At this point few dare to question a person’s love for their pets. The bond between animals and their human guardians is so strong that, for years, cloning the former has been a relatively common practice, at least among those who have access to it. The latest famous (and powerful) person who has resorted to this scientific letter is the former American football player Tom Brady (California, 48 years old), who, in a statement shared on Tuesday 4 November by the magazine Peoplerevealed that his dog June He is a clone of his deceased pet Lua. Brady thus enters the club of celebrity who wanted to somehow prolong the lives of the animals that were part of the family, led by the singer Barbra Streisand, the designer Diane von Fürstenberg, the entrepreneur Paris Hilton or the Argentine president Javier Milei.
Lua It was the dog that the athlete adopted with his ex-wife, the model Gisele Bündchen – from whom he divorced in 2022 – and their children and who he took care of until his death in December 2023. Subsequently, a very similar dog, a pitbull mix called Junehe became part of the family. Now Brady has revealed that the dog is not only similar to his first pet, but is totally identical: it is a clone made by the biotechnology company Colossal Biosciences, of which he is an investor and which is known, not only for its cloning techniques, but for having announced last April the controversial “desextinction” of the giant wolf.
The former NFL player’s statement coincides with the company’s announcement that it is acquiring ViaGen Pets and Equine, the company responsible for cloning Barbra Streisand and Paris Hilton’s dogs and which has access to technology from Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, known for cloning sheep. Dolly in the late 1990s, according to a ViaGen statement also collected by People.
Brady also explained that to get it June A blood sample was used Luacollected before his death. In her own words: “I love my pets. They mean everything to me and my family. A few years ago, I worked with Colossal and took advantage of their non-invasive cloning technology through a simple blood draw from our senior dog before he passed away.” According to him, this meant for his family “a second chance with a clone of our beloved dog”, and he said he was “excited about how Colossal technology and ViaGen together can help families who lose their beloved pets, while helping to save endangered species”.
In fact, ViaGen was the company in charge of the cloning SamanthaBarbra Streisand’s dog Coton de Tulear, who died in 2017, at the age of 14. It was a year later, in 2018, when the music diva revealed that she had ordered two clones, which led to the birth of her dogs Miss Scarlett AND Miss Viola— and that the process was carried out using cells from the mouth and stomach Samantha. As for Paris Hilton, the same company cloned her dog The diamond childdied in 2022 and from which two puppies were born.
Previously, in 2016, it was learned that New York-based Belgian fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg had also cloned her dog. Shannon, a Jack Russell Terrier. The seamstress and her billionaire ex-husband, Barry Diller, then paid 90,000 euros to a specialist, who created two puppies. On that occasion, the process was carried out by a Korean company that implanted the original animal’s DNA into two eggs.
But the most delusional chapter on the cloning of pets is that of Javier Milei. The Argentine president, who seems to reserve the best of his personality for his pets – “little four-legged children,” as he calls them – has been so misleading about the number of dogs he lives with – he appears in photos with four, but claims there are five – that no one is sure how many English mastiffs he has. Beyond the fact that the numbers don’t add up for some – who have therefore put the president’s mental health on the table – what is known is that the president also resorted to cloning to calm his pain. A biography about Milei signed by Juan Luis González and titled The crazy one He says his first dog, Conanwho died in 2017 and who, unable to assimilate him, contacted a laboratory to clone him and also began to speak to him through a medium. Below we report a fragment of an EL PAÍS interview with Milei in July 2023, when he was running for president, in which he seems to be the first to confirm this fact, even if he does not clarify it in the end:
— It’s true you’re having a telepathic conversation with Conan?
— Yes, they also say that my dogs are my advisors and they are fabulous, because look at everything I have achieved in terms of results.
—But then you talk to us Conan?
—What I do at home is my problem.
