Barbra Streisand and her pets
Barbra Streisand had social media abuzz after revealing in a recent interview that two of her three Coton de Tulear dogs are in fact clones of a dearly loved pet she used to own.
According to Variety, the iconic singer-actress’ pooches, Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett, were cloned using cells taken from the mouth and stomach of Samantha, who died in May last year at the age of 14.
“They have different personalities,” she related. “I’m waiting for them to get older so I can see if they have her brown eyes and seriousness.”
Her other pup, Miss Fanny, on the other hand, is a distant cousin of Samantha.
After the initial fascination about this tidbit, people wondered: How much does it cost to clone a pet?
A whole lot. A report by the New York Times said the Sooam Biotech laboratory in Korea charges up to $100,000 for the procedure. The cheaper—but not really—alternative is to have one’s pooch cloned in the Texas-based ViaGen for $50,000.—ALLAN POLICARPIO