Testimonials posted on GSC's Web site suggest that sometimes clients believe their clone is a carbon copy of their old pet.
According to GSC, Dan, a forty-something investment adviser, wrote in an e-mail on receiving his cloned kitten, Little Gizmo, last year: "She is exact, exact, exact in all of her mannerisms, habits, traits and personality."
It is the kind of comment that could mislead potential clients into thinking cloning will resurrect their pet rather than replace it with a genetic copy, according to Bruce Whitelaw, a cloning expert at the Roslin Institute. "If it sits on your old cat's favorite pillow watching TV -- well if you put the pillow out and encourage the cat to sit on it, it probably will," he said.
Kraemer, of the original Texas team behind Cc, says research into cloned pigs in which their characters were assessed compared with an age-matched group of non-related pigs, showed the spread in behavioral differences was as great among clones as among other pigs.
Most of GSC's clients, numbered in the hundreds rather than thousands, come from the US. Part of the reason is that the scientists in GSC's lab must receive tissue samples within five days, and they must be taken quickly if the pet has just died. The company sends out the equivalent of a coolbox to a nearby veterinary surgeon who takes the samples.
Another hurdle to foreign clients is that many countries have laws prohibiting the import of animals unless they have received injections for diseases such as rabies.
Carlson says the company is planning to overcome the logistical hurdles by extending the business overseas. Expanding the business to include dog cloning is high on the wishlist, but cloning is still notoriously tricky. The creation of Copycat by the Texas group took place after more than 70 failed attempts to get cloned embryos to lead to a successful pregnancy.
According to Kraemer, even with the lab of top scientists Sperling has gathered, profits are likely to be elusive.
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