What a time to be alive - and maybe alive again.
According to news reports, former NFL player Tom Brady's dog is a clone of the previous family dog. The new puppy is a genetic twin of a pitbull mix who passed away in 2023. The clone was created by Colossal Biosciences, a Texas-based biotech company that Brady has invested in. Colossal is also engaged in audacious projects to de-extinct the dodo bird and the woolly mammoth, and has now acquired another firm that cloned pets for other celebrities.
Note: not the dog in question. Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash
Cloning stories are not my usual fare, but this one struck me because there is an obvious tech connection here. I am also a dog owner and lover, and it raises some questions for me which I frankly hadn’t considered before. What does it mean to love a pet so much you would pay a fortune to bring it back? And what are the hidden costs, not in dollars but in ethics, of doing so?
I also think we are going to be hearing a lot more about Colossal…
Colossal — the company behind the clones
Let’s take a look at Colossal Biosciences. Founded in 2021 by entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church, Colossal is explicit about their mission: “de-extinction”. That is, to use advanced gene-editing technology like CRISPR to bring back extinct species.
Their headline-grabbing projects are the stuff of science fiction and they have pulled together a group of scientists who have the talent to give the project a decent crack. For instance, the company is actively working to create a “functional” woolly mammoth by editing the genes of its closest living relative, the Asian elephant. They aim to introduce traits like a shaggy coat and layers of fat for cold resistance, and eventually re-introduce these proxy-mammoths into the Arctic tundra. They have similar de-extinction programs for the dodo bird and the thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger.
The question, of course, is: is the tech working? The company has announced successes, including generating the first elephant-induced stem cells which are crucial for this research. Last year, they claimed the birth of three cloned dire wolf pups, though this has been met with scepticism. They did also develop a vaccine for EEHV, a deadly virus that kills young Asian elephants in captivity.
Celebrities, venture capitalists and… others
A company this ambitious needs deep pockets. Colossal has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from a very diverse group of investors. The list includes venture capital firms like Draper Associates, celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Chris Hemsworth, filmmaker Peter Jackson, self-help guru Tony Robbins and many others. Oh, and Tom Brady. They have also been funded by a certain venture capital firm which is funded by a certain American intelligence agency… but that’s enough about that!
Anyway, the scale-up is on: Colossal’s recent M&A activity signals a major move. It brings together their genetic “de-extinction” tech with a commercial, direct-to-consumer business. Viagen is the company that famously cloned Barbra Streisand’s dog into two new pups several years ago. For a reported price tag of USD 50,000 for a dog or cat, Viagen offers genetic preservation and cloning services, allowing grieving pet owners to, in a sense, get their companion back…?
The moral quagmire of a second chance
This brings us back to Brady’s dog and the questions it raises for someone like me. Brady said in a statement that Junie is “not a scientific experiment, but part of our family”. As a dog lover, I understand the profound grief of losing a pet. The desire to see that familiar face again, to hold on to that unique bond, is very powerful. This tech speaks directly to a very human desire to defy mortality and extend the life of those we love.
But we are on shaky moral ground here. Pet cloning is inefficient and fraught with ethical problems. To create one successful clone, many embryos must be created and implanted into surrogate mothers. These surrogates undergo invasive hormone treatments and surgical procedures, and the failure rate is high. Pregnancies can be difficult and can be fatal for the surrogate. On top of that, the clones themselves can suffer major health defects. Critics of the practice, which include bioethicists and animal welfare groups, make two powerful arguments: first, is it ethical to subject numerous animals to suffering and potential death for the nonessential benefit of one person’s desire? Second, in a world where millions of healthy, loving dogs and cats are euthanised in shelters every year, is it a justifiable use of resources to spend $50,000 creating a new one?
Yeesh.
Nature or nurture?
Then there’s the elephant (or woolly mammoth!) in the room… are you even getting the same dog back? The clone is a genetic twin, like an identical twin born at a later date. It will look the same, but it will not have the same personality, the same memories or the same spirit. The original dog’s personality was shaped by her unique life experiences. The new do will have its own. The hope of resurrecting a lost friend may be an illusion. What you get instead is a lookalike that may only serve as a constant reminder of the original.
The news about Tom Brady's dog has certainly opened a confronting new chapter in our relationship with technology and our pets. It shows that the sci-fi future of cloning is already here, available to those who can afford it. It forces dog owners like me to ask a difficult question: how far would we go to hold on, and what is the real cost of never letting go?
