A Double-Dog Dare: Couple Spends $155K to Clone Their Dog

As a dog owner and dog-lover, I completely understand how people can get attached to their pets. And having lost a beloved pet, I empathize with the grief people feel when it's time to say a final goodbye to that friend and companion. No other dog can ever take the place of the one that's gone on. Or can it?

Edgar and Nina Otto certainly think so. They shelled out $155,000 to have their Labrador retriever, Lancelot, cloned. The puppy they call "Lancelot Encore" looks and acts just like his predecessor, albeit a little younger.

Several years ago the Ottos had Lancelot's DNA frozen. Then last June, six months after Lancelot died of cancer, they heard of BioArts International. The northern California biotech firm was holding a dog-cloning auction. So they decided to put in their bid--and won. BioArts teamed up with Dr. Hwang S. Woo-Suk, from the South Korean biotech firm Sooam, to make a copy of the Ottos' pet. Lancelot's DNA was inserted in an egg and implanted in a Korean dog, and several months later Lancelot Encore was born. After the puppy was weaned from the birth mother, he was flown from Korea to San Francisco, and then to Miami, where he was united--or would that be reunited?--with his anxious parents.

Their reaction? "He came out of the chute and he actually ran to us, so it was amazing," Nina Otto told Al Roker of "TODAY". "He looked just like my original Lancelot, so I was thrilled. I had been getting updates and pictures over the past 10 weeks, but the real thing is what I wanted to see." And what about when they got him home, where the Ottos also tend to their nine other dogs, along with ten cats, six sheep, and four birds. "This morning, when the pack runs from the bedroom into the kitchen, he led the pack, which the old Lancelot did," Edgar told Roker. "This is a puppy, 10 weeks old, and he led the pack!" His wife added, "We noticed that he bonded immediately, within an hour, with every other pet in the house."

The publicity has provided some negative feedback. Dr. Sara Pizano, from Miami-Dade County's animal services department, was quoted in the Miami Herald as saying "we could do spays and neuters for six months" on what the Ottos paid for their carbon-copy dog. Edgar noted that it's not like the family is hurting financially; after all, his father Edward co-founded NASCAR, and Edgar started a successful medical company. However, he pointed out that his family does donate substantial sums of money to the local Humane Society, and that if the couple decides to bring another dog into the family it would be a rescue animal. As to Lancelot Encore, he commented, "But we feel it is worth it."