ohmidog!

Old Blue passed away a few years ago in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

New Blue, a cloned copy of the original — a mastiff-Great Dane mix — is now 12 weeks old and, according to his veterinarian, thriving.

The dog’s unidentified owner paid $100,000 for the genetic duplicate, which was produced in a laboratory in South Korea.

You can see a story and video about Blue on KOAT, but its a bit off the mark when it estimates there are seven dog clones living in the U.S. It’s actually closer to 25.

The story doesn’t mention the name of the South Korean company that cloned the dog, or that of the dog’s owner.

SNUPPY

An American company, which has since gone out of business, brought at least 17 cloned dogs into the U.S. Those clonings were performed by Hwang Woo Suk, the scientist, who, after leading the team that cloned the world’s first dog, Snuppy, was fired from Seoul National University for falsifying results of human embryo research. He went on to open his own lab, Sooam Institute, which has cloned scores, if not hundreds, of dogs.

A second South Korean company, RNL Bio, continues to market the service, and is cloning dogs for bereaved pet owners, laboratory use and government duties, such as providing security at Seoul’s Incheon Airport.

The history and ethics of dog cloning, and the marketing of the service to pet owners — which began before the first dog was even cloned — are recounted in my book, “DOG, INC: The Uncanny Story of Cloning Man’s Best Friend,” soon to be available in paperback.

As for Blue, his local veterinarian, Dr. David Caffey reports, “he has a great personality” and is in good health.

Caffey revealed few details about the dog’s owner, and called the cloning ”a special situation.”