History of Pet Cloning

“Cute Clones” by Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0 

1986: The United Kingdom passes the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. The goal of the act is to protect animal welfare by requiring government authorization for scientific procedures that are permissible under the act.

1996: Dolly the Sheep was cloned in the Roslin Institute in Scotland. She was the first mammal successfully cloned through SCNT.

1998: Genetic Savings & Clone, a company/project intended to clone a pet dog, Missy, was created. The project would be known as the Missyplicity Project.

2000: The UK Home Office address pet cloning. In a written answer to Parliament, the Home Office said cloning a pet fell outside the permitted purposes of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.

2001: CC (CopyCat), the first cloned cat, is born from a cat named Rainbow. CC's coat markings differed from Rainbow's.

2001: "Six out of ten Americans said all animal cloning should be illegal."

2002: ViaGen was created in Austin, Texas.

2004: Little Nicky, the world's first commercial pet cat clone, was born on October 17th. He was cloned from Nicky by Genetic Savings & Clone, a California-based commercial pet cloning company. He cost $50,000.

2004: 84% of survey respondents for a 2004 Opinion Research Corporation national survey say that comapnies should not be allowed to genetically engineer and sell pet animals.

2005: Scientists in South Korea cloned Snuppy, the first cloned dog. 123 surrogate mothers were used to carry 1,095 implanted embryos.

2005: Assembly Member Lloyd Levine proposed AB 1428, "Cloned and Genetically Modified Pets." The bill proposed a ban on pet cloning and genetic engineering of pets in the state of California as well as the purchase or transfer of such pets into the state. It was struck down by the Committee. It was the first, and remains the only, proposed bill directly addressing pet cloning in the United States.

2006: CA AB 1428 died without being voted on by the Committee.

2006: Genetic Savings & Clone closed. The technology at that point in time was not commercially viable.

2007: Mira, the first clone of Missy, was born on December 5th. She was the world's first cloned family dog.

2008: South Korean companies such as RNL Bio allow Americans to clone their pets.

2014: A British pet owner won a competition to have her pet dog, Winnie, cloned in South Korea. This showed that UK pet owners could still have their pets cloned if they looked outside the UK.

2015: ViaGen launched ViaGen Pets.

2020: CC passed away at age 18.

2020: Mira, the first clone of Missy, died at age 12.

2022: Researchers published observations from their first 1,000 cloned puppies.

2025: Colossal Biosciences, the largest cloning company in the United States, acquired ViaGen.