Home News Columnists Ken Oxley

Labrador clone plan’s barking mad

Feb 1 2009 by Ken Oxley, Sunday Sun

SOME people really do have more money than sense, and I’m not just talking about overpaid BBC celebrities.

Take Ed and Nina Otto, of Florida. They look normal, but they’ve just spent £108,000 to clone their dead labrador, Lancelot.

Obviously, I realise people get attached to their pets. Look at Rod Hull and Emu.

But labradors are, well, labradors. They all look the same anyway, don’t they?

And besides, surely the original Lancelot cannot be replaced . . . not even with a clone. The dog may have the same genetic make- up as its predecessor, but an entirely different set of life experiences will ensure that it grows up an individual that, in all likelihood, will have little in common with its body double.

It’s their money, I guess. But in the midst of a global credit crunch, I find it irritating in the extreme to read about people as divorced from reality as the Ottos so clearly are.

Incidentally, the new mutt is also called Lancelot, though I suspect it might get nicknamed Costalot.

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