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
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