Britain's first cloned dog is born after west London cook wins competition

 
Tiny Winnie: Britain's first cloned dog has been born after a £60,000 test tube procedure
Standard Reporter11 April 2014

A cook from west London owns Britain's first cloned dog after winning a competition for the £60,000 procedure.

The dachshund puppy, named Winnie, was born in Seoul, South Africa, at the end of last month following a competition advertised in the UK offering the test tube procedure free of charge.

Channel 4 is set to screen a documentary tonight following the experiement.

Beloved pet: Rebecca Smith holding Winnie (Picture: Channel 4/PA Wire)

The pooch was copied from a 12-year-old pet called Winnie, owned by Rebecca Smith.

Ms Smith, 29, told the programme she bought Winnie when she was 18-years-old and the pet helped her overcome bulimia.

Sooam Biotech, who carried out the procedure, have already cloned more than 500 dogs for owners around the world but Winnie is the first British dog to be cloned.

The Daily Mirror reported that a sample of Winnie's tissue was taken and stored in liquid nitrogen before being transported to South Korea.

In Seoul, her cells were put into eggs from a donor dog of the same breed and a cloned embryo was created. The embryo was implanted into a surrogate dog and the cloned puppy was born later by caesarean section.

Mini Winnie: the puppy with surrogate mum (Picture: Channel 4/PA Wire)

It comes after researchers researchers at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh produced Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult in 1996.

Professor Sir Ian Wilmut, who led the Dolly team, told Channel 4 owners of cloned pets may be disappointed.

He said: “"I think that the owners might be disappointed - so much of the personality of a dog probably comes from the way that you treat it," he said.

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"I think that you would treat a cloned dog, particularly if you had spent 100,000 dollars, differently, so the dog would be different.

"I am sufficiently sceptical that I personally would not have a dog cloned."

Elaine Pendlebury, senior veterinary surgeon for the PDSA charity, said in a statement that they believed cloning was "not an appropriate way" to deal with the loss of a pet.

Cloned pup: the tiny dachshund has been nicknamed Minnie Winnie (Pictures: Channel 4/PA Wire)

She said: "It is important to remember that manipulating identical DNA does not lead to an identical pet. A cloned pet may look the same but their personality will be different because personality develops through life experiences, including training and socialisation.”

The £60,000 Puppy: Cloning Man's Best Friend will be shown on Channel 4 at 10pm tonight

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