ohmidog!

 Former beauty queen Bernann McKinney met the five clones of her deceased pit bull Booger in Korea today — three of which she plans to take home to California as pets.

 ”It’s a miracle!” McKinney repeatedly shouted when she saw the cloned Boogers at the Seoul National University laboratory where the first dog in the world was cloned in 2005.

 My story on McKinney, and the ongoing dispute over dog cloning, appears in today’s Baltimore Sun.

 The arrival of Boogers one through five marks the first cloning of a  household dog for a private customer. The dogs were unveiled at a press conference in Seoul today.

  McKinney agreed to pay $150,000 for the cloning of her beloved Booger, who she says saved her from an attack by another dog and went on to become her service dog as she recuperated from her injuries.

 The company that cloned her dog, RNL Bio, later agreed to reduce the fee to $50,000 in exchange for her cooperation in publicizing the achievement.

 Seoul-based RNL Bio said the puppies, cloned in cooperation with a team of Seoul National University scientists, were born last week.

 ”Yes, I know you! You know me, too!” McKinney said joyfully, hugging the puppies, which were sleeping with one of their two surrogate mothers, both Korean mixed breed dogs.

 The team of scientists working for RNL Bio is headed by Lee Byeong-chun, a former colleague of disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who scandalized the scientific community when breakthroughs he claimed to have made in cloning human stem cells were revealed as fake in 2005.

 Hwang now runs his own foundation and has joined forces with an American company, BioArts International, to clone dogs. BioArts disputes that Booger was the first commercially cloned dog. Its CEO, Lou Hawthorne, has three clones of his family dog, Missy. It also claims RNL Bio is infringing on its cloning patents.

 RNL Bio, which also maintains it is the sole company authorized to clone dogs, said that its cloning of Booger was the first successful commercial cloning of a canine, and that they expect it to lead to more orders.

 ”RNL Bio is commencing its worldwide services with Booger as its first successful clone,” the company said in a statement.

 RNL Bio’s president, Ra Jeong-chan, 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.

 To see a BBC video of McKinney and the pups, click here.

 Worried that dogs may be helping bring members of the opposite sex together, Saudi Arabia’s Islamic religious police have banned the selling of dogs and cats — and walking them in public — in the capital city of Riyadh.

 Ma’assalama, babe magnets.

 I’m normally not one to criticize an entire culture, but this bothers me on several levels.

 For one, it’s hard to walk a dog in private, and dogs need their walks, and Riyadh is going to have a bunch of very cranky canines on its hands.

 For another, some of us guys – whether our name is “Yasser” or “Doug” – really need all the help we can get.

The prohibition went into effect on Wednesday in the Saudi capital, and authorities said – unlike previous pet bans in Mecca and Jidda, which had little impact – this one will be strictly enforced.

Violators found outside with their pets will have their them confiscated by agents of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the official name of the religious police. The violator will be forced to sign a document vowing not to repeat the act. If he does, he will be “referred to authorities.”

 According to a Fox News story, the commission’s general manager, Othman al-Othman, said the ban was ordered to combat “the rising of phenomenon of men using cats and dogs to make passes at women and pester families” as well as “violating proper behavior in public squares and malls.”

The Saudi-owned Al-Hayat announced the ban in its Wednesday edition. Read more »