ohmidog!

 
The only U.S. biotech company involved in cloning dogs commercially is pulling out of the business, according to the Korea Times.

Lou Hawthorne, the chief executive of  California-based BioArts, said the company will discontinue cloning dogs for customers in light of failed legal efforts to prevent a South Korean rival company from offering cloning services.

In an e-mailed statement to the newspaper, Hawthorne condemned the Korean company, RNL Bio in Seoul, as “black-market cloners,” and also claimed that the occasional physical anomalies of its cloned puppies proved that cloning is a technology “not ready for prime time.”

BioArts has completed the delivery of  cloned dogs to five clients — all bidders in an online auction held this summer, the company said.

The withdrawl of BioArts from dog cloning leaves RNL Bio as the world’s only company involved in the commercial cloning of dogs.

RNL recently announced plans to open a canine cloning center in Korea next year, where it plans to produce 1,000 cloned dogs per year by 2013.

BioArts had insisted it held the sole rights to clone dogs, cats and other mammals under licenses from Start Licensing, which acquired the rights to the technology developed to clone Dolly the sheep from the Roslin Institute.

Start Licensing filed a lawsuit against RNL Bio for patent infringement last October, but Hawthorne said Start Licensing’s legal response was “too little, too late.”

“It became apparent that Start was unwilling either to commit to defend their cloning patents against infringers or grant to BioArts the right to do so on their behalf,” Hawthorne said.

“Start was afraid to defend their patents against challengers in the dog cloning space because if they lost, they might also lose the ability to control markets they actually cared about — mainly agricultural cloning. Start’s strong preference was to do nothing to defend the dog cloning market against patent infringers.”

In closing its cloning business, BioArts also ended its partnership with Korea’s Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, which is led by scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who was fired from Seoul National University shortly after the announcement that it had cloned the world’s first dog, Snuppy.

While Snuppy was verified to be a clone, Hwang’s studies on cloned human stem cells were exposed as fraudulent, leading to criminal charges.

(Photos: Top, James Symington receiving five clones of his dead search and rescue dog Trakr. Symington, who won BioArts “Golden Clone Giveaway” contest, says Trakr found the last survivor at 9-11; by John Woestendiek. Left, Lou Hawthorne with three clones of his mother’s dog, Missy; courtesy of BioArts)

When Lucky, the pet box turtle, lost his front legs to a raccoon, his owner had him equipped with furniture sliders that allow him to get around, almost as quickly as he used to.

Lucky and his mate, Lovey, lived in an open-topped pen with a pond in the yard of Sally Pyne, of Petaluma, Calif.

Pyne suspects a raccoon she’d spotted in the yard, eating some cat food she’d left for another pet, decided to have Lucky for lunch as well.

Pyne found Lucky injured July 31 (the raccoon spared Lovey) and took her to veterinary surgeon Robert Jereb. They think perhaps Lucky had a deformity that prevented him from pulling his front legs into his shell when the raccoon showed up.

Jereb performed surgery to remove what was left of the turtle’s legs, applied bandages and prescribed some medications to ease his pain. Pyne says she considered having the turtle euthanized. 

“I was ready to let little Lucky go home, but Lucky, he was not ready to give up,” she told Sonoma County’s Press-Democrat. “His eyes were open, and he was shoving himself around on his two back legs. He was not going to quit.” 

Jereb came up with the idea to use furniture casters, doubled up in order to match the length of his amputated legs and stuck to the bottom of his shell.  The solution seems to have worked, although the casters may need to be replaced periodically.

The creator of the comic strip MUTTS has teamed up with spiritual guru Eckhart Tolle on a book that celebrates dogs, life and ”living in the moment” — the latter being a philosophy best taught by members of the canine species.

Normally motivational speak quickly takes a Tolle on me, but I will admit to liking “Guardians of Being,”  both for the point it makes, and the way it makes it –  more light-hearted than heavy-handed, thanks in large part to Patrick McDonnell’s deft touch.

McDonnell uses the cast of characters from the MUTTS strip to illustrate Tolle’s lessons on the value of staying in the present moment, appreciating the oneness of life and recognizing the beauty we sometimes forget to notice around us.

McDonnell is the award-winning mind behind MUTTS, which appears in over 700 newspapers. (He’s also on the board of the Humane Society of the United States and a long-time advocate of dogs and the environment.) 

Tolle, author of “The Power of Now,” speaks and teaches around the world. He lives in Vancouver, Canada, but spends most of his time on the bestseller list.

After reading “The Power of Now,” McDonnell sought out Tolle to collaborate on “Guardians  of Being.”

“He created a passionate, humorous, enlightening meditation on the power and grace that animals can bring into our lives,” McDonnell said of Tolle. “Eckhart has translated what our companion animals have been telling us for ages: Life is good. Live in the now. Enjoy.”

TV’s “Dog Whisperer” has sniffed out some new turf: He’s launching a magazine that will hit newstands next week.

The magazine — dubbed Cesar’s Way – will be a joint venture between Cesar Millan and the New York sports management and entertainment firm IMG, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Journal reports that the premier issue is heavy on celebrities, with Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton, Jennifer Aniston and their pets filling many of its pages. Articles seem to have a celebrity bent as well, including “Can Your Dog Fix Your Marriage? Just Ask Jada Pinkett Smith” and “7-Day Doggie Detox.”

IMG says it plans to publish two issues this year and six in 2010.

Millan, following in the footsteps of Opray Winfrey and Rachel Ray, will see if his fame parlays into newsstand sales. He’s listed as editorial director of the magazine.

The new magazine joins about 60 other dog-related titles in the U.S., including Dog Fancy, Doggie Aficionado and Urban Dog, according to the National Directory of Magazines.

The Journal says Cesar’s Way faces the worst ad climate in decades — one that has forced the closure of such magazines as CosmoGirl, House & Garden and Domino. In the first half of 2009, magazine ad revenue plunged 21% from a year earlier, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

Nevertheless, IMG and Millan think they can profit from the 75 million dog owners in the U.S. and the “recession-resistance” of the pet industry. “People have continued to spend on their pets,” Millan said. “You always want to make sure your family is taken care of, and Americans believe the dog is part of the family.”

IMG isn’t the only company to see dollar signs in the pet market. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia added a pet destination to its Web site this year. People Magazine introduced PeoplePets, and Honda is touting its pet-friendly Element with features such as a cushioned pet bed in the cargo area and a pet-restraint system.

A stroke victim in China has trained his two terriers to do his shopping.

Sun Chien, 76, built a cart for his dogs, Pong Pong and Wow Wow. They push it to the shops, along with money and a shopping list, then return home with the groceries, according to the UK Metro.

“I used to pull an ordinary cart with me to get my shopping home. Then one day, Pong Pong suddenly stood up on his hind legs and tried to help me to push,” said Sun.

That gave him the idea to build them their own terrier-sized cart.

“Now they’re so good they don’t need me with them. If one gets tired, he hops in and then they swap over,” said Sun, who lives in Shenyang.

The Fourth Annual Paws for a Cause Charity Night & Silent Auction will be held on Tuesday, September 22, from 7 to 10 p.m., at the Red Star Bar & Grill, 906 S. Wolfe Street in Fells Point.

All silent auction proceeds will benefit Arden’s Arc and Karma Dogs. Tickets are $10 per person and reservations are required. For more information on this event, contact Woody Derricks, 410-732-2633 or visit www.paws4cause.org.

Paws for a Cause, a nonprofit organization founded by Woody Derricks, has raised more than $20,000 in the past three years for groups including the Baltimore Humane Society, Recycled Love and the Canton Dog Park.

Arden’s Arc is a non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing homeless, neglected, or otherwise abused dogs and cats and placing them in homes.

Karma Dogs is a non-profit organization that just launched a new program called The Oath of Kindness. This program was developed in response to the recent violence against animals in Baltimore. Children take an Oath of Kindness with a Karma Dog, where they promise to be kind, tell their friends to be kind and tell an adult if someone isn’t treating an animal properly.