Toppy

Toppy (a portmanteau of "Tomorrow’s puppy")[1] is the name of the world's first cloned working dogs.[2] They are seven Labrador Retriever clones, and they were born in late 2007 to three surrogate mothers.[1] The project cost ₩300 million, and was funded by the Government of South Korea;[1] it was led by Lee Byeong-chun, a former aide to Hwang Woo-suk, who fell from grace after his stem cell research turned out to be fabricated.[3]

Each Toppy is a clone of a successful sniffer dog in Canada;[4] they needed 16 months of training to qualify to work for the South Korean Customs Service.[4] Only 10-15% of dogs are genetically predisposed to being effective detection dogs.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Mostrous, Alexi (April 25, 2008). "Seven cloned sniffer dogs named Toppy begin training in South Korea". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
  2. ↑ "Cloned sniffer dogs begin duties". BBC News. 2009-07-19. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kim, Hyung-Jin (25 April 2008). "Cloned sniffer dogs go on show". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Peeples, Lynne (Jul 20, 2009). "Cloned dogs sniff out contraband in South Korea". Retrieved 31 August 2010.