What to do when your beloved cat ages or the family dog becomes sick? In China, biotech companies are offering to produce a genetically identical pet. Visiting people who don’t want to accept that the lives of their companions should be finite.
Zhao Minghui jumps up frantically, even though he had only just sat down. Muttering apologies, the chief veterinarian of the Chinese biotech company Pangene leaves the meeting room he had entered less than two minutes earlier. Shortly afterwards he shows up wearing a blue surgical mask. To explain, Zhao points to the cat that is wandering around the room. “Allergy,” he says. “Pretty pronounced. I can’t breathe when I inhale the hair.”
Not the best prerequisite for someone who clones pets for a living.