Science has come a long way since Dolly the sheep was cloned. almost 30 years ago. Today, the cloning pets It is increasingly common. The price of $50,000 is high, but it is within the reach of some wealthy people or those willing to take out a loan. Celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Barbra Streisand and, recently, Tom Brady have cloned their beloved pets.
The procedure is not so simple like putting the animal through a science fiction replicator machine.
“The process consists of remove viable eggs from the fallopian tubes” of the female to be cloned, explains Serpell, “A surrogate mother is then injected with hormones, the egg is implanted, and it is hoped that it will implant correctly.. Unfortunately, many of these embryos do not implant successfully, which is why many of the dogs abort and some of the puppies that are born have malformations and do not survive long.”
Although the process is usually not dangerous for the surrogate mother, it is likely to be unpleasant, as many women who have undergone IVF can attest. Besides, a 2022 study revealed that the success rate is only 16%although at least one company currently claims it is 80%.
A clone created through this process will likely look more like the original pet. than a random member of the same species, both in appearance and behavior. But their personalities probably don’t match. exactly.
One line of evidence comes from a 2025 study of cloned miniature pigs, which found that while some traits appear to be related to genetics, others vary between clones, meaning they are more determined by life experiences.
“Based on the minipigs, it seems that Some personality traits are quite consistent between clonesfor example, activity levels, while other traits, such as boldness, do not seem to be very consistent within clone lines,” explained Adam Reddon, co-author of the study and a member of Liverpool John Moores University, in England.
“All personality traits arise as an interaction between genetic background and environment that an animal experiences, but work with cloned minipigs suggests that some behaviors may be more determined by genetics than others.”
A 2017 study found that cloned puppies had more stable and predictable personalities over time than non-cloned puppies. When tested at two different ages, the cloned dogs tended to maintain the same general temperament, while the control dogs’ personalities changed more. The cloned puppies were especially consistent in traits related to how they interacted with people, responded to training, and managed stress and fear.
But, although their overall fear levels seemed to be quite similar, the way they acted when they were afraid was different. They also deviated in aspects of personality related to learning, experience, and changing social situations, such as curiosity (just like minipigs). Research has also found that the experiences of the dogs during their first year of life they influence their behavior and temperament later.
To have a better chance of finding a compatible personality, it may make sense to simply look for another animal that already looks very similar to the original, without needing to clone it. Instead of investing $50,000 in genetic replication, a future pet owner could search high and low for an animal that looks and behaves similarly, and may end up finding one that looks more like the original animal than a clone would have.
“It seems unlikely to me that the cloned pet has the same personality or even a similar one, given what we know about the importance of experience in the formation of personality,” say Reddon.
“There may be some trends with a stronger genetic basis to which the clone may be predisposed, But, in general, personality arises from the interaction between genes and experienceso shared genetics only represents part of the equation,” he adds.
