‘Harder to clone than dogs’: B.C. woman waits for cloned cat

There is no cat quite like Bear, that’s why a Kelowna woman has been going through the motions to have her beloved pet cloned.

Bear was a five-year-old ragdoll cat who was killed by a car, and Kris Stewart has been patiently waiting to get him back for the past year-and-a-half.

This week, Stewart learned the pet cloning company, Viagen Pets, did another embryo transfer into a surrogate cat.

“I was pretty happy, but I also know that I need to temper my joy with patience because cloning cats apparently does take some time. It's not uncommon to have multiple tries to make sure that the embryos can successfully grow into fetuses and become kittens,” she explained.

CTV News Vancouver first spoke with Stewart in Feb. 2022, when she first learned her Bear’s cells were viable and she began her journey to have him cloned.

Stewart has learned to manage her expectations because this will not be the first attempt.

She said Viagen Pets did an embryo transfer last summer and last fall – both were unsuccessful.

“This is the third time, so, you know, I'm optimistic, but I know to not be disappointed if it doesn't work again,” Stewart said. “Cats, apparently, are harder to clone than dogs and horses. So I just keep my patience.”

According to Viagen, a cloned pet is an identical twin that is born at a different time.

It said the process is like in-vitro fertilization: they make embryos in a dish and put them in a womb of a surrogate mother.

The company uses an egg from a donor animal and removes the nucleus, then adds the millions of cells from the pet’s biopsy.

“This egg and cells are fused together and that part is sort of the magic of cloning. The egg is essentially tricked into thinking that it's been fertilized by a sperm, but there's no sperm involved,” said Melain Rodriguez, client service manager, in an interview with CTV News in Feb. 2022.

Stewart said she’s had pets all her life but never came across one as unique as Bear.

“I've actually never had an animal as smart and with such a robust personality is Bear,” she said.

“So I just think an animal that smart that gave me so much joy should be replicated. And that's what cloning is.”

According to Viagen’s website, it costs US$50,000 to clone a cat or dog.

“Call me a poor money manager, but when it comes to the care and well-being of my pets, I just don't even put dollar signs in front of it."

This has been the first time in her life that she hasn’t had a pet and she doesn’t want another animal unless it’s Bear’s clones, she said.

She will learn if the transfer was successful and if the kittens have Bear’s genes in about eight weeks.