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  • He's very happy.

  • He really loves his puppy.

  • This googly eyed five month old pug is named Ma Moan.

  • And for now she's living amongst dozens of other newborn puppies, but these aren't your standard run of the mill puppies.

  • They don't know it but Ma Moan and each of her puppy companions are clones for 16 years.

  • Mr Fukuda was the proud owner of another pug named Mako.

  • The two were inseparable when Momoka recently died, Mr Fukuda wanted to bring her back.

  • So we turned to a company called Sua to recreate her.

  • Currently, we've cloned more than 600 dogs of various different breeds and there are no particular limitations to the different breeds.

  • Suan claims it can clone any dog no matter the age size or breed.

  • We recently visited South Korea to see for ourselves first for you to even consider getting your dog cloned.

  • You need $100,000.

  • Also, the dog you wanna clone has to be either alive or dead for fewer than five days.

  • If you want to clone your dead dog, you have to first wrap its entire body with wet towels and then keep it cool by placing it in the refrigerator, you can't freeze it.

  • All of this may seem a bit odd but sum needs live skin cells in order to clone your dog, this process prevents the skin on your dead dog from drying out or freezing.

  • And it gives Suan the highest chance of finding preserved skin cells.

  • Next, you need to take your dog to the vet and get a biopsy sample.

  • Using a tool called a biopsy punch.

  • Your veterinarian will cut out an eight millimeter wide sample of flesh from the abdominal area of the dog.

  • If your dog is alive, just one sample is enough.

  • But if your dog is dead, you'll need to provide sum with as many samples as possible to increase the chances of finding live skin cells.

  • You then pack the sample with ice packs in a styrofoam box to keep it chilled and expedite it to su um which you can do so using normal shipping services like fedex.

  • And once the sample has passed through Korean customs, which can take an additional 2 to 3 days.

  • So um can finally get to work on cloning your dog first.

  • The sample is sterilized and cut into smaller pieces.

  • Then it's treated with a reagent and chemically dissociated, meaning the cells are separated from the tissue.

  • The sample is then placed in a centrifuge which allows the scientists to collect the cells and transfer them into a growth medium 1 to 2 weeks later.

  • So, um has the cells necessary for the cloning process.

  • Su um then goes to a laboratory animal provider where they rent two dogs, an egg donor and a surrogate mother.

  • Starting with the egg donor.

  • Doctors take the dog into an operating room where they sedate her, place her on the operating table, slice her open, pull out her ovaries and collect her eggs.

  • We have six from left over and six from right over.

  • Once the eggs are collected, a scientist places them under a microscope and uses a pipette to extract the nucleus.

  • If you see the shiny part, this is where the genetic material is.

  • Suwa is removing the DNA from the eggs.

  • As you can see, we can verify that all the genetic material has been taken out and by removing the DNA sum is creating genetically empty eggs, meaning the breed of the egg donor dog won't matter since none of its DNA will be passed on to the cloned puppy.

  • From here.

  • A swam scientist injects the cells taken from the biopsy sample of the original dog into the empty eggs.

  • Under normal circumstances, sperm is a necessary component for reproduction.

  • But in this cloning process, sperm is replaced by two things.

  • The cell from the original dog and a series of short electrical shocks from a machine called the electro cell manipulator.

  • The electrical currents from this machine activate and fuse together the membranes of the egg and cell creating a fertilized embryo.

  • After just one minute sum has a whole batch of cloned dog embryos to work with next.

  • So, um moves on to the second rental dog.

  • The surrogate mother back in the operating room, the doctors sedate the surrogate place her on the operating table, slice her open, pull out her ovaries and uterus and inject up to 15 cloned embryos into her uterus.

  • 30 days later, Suwa is able to verify the surrogate's pregnancy, which they say has about a 40% success rate.

  • If the procedure fails, they'll examine what went wrong and repeat the process using a different surrogate mother.

  • When a successful pregnancy is confirmed, it takes another 30 days for the surrogate mother to give birth during this time.

  • Suan will closely monitor the surrogate and check on the condition of her fetus when the cloned puppy is finally born, Su um will take care of the clone until the customer is able to bring their new pet home.

  • The facilities at Su um can house up to 50 dogs at a time.

  • Customers can either make the trip to Seoul to pick up their cloned pup or arrange to have a sum employee deliver their new pet directly to them.

  • They'll have to wait through a quarantine period though which varies from country to country.

  • Now, with the high cost of the procedure and invasive surgeries performed on the rental dogs, it's easy to see why dog cloning is controversial before Mr Fukuda.

  • There is no hesitation in his decision to bring back his dog.

  • Of course, while the cloned puppy might look exactly like the original dog, its personality will be shaped by the environment it's raised in.

  • In other words, a cloned puppy might not behave like the original dog.

  • Bye bye.

  • In any case, there is now an alternative to life without your beloved dog.

  • Just not a cheap or ethically uncomplicated one.

He's very happy.

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