Much like Barbra Streisand, you too can clone your dog for $50,000

Hollywood actress and singer Barbra Streisand cloned two out of her three dogs, and if you have $50,000, you can do the same, the New York Times reported.

Interestingly, this story that was picked up by the daily was a ‘nugget’ in a 2,800-word article by Variety Magazine, where she spoke of topics such as sexism and politics.

In her interview, Streisand said that two of her three dogs had been cloned from the cells taken from the mouth and stomach of her dog Samantha, who died last year aged 14.

Since Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal cloned way back in 1996, a few animals have been cloned, mainly cattle, deer, horses, rabbits, rats, cats and dogs, with the first canine getting cloned way back in 2005.

By 2008, a California company had partnered with a South Korean laboratory and made plans to auction off chances to clone five dogs. Later that year, The New York Times reported that the first three puppies from the group had been born in South Korea.

Reports and information on ViaGen’s website suggest that the cloning process — specifically a dog’s pregnancy — usually takes about 60 days.

There have been several debates on the ethics regarding cloning of mammals and while human cloning hasn’t been legalized anywhere in the world, it’s only a matter of time before that becomes a reality as well.