A cute puppy is natural front-page fodder, as the birth of Britain’s first cloned puppy last week proved. When it was announced that Rebecca Smith, from London, had won a competition to clone her miniature dachshund, Winnie – and that the procedure had been successful – the papers were full of puppy pics.
The science of cloning isn’t ground breaking; we’ve all heard about Dolly the sheep, and the world’s first cloned dog, Snuppy, was born in 2005. So why was there such a fuss about the latest puppy – and why is cloning a dog so different from cloning any other animal? They already clone horses. In fact, in some equine disciplines, cloning is becoming a major industry. Well, if you can afford it, that is. In 2013 it was announced that Tamarillo, an eventer who won both Badminton and Burghley with William Fox Pitt, had been cloned at a reported cost of £104,000.
When it comes to polo, it’s done on a different scale; Adolfo Cambiaso – considered by most to be the best player in the world – has had around 100 clones of his favourite horses created, and in December won the Argentine Open (polo’s equivalent of the World Cup) playing on a pony from his cloned string.
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