Another Christmas gift suggestion: Cat Cloning for $32,000 (although it does come with a free video, maybe)

Since Ben has posted on the new hypoallergenic cat, I thought it pertinent to talk a little about the Granddaddy of transgenic pet services, that is the company known as Genetics Savings and Clones.

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Here's a company with some pretty strong research credentials having been published in the not too shabby Nature (this was the cloning of a cat named "cc:"). In essence, they were the first to provide a pet cloning service with the February 2004 launch of their "Nine Lives Extravaganza," to the first 9 clients for $50,000 each. This by the way, was adverstised as coming with a "free video", presumably showcasing the various steps involved in cloning your particular cat.

Nowadays, you can get the same service with their reduced price of $32,000, which like before, still comes with a money back guarantee, although now it's not so clear that you still get the free video. I'm not about to make any judgement calls here, except to say that I find the whole "free video" aspect quite amusing. I can see those first 9 customers thinking the following:

Man, $50,000 is an awful lot of money. I'm just not sure Fluffy is worth that amount of dough... Oh wait, what's this? - it comes with a free video? Well, that changes everything...

As well, the notion that a company that provides cloning services actually has an online Gift Shop section makes for great fodder in the teaching anecdote department. That's right, folks, ou can get gift certificates amongst other things. Anyway, their site is worth checking out, since it's pretty comprehensive in that "at least they're ethically aware" vs "is this for real?" manner.

And yes,.. they're working on dog cloning, which means that maybe once and for all, enough genetic information will be acquired to answer one of the all time important phylogenetic questions - that is what the hell is "Goofy"? (is he a dog? Is he a man? Is he a man-dog?...)

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Easy come, easy go. It turns out that Genetic Savings & Clone sent a letter to shareholders recently indicating that they are closing their doors. Frankly, it was never a business model that made sense...

By Peter B. Reiner (not verified) on 12 Oct 2006 #permalink