US vet clones beloved 13-year-old dog for $100k

New York, Nov. 20 (ANI): A veterinarian from Louisiana has spent 100,000 dollars to have his beloved 13-year-old blue tick hound cloned.

Dr. Clark Cooper of the Cooper Veterinarian Hospital in West Monroe, Louisiana took help from his colleagues and enlisted the help of two South Korea researchers for the cloning process.

"It's the most exciting thing I think we've done as a clinician," the New York Daily News quoted Cooper as telling Myarklamiss.com.

"He's the same personality, the same bark.

"It is strange to me to see a 13-year-old dog and then see him started over as a clone puppy," he said.

Cooper took tissues from Gator's ancestor and then extracted and preserved his DNA and then sent the samples to two scientists in South Korea.

"Everybody else is failing at it and these two guys actually made it happen," Cooper explained.

Cooper said the cloning was necessary not only to preserve his cherished pooch, but also to continue the family line.

"He's one of a few in a family line that we can't produce, so we won't be able to have any more if we can't reproduce him," Cooper said.

"It's really neat to say West Monroe, Louisiana, has a clone when the others are in California and Florida. A lot of things can be done here," he added. (ANI)