Canadian Dog Voted most Clone-Worthy

04 Jul 08

It’s a ‘newshound story’ that just won’t go away: Cloning Dogs. Hhmmn. It’s a topic that always leaves me a little ambivalent… So it is nice that little feet, being Canadian, can at least take solace in the fact that the world’s ‘most-worthy’ dog to be cloned is a Canadian search and rescue dog called Trakr.

Trakr, a Canadian search-and-rescue dog who helped recover the last survivor from the World Trade Center attack on September 11th, 2001, is set to be cloned after being voted the “most clone-worthy” dog.

Now the ripe old doggish age of 15 years, Trakr, a German shepherd, suffers from a neurological disorder that means he no longer has use of his back legs. But a California-based company, BioArts International, picked Trakr for cloning based on an essay competition offering owners a free chance to replicate their pet.

Trakr’s owner, former Halifax police officer James Symington who now lives in Los Angeles, submitted the winning essay. James said that “to know that part of him is going to live on is just beyond words. It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever received.”

It’s nice to know James and Trakr have been recognised — especially since initially James was fired from his job in Canada because he had called in sick in order to go and help New Yorkers in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist destruction of the Twin Trade Towers. (If you want more of this story, follow the link in the paragraph that follows the picture of James Symington with Trakr).

The company said it would send a sample of Trakr’s DNA to the South Korean laboratories of its partner, the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, and the clone could be ready by the end of this year.

The company will also auction off the opportunity for five other pet owners to clone their dogs.

SuperWoof to Trakr! (Even if cloned dogs is a kind of spooky notion).

Awoof! Archie