This bill comes in the wake of the first successful creation of a GM human embryo at Cornell University, which took advantage of a lack of regulation on human cloning in New York State. In February 2008, Korean company RNL Bio took its first order from a Californian woman willing to pay $150,000 to replicate her dead pit bull terrier, Booger, from some refrigerated ear tissue. Indeed, he represents the latest product of commercial pet cloning, a striking phenomenon that began in 2004 with a dead cat in north Texas. While the American firm that first cloned pets on the open market was shut down in 2006, the practice has hardly suffered or stagnated; in fact, Boogerâs status as the first dog cloned for the consumer demonstrates clear sophistication and evidence of enduring demand amongst wealthy pet-owners in mourning. Lifestyle Pets targets the same economic stratus with its hypoallergenic kittens (from $5,950), ready-trained âfamily protectorâ German Shepherds (from $85,000) andâ”most controversiallyâ”the giant âluxuryâ Ashera cat, a genetic blend of African and Asian wildcats with the domestic cat, which costs over $125,000 a pop. As the employment of cloning deviates further and further from strictly utilitarian purposes, the absence of definitive international regulations means that the only limits on cloning are technological capacity and consumer demand.

Tags: pet, royal canine hypoallergenic dog food, booger, hypoallergenic dogs, hypoallergenic dog breed, cloning