Posted on 08/21/2019 7:57:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
Sinogene plans to sell cloned cats for £29,000
A Chinese company has announced it is planning a mass sale of cloned cats to the general public.
Sinogene, China's first biotech company to create cloned pets, is planning to sell the cats for around £29,000.
It is planning to target bereaved pet owners who have lost their feline.
The announcement comes after a scientist from the company cloned their first kitten named Garlic, born a month ago at the company's laboratory in Beijing.
Sinogene only revealed its existence this week after the animal got stronger.
The original cat, which supplied the cells for cloning, and Garlic are identical in appearance but have different temperaments, memories and personalities.
To enable the cloned cats to share the same memories with the original, the company is considering the use of artificial intelligence.
The company currently says it is targeting 100 to 200 orders this year but hopes to receive 300 to 500 annually.
A cloned cat's life expectancy is the same as any other cat, Lai Liangxue, Sinogene's chief scientist and a research fellow revealed.
Sinogene made headlines by cloning a gene-edited beagle in May 2017.
Then a month later it launched commercial cloning services.
It is currently cloning dogs by using a lab to remove the cells from a dog’s egg and then transplant cells from another dog.
The company's deputy general manager Zhao Jianping told Crime Russia there also plan to clone horses and carrier pigeons in the future.
Sinogene is also planning to expand services to eventually include gene editing.
Sinogene’s CEO Mi Jidong said: “We’ve discovered more and more pet owners want their pets to accompany them for an even longer period of time."
In 2014 a woman in Texas, US, became the world's first owner of a cloned-to-order feline, after paying biotech firm Genetic Savings & Clone Inc, $50,000 for a genetic duplicate of her dead pet.
“[The cloned cats] have different temperaments, memories and personalities.“
$40,000 for a cat with the same markings? How could there be a market for that?
In 2014 a woman in Texas, US, became the world’s first owner of a cloned-to-order feline...
Crazy Texans :)
What could go wrong!
The Cats From Brazil
Don’t we have enough feral cats running around already? If you were going to clone something for selling, why would it be cats? Maybe more like rare birds or velociraptors...
Disclaimer: These cats will only have 8 lives.
I want a dozen velociraptors...
Is that racist?
Nationalist?
Cat’s ‘markings’ aren’t genetic. They develop while in gestation. Two cats that look very different can be genetically identical.
They cannot guarantee that the clone will look exactly like the original.................
That will no doubt be more than £29,000 each.
Insuring a clean food source is always good. /s
CAT: The other white meat.
Can I get a loan?
I promise not to train them and use them for nefarious purposes...
Can re-pet be far behind?
Love, Quaid
Felinist? Felinism being animal/cat worship?
So the cloned cat doesn’t look like the original, have the memories of the original, and has a different personality.
“Gee, I’ve got a spare $40,000 lying around. How can I blow it?”
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