Florida couple to sell pups sired by their clone
One of the first canine clones to arrive in America is now a father.
Lancelot Encore, cloned in South Korea in an American company’s online dog cloning auction three years ago, is the father of eight pups, born on the 4th of July to another Labrador who was artificially inseminated with his sperm.
And they are for sale, at a price yet to be announced. (AKC registration is not a possibility because the organization doesn’t recognize clones as purebreds.)
Lancelot Encore’s owners, Ed and Nina Otto, have set up a website called labraclone.com which offers “future pups from the past” and will be used to sell seven of the puppies.
The Florida couple bid $155,000 to get the original Lancelot, who died of cancer, cloned in an online auction held by BioArts, an American company that attempted to clone the world’s first dog, then partnered with one of the South Korean scientists who was the first to pull the feat off.
Not long after Lancelot Encore settled in their home, with their nine other pets, the Ottos began thinking about breeding him.
Mrs. Otto said they paid several thousand dollars for a lab to inseminate a female Labrador, named Scarlett, with Lancelot Encore’s sperm.
Nina Otto said she was “tickled pink” that the babies had arrived naturally, the SunSentinel.com reported.
“I am keeping one and we are hoping to find good homes for all the other puppies,” she said.
Given the litter’s birthdate, the Ottos gave all eight pups patriotic names: Glory, Liberty, Star, Allegiance, America, Patriot, Independence and Victory.
While some news outlets, The Daily Mail in London included, call Lancelot the first dog to be commercially cloned (so do the Ottos), he’s not. Lancelot Encore is the first single birth commercial clone. The first canine clones delivered to a paying customer were five pups manufactured from the cells of a dead pit bull named Booger, by another South Korean company.
The full story of dog cloning can be found in the book, “DOG, INC.: How a Collection of Visionaries, Rebels, Eccentrics and Their Pets Launched the Commercial Dog Cloning Industry.”
You can read an excerpt here.
Posted by jwoestendiek July 26th, 2012 under Muttsblog.
Tags: animals, artificial insemination, biology, biotech, canine, clone, cloned, clones, cloning, commercial, dog, dog cloning book, dog inc., dogs, ed otto, fathers, florida, industry, john woestendiek, labraclone, labrador, lancelot, lancelot encore, natural, nina otto, pets, puppies, pups, selling, sires, website
Comments
Comment from Dennis Sladek
Time September 16, 2012 at 2:35 pm
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Otto:
I recently read the article about you in our Colorado Springs paper which is odd since I grew up in the Boca, Delray area and went to the Seacrest H.S. which is now Atlantic. I want to clone my Old English, Frodo, who has a genetic malady much like M.S. He is getting to the point where standing and walking is difficult if not impossible. I know at some point that I will have to put him down rather than see him suffer. That will be hard. I have found out that by cloning the problem will go away. I guess is that our goal is that through a clone he will be able to live a normal life that right now is almost impossible. We love him more than words can say. Please get back to me with the info about the DNA freezing i.e. wher it can be stored, etc. If you want to call please do. 719-260-1756. I would love to talk with you. Also, ignore the idiot above who chastised you. Thanks
Dennis Sladek
Comment from selkie
Time July 26, 2012 at 8:41 am
HUGE issue with cloning.. first of all, you can’t get back your original “dog”- and it is twisted that you think you can. Second, for individuals who purport to “love” a dog so fiercely, they really don’t give a rat’s ass about the horror the dogs being used for the cloning experience. And then reading this, way to make money out of your original disgusting effort… not impressed.