James Symington with Trakr's clones
James Symington, a former police officer, has so many memories. He and his partner, Trakr, spent 15 years together as a search-and-rescue team.
Trakr helped recover more than $1 million in stolen goods. He was also the dog who found the last survivor of the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center.
Trakr died in April at age 16. But before that, Symington heard about a contest to provide a free dog cloning. The company holding the contest, BioArts International, usually charges around $140,000 to clone a dog. (DogBlog wrote in January about a couple who cloned their favorite dog.)
Symington submitted an essay to the contest, explaining why Trakr deserved to win. On Wednesday, he took home five clones of his beloved dog. The puppies are named Trustt, Valor, Solace, Prodigy and Deja Vu.
There’s no telling if Trakr’s clones will be anything like him, but Symington hopes they’ll have careers that contribute as much as Trakr’s did.
Great blog! Cloning is definitely a complicated issue, and when it involves something as near and dear to many of us such as our dogs, it gets even more complicated. What do some other people think about cloning? Should it be allowed, and is it morally right?
Great post! I hope that those five cloned dogs will also be as good and famous as Trakr.