A market for keeping pets alive

Biotech companies are developing drugs to extend pet lifespans. Loyal is trialing a longevity drug designed to improve metabolic health in around one thousand three hundred pet dogs across the US.

What the longevity drugs target

The drugs aim to combat age-related diseases including obesity and osteoarthritis, and aging itself. There is even a company focused on longevity medicines for domesticated cats.

Cloning offers a genetic twin

Pet cloning involves taking a pet's DNA, putting it into an egg cell from another animal, and growing the embryo in a surrogate.

Cloning does not create replicas

Cloning produces a genetic twin, not an exact replica of the animal. Viagen explicitly offers customers on its website a way to hold on to their pet.

“a way to hold on”

The case for cloning pets

Lori Kogan, a professor of clinical sciences at Colorado State University who has studied human-animal relationships for decades, says pet owners experience disenfranchised grief. If cloning brings peace, she asks, who are we to judge?

“who are we to judge?”

Cryonics promises future revival

Pet cryonics companies cool dead pets to extremely low temperatures and store them indefinitely, betting that future technology will revive them and cure their illness.

Cryonics chances are near zero

Even those working in cryonics acknowledge that stored animals are unlikely to be reanimated. There is currently no way to truly bring any animal back to life.

Death as a formative experience

Pet loss in childhood is often a child's first confrontation with death.Losing a pet can be distressing but formative, helping prepare children for losses in adulthood.Cloning and cryonics risk teaching that death is not final.