Luxury pet & pet accessories: $155,000 Cloned Pet

Edgar and Nina Otto lost their dog Sir Lancelot Encore in January, 2008 to cancer at the age of 11, but just couldn’t bear this loss. The couple decided to get an exact clone of their Labrador pet. Edgar and Nina Otto got Sir Lancelot’s DNA samples collected and frozen over six years ago. The couple hired the services of a San Francisco, California based firm BioArts International to get their pet cloned. Scientists took the DNA samples of Sir Lancelot to BioArts International in South Korea, where they developed the perfect clone of the dog. According to BioArts International, scientists inserted Sir Lancelot’s DNA samples into Korean dog’s egg, and then inseminated another Korean dog with the fertilized egg. “Lancey, come here,” said Nina Otto, 66, as she called her puppy while a news crew filmed. “That face looks familiar to me.”

Before Sir Lancelot became sick with cancer, the couple decided to take a chance with preserving the dog’s DNA. At the time, about eight years ago, cloning wasn’t even possible for dogs. “This was just like throwing mud against the wall and seeing what happens,” said Edgar Otto, 79, an entrepreneur who heads several companies. The Ottos, though, didn’t hesitate when the California company BioArts International offered a five-day auction for the chance to clone a pet. The Ottos were a winner with their $155,000 bid via auction. Just months after Sir Lancelot died, the Ottos were preparing to bring him back. Living on a 12-acre estate in western Boca Raton, Edgar and Nina Otto presently own nine other dogs, four birds, and a few cats and sheep. They hope that Lancelot Encore will have the same personality and will be as intelligent as original Sir Lancelot, which they loved so much.
Tags: luxury pet & pet accessories, luxury goods, most expensive

Via:  sun-sentinel