Company Creates First Cloned Cat in China
Chinese company Sinogene has been cloning pets since 2015. However, the company is now the first in China to have successfully cloned a cat.
"Garlic" was more than just a pet to 22-year-old businessman Huang Yu. “In my heart, Garlic is irreplaceable,” Huang told The New York Times. So after Garlic passed away at the age of 2, he put the cat in his refrigerator.
“Garlic didn’t leave anything for future generations, so I could only choose to clone [him],” he said.
Huang then contacted Sinogene, based in Beijing. The cost to clone his pet was around $35,000. Sinogene began its work in August 2018, and Garlic's clone was born on July 21, 2019.
The Garlic clone isn't a perfect copy, however. For example, the new Garlic doesn't have a black mark on its chin like the first cat.
“If I tell you I wasn’t disappointed, then I would be lying to you,” Huang said. “But I’m also willing to accept that there are certain situations in which there are limitations to the technology.”
Currently, Sinogene can clone dogs, cats and horses. In the future, it also hopes to be able to clone endangered animals such as pandas.
Garlic is not the first cat to be cloned. The first cat was cloned at Texas A&M University on December 22, 2001. She was called CC, which stands for Copy Cat, and she even had her own kittens in 2006.
According to a 2018 report by CNBData, more than 73 million people in China own pets, and over two thirds of them have a cat or a dog.
