ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 5, 2008 at 6:18 AM EDT
SEOUL — An American woman received five
puppies Tuesday that were cloned from her beloved late pit bull terrier,
becoming the inaugural customer of a South Korean company that says it is the
world's first successful commercial canine cloning service.
Seoul-based RNL Bio said the clones of Bernann McKinney's dog Booger were
born last week after being cloned in co-operation with a team of
“It's a miracle!” Ms. McKinney repeatedly shouted Tuesday when she saw the
cloned Boogers at a
“Yes, I know you! You know me, too!” Ms. McKinney said joyfully, hugging the
puppies, which were sleeping with one of their two surrogate mothers, both
Korean mixed breed dogs.
Bernann McKinney holds puppies cloned from her late pit bull terrier at the
Independent tests confirmed the 2005 dog cloning was genuine, and Mr. Lee's
team has since cloned more than 20 canines.
But RNL Bio said that its cloning was the first successful commercial
cloning of a canine.
“RNL Bio is commencing its worldwide services with Booger as its first
successful clone,” the company said in a statement.
Ms. McKinney contacted Mr. Lee after Booger died of cancer in April, 2006.
She had earlier asked U.S.-based Genetics Savings and Clone to clone her dog
but the company shut down due to lack of demand in late 2006 after only
producing a handful of cloned cats and failing to produce any dog clones.
The Korean scientists brought the dog's frozen cells to Seoul in March and
nurtured them before launching formal cloning work in late May, according to
RNL Bio.
Mr. Lee's team have identified the puppies as Booger's genuine clones, and
his university's forensic medicine team is currently conducting reconfirmation
tests.
Ms. McKinney said she was especially attached to Booger because he saved her
life when she was attacked by another dog three times his size. The incident
resulted in her left hand later being amputated, and injured her leg nerves and
stomach. Doctors later reconstructed her hand and she spent part of her
recovery in a wheelchair.
Ms. McKinney said Booger acted as more than just a canine companion as she
recuperated from the attack.
Her dog pulled her wheelchair when its battery ran out. He opened her house
door with his teeth and helped her take off her shoes and socks, even though
she never trained him to do so.
“The most unusual thing about Booger was that he has a unique ability to
reason,” she said. “He seems to understand I couldn't use my hands.”
Ms. McKinney, a screenwriter who taught drama at U.S. universities, said she
will take three of the cloned dogs to her home in California and donate the
others to work as service dogs for the handicapped or elderly. She said she
lives with five other dogs and three horses.
RNL Bio charges up to $150,000 (U.S.) for dog cloning but will only receive
$50,000 from Ms. McKinney because she is the first customer and helped with
publicity, said company head Ra Jeong-chan.
Mr. Ra said his firm eventually aims to clone about 300 dogs per year and is
also interested in duplicating camels for customers in the Middle East.