to see one difference," said the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Julie.

The company has been working for more than four years on the cat cloning process. Its founder, Arizona billionaire John Sperling, funded the research at Texas A&M University that led to the 2001 cloning of the first cat, CC, or Carbon Copy.

Company spokesman Ben Carlson said four other people had cats on order — at $50,000 each. He said the clones were expected to be ready by spring.

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-sci-clone23dec23.story

I know how hard the death of a beloved pet can be so I don't want to be too hard on this woman. Just last Christmas my cat of 17 years died. I was heartbroken, but when I was ready for a new cat I adopted a stray. There are so many homeless anilmals out there. Look at your local shelters website and remember that half of them will die by the end of the week b/c there are too many there. Cloning an animal is unessisary and irresponsible. Can't we use science for something better?

Better cloning a kitty (I guess) than producing human babies that way

This lady must have really loved her cat!