This couple spent six figures on their dog, and their reasoning will be truly shocking to you. I guess the old saying really is true: a dog really IS man’s best friend! At least it’s that way with Laura Jacques and Richard Remde.
When they lost their beloved dog, Dylan, they were heartbroken, and they knew that they had to figure out a way to replace the boxer dog. Indeed, the animal had been just as much a family member in their Yorkshire, United Kingdom home as Richard and Laura themselves.
Family friends urged them to adopt another boxer to take Dylan’s place, but they would have none of it. Instead, they did something extremely surprising: they decided to get the dog cloned so that they would be able to have him once again.
Dylan was only eight years old when he passed away, and he had a brain tumor. Laura and Richard were afraid that they would never be able to enjoy any time together as a family without their beloved dog, but that is when they learned of a company that was located halfway across the globe.
There is a controversial biotech company from South Korea that promised the Yorkshire couple that they could clone Dylan and literally “bring him back to life.” All the company needed was just a tiny bit of Dylan’s DNA, allowing them to go through the scientific process of duplicating his genetic code so that they could bring an exact replica of Dylan into the world again.
Fortunately, Richard and Laura had preserved their deceased dog’s body. Thus, after they had paid Sooam Biotech Research Foundation $100,000 they sent Dylan’s DNA sample. Sooam Biotech told the couple that they should refrigerate Dylan’s body instead of freezing it so that the DNA sample could be preserved.
Richard flew to South Korea with the DNA samples of Dylan’s samples to ensure their safe transfer to the lab setting. Dylan’s DNA was implanted into a dog egg cell that had had all of its generic code removed. The researchers proceeded with a series of electric shocks that would trigger cell division and that got the gestation process underway.
It wasn’t long after Dylan had passed away that their new dog Chance was ‘born.” This egg cell that had been used in their creation of the clone of Dylan had been used in a surrogate dog mother.
“After they got him out, I still couldn’t quite believe it had happened,” Laura told The Guardian. “But once he started making noises, I knew it was real. Even as a puppy of just a few minutes old, I can’t believe how much he looks like Dylan. All the colorings and patterns on his body are in exactly the same places as Dylan had them.”
Chance will look exactly the same way as Dylan did, but he is a different dog. He isn’t going to have any of Dylan’s memories or life experiences, so Laura and Richard will need to raise Chance as a puppy, teach him house training, the whole nine yards. Either way though, he will look just like the dog that they knew and loved for years.
“Clones will be genetically identical, but personality could be different based on rearing environment,” explained David Kim, a researcher at Sooam Biotech. “Basically, it’s nature versus nurture.”
Laura and Richard are flabbergasted that they were able to clone their boxer and be able to get an exact duplicate out of the deal.
“I’m trying to get my head around the fact that this puppy has 100% of the same DNA as Dylan,” Laura told The Guardian. “It’s quite confusing, but I’m telling myself that Chance is just like one of Dylan’s puppies.”