Couple branded 'selfish' for spending £70,000 cloning their dead dog (original) (raw)

Laura Jacques and Richard Remede were distraught after losing their dog Dylan but instead of considering rescue dogs they chose the extremely expensive option

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This Morning: Couple who spent £70,000 cloning their dead dog branded 'selfish'

A couple who decided to splash out £70,000 to clone their beloved dead dog have been blasted as 'selfish'.

Laura Jacques and Richard Remede were distraught after losing their dog Dylan so they sent cells from his body to the South Korean Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul where his DNA was extracted to produce two identical puppies.

But their expensive choice was met with angry backlash from viewers watching their This Morning interview, along with their two puppies Chance and Shadow, as they slammed the couple for not considering other options lie adopting a pet.

"Totally against cloning a dead pet dog, when there are so many in shelters & pounds in need of a good home!" fumed one viewer.

Laura Jacques and Richard Remede were distraught after losing their dog Dylan (

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They spent £70,000 (

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One of the puppies created from cloning (

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Another said: "70k to clone their old dog...when there are THOUSANDS of dogs that need rescuing every single day. Stupid people. # thismorning"

"So spend ££££££s on cloning your dead dog, instead of rehoming dogs who desperately need a home? F***ing selfish # thismorning #AdoptDontShop"

Presenters Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, who have their own rescue dog Maggie, questioned if the couple were "a bit selfish" for not considering rehoming a pup.

"A lot of the dog charities will say there are so many dogs waiting to find their forever home and some people will say 'isn't it a bit selfish?' or you could have adopted, probably a boxer if you looked hard enough," Ruth asked.

Ruth and Eamonn questioned why they didn't adopt (

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The couple explained the differences (

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Laura claimed that she had tried "tens of tens of times" but had been rejected for unknown reasons.

"We weren't actually planning on getting another dog. We do have these four extra dogs. It's not like we've got all these spaces for rescue dogs.

"The main reason we went ahead with the cloning is because we tried to freeze Dylan's cells and they were too weak, so we went ahead with the cloning not thinking it would work because it's never worked before in the world at the time."

Scientists made history (

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ITV)

Scientists made history when they cloned Dylan from dead tissue after the animal had been stored in a chest freezer.

Dylan's DNA was implanted into a blank egg, which was then given electric shocks to trigger cell division and eventually implanted into a surrogate dog.

The animal-loving couple, from Silsden, West Yorkshire, were thrilled when they found out three months later that the surrogate mother was pregnant.

They made several trips to South Korea, including a special visit to see the puppies being born and to try and bond with them - all which counted towards the £70,000 figure.

* This Morning is on weekdays, ITV at 10.30am