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Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn when you read this story:<\/p>\n
With the announcement of Colossal Biosciences acquiring Viagen, a leader in pet cloning, former NFL quarterback Tom Brady announced that his own puppy, Junie, was a clone of a former pet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
While not the first time a celebrity has cloned a pet, the reveal sparked a discussion around the economics and ethics of the practice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
While cloned dogs (in genetics only, not in disposition) can be expected to live happy, healthy lives, the canine infrastructure required to make these dogs\u2014often for the super-wealthy\u2014has raised ethical concerns.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In 1996, scientists in Scotland introduced the world to the first clone mammal<\/a>\u2014a sheep named Dolly. The immensity of this scientific achievement was clear\u2014Dolly captured the attention of the world and even earned her creator, developmental biologist Ian Wilmut, a knighthood. But the moment also ushered in a cascade of moral questions. Two decades after this historic event, a majority of Americans remained skeptical of animal cloning<\/a>, according to Pew Research poll in 2017<\/a>, and that sentiment still holds in 2025<\/a>, according to a Gallup poll.<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course, debating the ethics of cloning sheep is one thing, but what about our beloved furry family members? This question came to a head in 2005<\/a>, when South Korean researchers finally succeeded in cloning a canine, an Afghan hound. Fast-forward two decades, and the pet cloning business is now in full swing\u2014and due to the laborious cloning process, it almost exclusively caters to the super-rich. Cloning a dog<\/a> costs an average of $50,000 (though, for you cat lovers out there, felines are 50 percent cheaper). When considering cloning your favorite pooch or, say, buying that much-needed family SUV, most people will opt for the latter.<\/p>\n Most\u2026 but not all.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Colossal Biosciences\u2014the company that claims to have brought dire wolves<\/a> back from extinction (a claim that has been hotly debated by scientists<\/a>)\u2014announced their acquisition of Viagen<\/a>, one of the leading pet cloning companies. Accompanying the announcement, former NFL quarterback Tom Brady<\/a> stated that Colossal had cloned his dog, Lua<\/a>, who died in 2023, to produce his new pooch, Junie.<\/p>\n \u201c[Colossal] gave my family a second chance with a clone of our beloved dog\u201d Brady said, according to The Guardian<\/em><\/a>. \u201c[I\u2019m] excited how Colossal and Viagen\u2019s tech together can help both families losing their beloved pets while helping to save endangered species<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n While Brady isn\u2019t the first celebrity to choose the cloning route\u2014Barbara Streisand revealed in 2018 that two of her three dogs (Miss Scarlet and Miss Violet) were cloned from a deceased pet<\/a>\u2014there are several reasons why critics question the practice of cloning.<\/p>\n The first is simply a numbers game. While cloning or using other forms of synthetic biology to save endangered species is in itself an intense subject of debate<\/a> (as highlighted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN), dogs are famously not<\/em> endangered\u2014far from it. More than 300,000 dogs were euthanized in 2024<\/a> in the U.S. alone, with some three million dogs entering shelters.<\/p>\n Because Brady\u2019s Junie is similar to Lua in genetics only<\/em>, they likely won\u2019t have identical personalities\u2014in other words, they\u2019ll be different dogs. Critics would likely argue that the money required to clone the pup could instead have been used to support existing dogs without homes through donations to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) or a local shelter.<\/p>\n Even if every existing dog in the world magically had a happy and healthy home, the process of creating these clones comes with some pretty serious implications. When those South Korean researchers created the world\u2019s first clone dog in 2005, they required the use of 1,095 eggs and 122 adult dogs before they succeeded. According to a more recent 2022 study<\/a> that analyzed 1,000 clone dogs, only two percent of cloning attempts produced a living puppy. The methodology has drawn criticism for its reliance on these surrogate<\/a> animals.<\/p>\n Cloning itself isn\u2019t necessarily an inherent evil. For example, scientists have worked tirelessly to clone the critically endangered black-footed ferret<\/u><\/a> in an effort to increase the gene pool and ultimately bring the species back from the brink, and it\u2019s an effort that\u2019s been largely successful.<\/p>\n