Rescue dog from 9/11 CLONED

[Saje]

Heroic 9/11 hound cloned five times
by Stevie Smith - Jun 18 2009, 15:15
Ground Zero. Image: fimoculous/Flickr.

Ground Zero. Image: fimoculous/Flickr.

Evidently, the advances of modern science now mean that heroes can live forever – well, almost. Specifically, a now-deceased German shepherd police dog that helped locate survivors amid the devastation of the collapsed World Trade Center in 2001 has been cloned five times.

The five puppies, successfully cloned from the DNA of heroic hound Trakr, are now the property of James Symington, a former policeman in Nova Scotia, who won the cloning prize after recounting Trackr’s exploits in an essay contest sponsored by California-based company BioArts International.

Eager to assist in the search-and-rescue effort following the terrible terrorist attack on September 11 of 2001, Symington and Trakr left Canada and headed for New York City, where Trakr reportedly worked to help find survivors amongst the mountains of rubble.

While brave Trackr died two months ago at the grand old age of 16, Symington has now received five yelping reasons to never forget his furry companion, naming the new arrivals Trustt, Valor, Solace, Prodigy and Deja Vu.

"They're identical -- down the smallest detail," enthused Symington regarding his new charges. "Few dogs are born with exceptional abilities -- Trakr was one of those dogs. And if these puppies have the same attributes as Trakr, I plan on putting them into search and rescue so they can help people the way Trakr did."

BioArts is the first company in the world to offer commercial dog-cloning services – although the actual cloning process is carried out at the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea.

In describing the decision to clone Trackr, BioArts CEO Lou Hawthorne said: "His many remarkable capabilities were proven beyond all doubt in our nation's darkest hour -- and we view the work of cloning him as a great honor."

The usual price for cloning a dog through BioArts International is $138,500 USD.

Heroic 9/11 hound cloned five times - Science

 

[Romy]

Wow, it will be interesting to see if they grow up the same as their "parent", having the same handler and everything. 16 is pretty long lived for a GSD too. Awesome.

 

[Dekka]

its too bad those pups will be starting out with 16 year old telomeres..... they likely won't have long full lives like their 'original'

 

[bubbatd]

Neat !!

 

[Angelique]

Wow. A bit creepy, but interesting.

The first thing that comes to my mind is whether or not these dogs will be raised together as a pack. Dogs all have their own natural abilities and levels of dominance and submission. Most squabbles happen between two dogs who are close to the same level while they sort things out. I personally believe you get an entire pack hierarchy in every litter, so this seems tricky. I hope they don't pass up this opportunity to study and document the interactions of the dogs.

Cloned dogs could be a great way to study the impact different training philosophies can have on a dog. Also a great way to study how living with stable vs unstable humans can impact a dog's behavior and the success rates of a training method.

Hmmmm...

 

[Dekka]

Except you are dooming these dogs to shorter and less healthy lives...

Now if you were to clone puppies... now that could work.