After burying his late cat, Garlic, at a park near his home, a man in Beijing decided to do something to bring a part of Garlic back…
A little while later, Huang Yu dug up his cat’s body and stuck him in the freezer to prepare for the process of cloning his pet.
“Garlic didn’t leave anything for future generations,” he said, “so I could only choose to clone.”
A commercial pet-cloning company called Sinogene helped Yu to produce China’s first cloned cat. The process cost $35,000 and took roughly seven months.
Although the pet-cloning business hasn’t exactly taken off in the U.S. yet, it might become a viable market in China. Sinogene decided to start cloning pets after a survey indicated there was demand.
The company has cloned over 40 dogs, including Pomeranians, schnauzers, and Malteses. Each cloned dog is priced at about $53,000. Some served as pets, others were the subject of medical research.
Garlic’s clone was born on July 21. The new Garlic is scheduled to stay at the laboratory for another month before Sinogene sends him off to Mr. Huang.