In retirement, Tom Brady, the former star quarterback, found what he called a “second chance.”
Mr. Brady revealed on Tuesday that his dog Junie is actually a clone of another dog he and his ex-wife, Gisele Bündchen, shared that died in late 2023.
Mr. Brady shared the details of the cloning on Tuesday in a news release issued by Colossal Biosciences announcing that it had acquired Viagen, a biotechnology company. Viagen owns the rights to the technology that was used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996. Mr. Brady, who is an investor in Colossal, said that he had worked with the company a “few years ago” and that the cloning process required a “simple blood draw” from the family’s elderly pit bull mix, Lua, before she died.
“In a few short months, Colossal gave my family a second chance with a clone of our beloved dog,” Mr. Brady said.
Wait, you can clone a pet?
Scientists had long believed that mature cells, like heart cells or kidney cells, had specific functions and couldn’t be reprogrammed. But in the 1990s, a team of Scottish researchers cloned a sheep by taking a cell from its mammary gland; removing its nucleus, which contained the cell’s genetic material; implanting this nucleus into an empty egg cell; and spurring the cell to start dividing.
The scientists transferred the resulting embryo into a surrogate, which led to the birth of Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, in July 1996.
In the nearly three decades since, dozens of animals have been cloned using the same basic principles. In 2005, South Korean researchers announced that they had cloned a dog for the first time.
Barbra Streisand and Paris Hilton, among others, have done it.
Viagen has cloned dogs for Paris Hilton, who also is an investor in Colossal, and Barbra Streisand. In the release, the company said it had cloned 15 species, including a black-footed ferret and Przewalski’s horse, an endangered horse found in Mongolia. Earlier this year, Colossal said that it had produced three dire wolves, a wolf breed made famous by the HBO television series “Game of Thrones” that had been extinct for more than 10,000 years, as part of a process known as “de-extinction.”
It costs $1,600 to preserve a pet’s genetics, according to Viagen’s website. Cloning of dogs and cats cost $50,000. Ms. Streisand began the process of cloning her dog Samantha in the pet’s dying days, a loss she said she was “devastated” by.
“I just wanted to keep her with me in some way,” Streisand explained in a New York Times essay in 2018. “It was easier to let Sammie go if I knew I could keep some part of her alive, something that came from her DNA.”
Is it really the same animal?
Experts emphasize that cloning does not resurrect a personality; it only creates a genetic twin.
A dog’s behavior, for example, is determined by both nature and nurture. Experts say that even if Mr. Brady’s cloned dog physically resembles its predecessor, it might not bond with Mr. Brady in the same way, and certainly won’t remember any of their old routines or shared experiences.
In a 2022 study of 1,000 cloned dogs, scientists found that about 2 percent of cloning attempts led to a living puppy. While about 20 cloned dogs died shortly after birth, the researchers did not otherwise find any cases of premature death or increased disease rates.
The greatest risk in animal cloning, according to Samuel Gorovitz, a philosophy professor at Syracuse University who specializes in medical ethics, is “self-deception.”
“There’s no harm to the pet being cloned, nor is there initial harm to the resulting pet,” Professor Gorovitz said in an email. “But that new pet will not be the beloved prior pet. At best, it will be similar in important attributes.”
Critics say: Adopt instead.
The ethics of cloning have long proved fraught.
Supporters of cloning say the technology could pave the way for to help conserve endangered species.
“We believe cryopreservation and cloning are essential tools to preserve, revive and restore biodiversity,” Matt James, the chief animal officer at Colossal, said in Tuesday’s news release.
Some philosophers worry about the failed tries and miscarriages before one puppy is born, as well as treating life as a product — to be ordered again and again — rather than as a gift. There also are lingering concerns about cloned animals’ longevity and their risk of serious health problems.
Ms. Streisand’s decision to clone her dog in 2018 was met with criticism from animal rights groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which have cited ethical concerns and instances of animal cruelty.
“When you consider that millions of wonderful adoptable dogs are languishing in animal shelters every year or dying in terrifying ways when abandoned, you realize that cloning adds to the homeless-animal population crisis,” Ingrid Newkirk, then the group’s president, said in a statement at the time.
Lua, Mr. Brady’s previous dog, died in December 2023. She appeared on both Mr. Brady and Ms. Bündchen’s social media accounts. Lua also appeared in a 2014 commercial with Mr. Brady for the shoe brand Ugg. In a tribute on Instagram, Mr. Brady wrote, “We love you Lua, RIP.”
Sopan Deb is a Times reporter covering breaking news and culture.
Simar Bajaj covers health and wellness.
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