BTB: Cloning: for sentimental reasons?

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 01:18 PM PDT

Apparently cloning is not just province of breeders and investors -- owners are cloning their horses -- not for breeding, but as pets -- the to the tune of $160,000. The Humane Society even has an official position on pet cloning. Companies like PerPETuate offer housepet cloning services.

Pictured right is a clone from the castrated endurance horse, Pieraz, a purebred Arab.

clipped from articles.orlandosentinel.com

Horsing around with nature? Big money rides on clone rules
Cloning proponents, foes argue about whether they should get registration papers
April 04, 2010|By Stephen Hudak, ORLANDO SENTINEL
OCALA — The chestnut stallion was the love of Zarela Olsen's life.
A majestic hall-of-fame horse with personality and a copper coat bright as a new penny, Capuchino often greeted his fawning owner with kisses, nuzzling her neck and licking the back of her ears.
"When he died, he took my heart with him," said Olsen, 46, of the Paso Fino horse who died in Ocala in 2009. "I could not stop crying and crying."

But Olsen had planned ahead, investing $160,000 in the replicating services of a biotech company specializing in the controversial practice of animal cloning.