Korean firm gets order to clone American's pet dog

Seoul, South Korea - 2/15/08 - A California woman is paying a South Korean firm $150,000 to clone a pit bull terrier for her, using tissue from her dead pet, according to a published report.

RNL Bio received the order and is handling the business side of what will be the world's first commercial cloning of a dog, but the actual cloning process will be done at the Seoul National University, where a team created the world' first cloned dog, an Afghan hound, non-commercially in 2005.

An RNL Bio executive says he expects his firm to receive up to 500 cloning orders from pet owners in the United States and other countries in the next few years.

The pit bull's owner had refrigerated some of its ear tissue, cells which were extracted and inserted into eggs, which were then implanted in eight female dogs, the company says.