Californian pit bull lives on in 5 cloned puppies

[ASweetHeart]

Kind of an old story. I just saw it and thought it was interesting.
Californian pit bull lives on in 5 cloned puppies

Californian pit bull lives on in 5 cloned puppies

Five pit bull puppies received by a California woman on Tuesday are thought to be the world's first commercially cloned canines.
South Korean company RNL Bio claims to have cloned Bernann McKinney's dead pitbull Booger with the help of the Seoul National University. She is the company's first customer.
"It's a miracle!" McKinney repeatedly shouted Tuesday when she saw the small black pups sleeping with one of two surrogate mothers, both Korean mixed breed dogs.
"Yes, I know you! You know me too!" she said, hugging the puppies.
McKinney forked over $50,000 for the cloning, a reduced rate from the $150,000 RNL Bio plans to charge for canine cloning since she was the first customer and helped with publicity.
Dog died in 2006

The five pit bull puppies were born last week. RNL Bio said it has cloned more than 20 canines since its first success in 2005.
The team of scientists working for RNL Bio is headed by Lee Byeong-chun, an ex-colleague of disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk who in 2005 was immersed in a scandal when a purported breakthrough in cloned stem cells was revealed as a fake.
Booger died of cancer in April 2006. She initially went to a U.S.-based company to seek cloning, but they shut down due to lack of demand after failing to produce any dog clones and only a handful of cloned cats.
Scientists used ear tissue from Booger, which McKinney had refrigerated. The formal cloning work began in late May.
Dog saved McKinney's life

Lee's team says the puppies are Booger's genuine clones and the university's forensic medical team is conducting reconfirmation tests.
McKinney said she had a special place in her heart for Booger because he saved her life when she was attacked by a dog three times his size. The attack resulted in serious injuries to her hand and legs and she spent part of her recovery in a wheelchair.
While she recovered, the dog pulled McKinney's wheelchair when the battery ran out, opened doors with his teeth and helped take off her shoes and socks, she said.
"I believe that Booger was an angel that God rented out to me for a short period of time," said McKinney. "He knew I was going to have tough times so he sent him down to help me out."
"And [God] knew that I'd be lost without [Booger] so he sent me more. He sent me five more mini Boogers."
The screenwriter, who also taught drama at U.S. universities, will take three of the cloned puppies home to California and donate the others to work as service dogs for the elderly or those with disabilities.
She lives with five other dogs and three horses.

[darkwing932]

I'm really not sure that I understand why someone would do something like this.

I understand that the cloning process would give you something that looks exactly like the pet had. It doesn't give you the personality of the pet you lost does it?

I love my dog because of his personality not his appearance, (even thought he is the most handsome dog around ). I couldn't imagine having a dog that looked just like him and constantly reminded me of him but acted completly different. It just wouldn't be the same, kwim.

[JANE4girls]

wow...just wow....cloning scares the poop out of me