As people's attachment to pets grows in China more people are forking out large amounts of cash to replicate dead 'fur babies'. — SCMP
Losing a beloved pet in China is increasingly becoming not the end of a beautiful friendship, but the start of something almost as good, thanks to the growing use of animal cloning services.
One such pet lover, Liu Xing, a designer from Beijing, adopted a street cat she called Tomcat more than a decade ago, the Science and Technology Daily reported.
For 15 years, Tomcat was her loyal companion, moving from Shenzhen to Beijing with her.
As the cat aged and faced health issues, Liu spent nearly 100,000 yuan (RM61,245 or US$14,000) on his medical bills.
When Tomcat’s condition worsened, Liu turned to pet cloning services online.
After her pet died, a cloning company quickly collected skin samples, and despite two failed attempts with a surrogate cat, Liu finally welcomed Little Tomcat, a clone that looked nearly identical to the original.
The cloning service cost Liu about 140,000 yuan (RM85,745 or US$19,000), but she said “it was worth every penny”.
Liu is part of China’s growing pet-loving community.
Last year, the number of pets in China reached 124 million, with the urban pet market exceeding 300bil yuan (RM183.74bil or US$41bil), according to a white paper on the pet industry.
A search for “pet cloning” on mainland online search engines reveals multiple companies offering such services.
The topic has already attracted more than 460 million views on social media platforms.
In 2017, Chinese scientists successfully cloned the first dog, Longlong.
Two years later, the first domestically cloned pet cat, Garlic, was born, bringing pet cloning into the public spotlight.
While commercial animal cloning is legal in China, companies must adhere to legal and ethical standards.
The cost of cloning pets typically ranges from 150,000 to 380,000 yuan (RM91,866 to RM232,728, or US$21,000 to US$52,000).
Early pet cloning technology and delivery systems in China were not always perfect.
In 2020, a cloning company breached its contract with a woman called Liang Xuan, The Paper reported.
After an initial failure, the company used two surrogate dogs, resulting in an entire litter of cloned puppies.
“Either it does not succeed, or there will be a whole litter,” Liang complained, eventually adopting all of them.
The same year, Legal Daily reported that a person, surnamed Zhao, from Beijing spent 130,000 yuan (RM79,620 or US$18,000) to clone her sick cat, only to discover the clone’s gender was wrong and it suffered from chronic diarrhoea.
Some pet owners have also reportedly filed lawsuits over personality changes in cloned pets.
Thanks to technological advancements, China’s pet cloning industry has matured, offering services ranging from genetic testing and cell preservation to cloning.
Technicians from a Chinese cloning company said that the pet cloning process involves collecting skin samples, fusing them with an egg cell from another animal to create an embryo, and implanting it into a surrogate mother.
Pet owners usually receive their cloned pets within 12 to 18 months, along with a health report, genetic comparison, and a photo album.
The cloned pets closely resemble the originals in appearance and personality.
Like naturally bred animals, they are also healthy, live normal lifespans, and can reproduce.
In 2023, a woman from Shanghai spent 250,000 yuan (RM153,132) to clone her dog who had died from choking, and the clone looked identical to the original.
Last year, a person from eastern China’s Hangzhou city cloned a Doberman for 160,000 yuan (RM98,000) and was delighted to find that it shared the same gentle temperament and drinking habits as the original.
However, pet cloning services still cause public anxiety and controversy.
Animal rights activists argue that surrogate animals suffer harm, and say pet cloning is a selfish pursuit, labelling it “cruel”.
A pet owner who visited a domestic cloning lab said that surrogate animals were well cared for and even made available for adoption by pet lovers.
Others believe pet cloning cannot bring the dead back to life.
One popular comment on mainland social media read: “People should understand the life cycle of birth, ageing, illness, and death, and accept farewells with calm.” – South China Morning Post
