Pet Insurance

A client was talking with me there other day about how one would go about getting pet insurance for a cloned pet. I told him that pet insurance for a cloned pet wouldn't be a problem since there aren't any cloned pets on the market. He laughed and sent me the following article. It turns out that there are in fact cloned pets as you will see below. Three years after scientists in a Texas laboratory successfully cloned the first house cat; a company in California is now selling that same technology to pet owners who want a carbon copy of their cat or dog. For $50,000 Genetics Savings & Clone can take a cat's DNA and create an exact genetic duplicate. They hope to do the same with a dog next year. So far they have five clients who soon will be among the first owners of the newest type of kitten: a clone. GSC, the first company to commercially offer pet cloning, has already successfully cloned three cats of its own. Three kittens just made their debut last month at a Manhattan cat show. Its third clone appeared last weekend at the Cat Fanciers' Association Cat Show in Houston. What was once the stuff of science fiction movies or reserved for sheep, pigs, cattle, or laboratory mice has already attracted hundreds of pet owners to pay GSC as much as $1,395 to have their cat's and dog's tissue frozen. Although scientists say pet cloning will always be a niche market, there may be enough interest in America's 76 million households with pets, to eventually turn this into a viable business. The founder of the Apollo Group wanted to clone his adopted mutt because she had an "outstanding character." He ended up spending $3.7 million to fund the Missyplicity Project at Texas A&M University. The project eventually cloned the first cat, CC (diminutive of Copy Cat) in December 2001. But cloning a dog proved much too difficult then because of the unique characteristics of the canine's physiology, but GSC hopes that they'll be able to offer the service next year.