Where celebrities go to clone their pets
There's a nine-month waitlist.
Tom Brady’s newest dog, Junie, could pass for Lua, his pit bull mix who died in 2023. The chocolate coat, the white chest patch, even the expressive brows—it’s all there. But the NFL superstar didn’t just luck out with a lookalike dog. Junie is Lua’s genetic clone.
Brady is the latest celebrity, along with Barbra Streisand and Paris Hilton, to work with the biotech company Viagen to clone a beloved family pet. Viagen clones more than 100 pets a year, with the waitlist averaging about nine months, a company spokesperson told Tail Mail. Dogs, cats, and horses can be cloned, though dog owners are more frequently requesting the service.
The cloning process costs a cool $50,000 and begins with a tissue sample from the original dog or cat, which is used to create new cells. If viable, one of those cells is then fused with a donor egg to form an embryo, which is then implanted into a surrogate mother. The mother will later give birth to the cloned animal.