Some spend big bucks on pet cloning. CBS News New York investigates the industry.

NEW YORK — When a Long Island man lost his beloved dog “Princess,” he decided to clone her.

With thousands of dollars, you could do the same — but should you? Right now, there’s only one company in the U.S. that is cloning pets commercially and it says business is booming.

CBS News New York Investigates looked into the regulations and other factors.

The story of “Princess” the stray

“She had a special thing about her that, you know, touched my heart,” John Mendola said.

In 2006, a scruffy dog was abandoned at a police precinct in Queens. Then-Officer Mendola named her “Princess’ and took her home.

“She was a stray. They’re a little special. It’s like they appreciate it, like they know, you know, that you tried to help them,” Mendola said.

Princess comforted Mendola’s dad as he battled cancer, but years later, she got sick, too, and died in March of 2017.

“She just didn’t want to leave me,” Mendola said. “I just kept telling her, ‘I love you,’ you know?,” adding, “‘I always will, and … it’s okay.'”

But, he wasn’t okay.

“Worth every penny”

The following year, at LaGuardia Airport, Mendola got a special delivery, “Princess Jasmine” and “Princess Ariel.”

“Genetic copy of the original Princess,” Mendola said.

Mendola paid $1,600 for genetic preservation. Before Princess died, the vet collected a piece of her skin and sent that live tissue to ViaGen Pets, a company in Cedar Park, Texas, which froze Princess’ cells until Mendola decided to clone her.

“I paid $40,000 for this, because there was a special,” Mendola said, adding it took several years to put the money away.

He said sold his car, and slashed his spending.

“Worth every penny. Worth every penny,” Mendola said.

“It does seem a little crazy”

The Animal Care Center’s Katy Hansen is against pet cloning.

“It does seem a little crazy,” she said.

She showed CBS News New York Investigates crate after crate, dozens of dogs in the city, waiting for a home. Hansen wants people to adopt and is also concerned that cloning, a process around since 1996, puts other animals in distress.

Dolly, a 7-month-old lamb, was the first clone to be created from another adult. However, decades after Dolly, cloning remains controversial. First, an egg is taken from a donor. Its nucleus is replaced with one frozen cell from your pet. The embryo starts in a dish and then gets transferred to a surrogate.

“There’s sort of an ethical dilemma to that, too, because then you have to impregnate another dog,” Hansen said.

PETA and the ASPCA are also not fans of pet cloning. They sent the following statements to CBS News New York Investigates:

“We all wish our beloved animal companions would live forever, but while cloning may sound like a good idea, it doesn’t achieve that. Instead, it creates a new and different animal who has only the physical characteristics of the original. Animals’ personalities, quirks, and very ‘essence’ simply cannot be replicated, and when you consider that millions of wonderful adoptable dogs and cats are stuck in animal shelters every year or are dying in terrifying ways when abandoned, you realize that cloning adds to the misery of the homeless-animal population crisis. And because cloning has a high failure rate, many animals are caged and harmed for every birth that actually occurs, so that’s not fair to them, despite the best intentions,” PETA said.

“The ASPCA calls for a moratorium on the research, promotion and sale of cloned and bioengineered pets. During the moratorium, a multidisciplinary commission should be established to evaluate the manner in which the work has proceeded, the regulations and oversight required to protect the safety of human and nonhuman animals, and the ethical consequences of continuing this work. The commission should include representatives from industry, academic scientists, animal welfare professionals, veterinarians and bioethicists. They should have access to all available and appropriate data on the procedures employed and the medical records of both animals used in the creation of cloned and bioengineered pets and of any pets who have been created. The report of this commission should then be used to develop guidelines, regulations and restrictions as appropriate to govern work in this area,” the ASPCA said.

ViaGen Pets

CBS News New York Investigates spoke to Melain Rodriguez, a client service manager for ViaGen Pets, and asked how many pregnancies the surrogates can have.

“So the surrogates are limited to being surrogates only two times,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez, who started as a lab tech, said, on average, it takes several embryo transfers to produce a clone now, not hundreds like before. The company said the cloning process takes roughly 120 days, including the gestation and nursing processes.

“We do want the surrogate mothers, all the animals involved, to be happy and healthy and well taken care of, and they are,” Rodriguez said.

The USDA is charged with regulation. CBS News New York Investigates pulled available inspection reports and found since 2019, ViaGen Pets has been in compliance with all animal welfare rules.

Since 2015, ViaGen Pets has cloned more than 1,000 dogs and cats. The company told CBS News New York Investigates 90% of its business is genetic preservation, people saving the cells just in case.

Mendola said he visited the facility before cloning Princess.

“I feel like it’s her, but … you know, is it? Yeah, probably is,” Mendola said.

The stray he loved multiplied.

“I don’t know what’s happening. They, they love their bag,” Mendola said of the crate the dogs arrived in that day at the airport.

“It’s not just a bag. This is the bag that they came home with, that they came back to me with, right?” Mendola said.

If you are looking to adopt a dog, please check out the Animal Care Center of NYC and the Humane Society of New York.