Stars aren’t always just like us… sometimes they clone their dead pets.
Barbra Streisand and Paris Hilton cloned their dogs, and now this Hollywood trend is making more headlines after Tom Brady cloned his beloved pooch Lua.
Lua died in 2023, and now Tom is the proud owner of her duplicate Junie.
“Extra” caught up with Matt James, the Chief Animal Officer of Colossal, the biotech company that cloned Tom’s dog. Brady even invested in the enterprise that’s working to bring back extinct species.
Matt insisted, “We’re not creating an exact copy of the animal that you lost.”
He went on to explain the process of how Junie was made, saying, “We can take skin cells or blood cells… take the nucleus, put it in the egg, that fertilizes the egg and creates an embryo. That embryo is then moved into a surrogate who gestates that for 63 days and 63 days later you have this beautiful puppy Junie born.”
As for the cost, James shared, “It’s about $50,000. It’s not a cheap endeavor, because it is cutting edge technology.”
James also spoke about bringing back extinct species, saying, “Last April we announced to the world that we brought the first species back from extinction. The dire wolf went extinct 12,500 years ago. In October 2024, two dire wolves entered the world for the first time in more than 12,000 years.”
Streisand cloned her deceased dog twice, but told ITV they may look like her late little Sammie but they are different.
“The soul cannot be cloned, even the personality,” she said. “They look exactly like Sammie.”
Barbra Streisand’s Surprising Cloning Revelation About Her Late Dog
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“Extra’s” Terri Seymour recently spoke with Kathy Hilton about daughter Paris’ cloned dogs. She approves, but isn’t planning on cloning her own pets for the time being.
Kathy said, “It’s very expensive, I know that, so I think eventually when the price comes down a little bit I would love to.”
As for the ethics involved, “Extra” spoke with Dr. Arthur Caplan, from the Division of Medical Ethics NYU Grossman School of Medicine, who says there are major issues with cloning pets.
“Cloning is not Xeroxing,” he said. “You don’t get the same animal back.”
He insisted, “There are so many animals… that need homes,” adding, “I think you would be better off in a world overwhelmed with pets, many being put to death, to give another animal a chance.”
