Pet cloning cryonics: what cloning can, and can’t, do for pets

Cloning gives you a genetic twin of your pet, not a revived version of it. The process takes DNA from your animal, moves it into a donor egg from a cat or dog of the matching species, and a surrogate mother then carries the embryo. It’s the same basic method behind Dolly the sheep, and it has since worked in cattle, horses, ferrets, cats and dogs.

In the US, the best-known provider is Viagen Pets in Texas, which charges $50,000 per cat or dog. Viagen was bought last year by Colossal Biosciences, the Texas company known for its disputed claim to have brought back dire wolves. Its own marketing pitches cloning as a way to hold on to a pet you’ve lost.

There’s a hidden cost in animal welfare, too. Many cloned embryos never implant, some surrogate dogs miscarry, and some puppies are born with defects and die young. A 2022 study put the success rate at no more than 16 percent, though at least one company claims 80 percent.

Partly, at best. The small amount of research so far suggests a clone tends to match its original on broad temperament, such as how active or sociable it is, but differs on traits shaped by learning and life experience.

A 2017 study of cloned puppies found their temperament stayed steadier over time than that of ordinary puppies, especially in how they dealt with people, training and stress. Yet they still reacted differently when frightened, and they varied in curiosity. A 2025 study of cloned miniature pigs found the same split: activity levels lined up across clones, but boldness did not.

James Serpell, an animal welfare ethicist and emeritus professor at the University of Pennsylvania, compares clones to identical twins. They start with the same DNA, but by adulthood they are different individuals with their own preferences. In his view, cloning firms are trying to sell the return of the original pet, and they can’t deliver that.

Cryonics is the most hopeful and least likely option. A small number of companies will cool a dead pet to extremely low temperatures and keep it stored, possibly forever, on the bet that future medicine will both revive it and cure whatever killed it.

Alcor, a cryonics facility in Arizona, holds the remains of hundreds of pets alongside human clients. It recently said it had frozen its first pet sugar glider, a small marsupial. But even people who work in cryonics accept that stored animals and people are unlikely ever to be brought back. Right now there is no method to truly revive any animal after death.

That’s why some critics worry less about the money and more about the message. A pet’s death is often the first loss a child goes through. Treating death as something a lab might undo, or a pet as something a company can replace, could make that lesson harder to learn.

The one option with real momentum is medicine to keep pets healthy longer. Loyal, a US startup, is developing three drugs meant to extend dogs’ lives, and its lead pill, LOY-002, is the furthest along.

LOY-002 is a daily, beef-flavored pill for dogs aged 10 and up that weigh more than 14 pounds. It targets insulin resistance, which the company links to faster aging in senior dogs. The FDA has accepted Loyal’s efficacy data, meaning it found the drug reasonably likely to work, and earlier this year it accepted the safety section too, based on data from more than 400 dogs. Loyal’s other two drugs, LOY-001 and LOY-003, are aimed at large breeds, which tend to die younger; in mid-September Loyal said LOY-003 had also cleared the efficacy step.

Acceptance isn’t approval. Loyal still has to submit the manufacturing part of its application, which it plans to do in 2027, before it can seek conditional approval. Its main trial, the STAY study, is following about 1,300 dogs at 70 clinics, half on the pill and half on a placebo. The company has pointed to a price of about $100 a month if it reaches the market.

Other companies are testing dog drugs for age-linked conditions such as obesity and osteoarthritis, and at least one is working on longevity medicine for cats.

Think about what you actually want. If it’s more healthy years with the pet you have now, keep an eye on the longevity drugs and ask your vet whether your older dog would qualify once one is approved. Nothing is on pharmacy shelves yet.

If it’s your old pet back, cloning and cryonics can’t deliver that. A clone is a new animal with its own life ahead of it, and cryonics is a payment toward a future technology that may never exist.

The grief itself is real either way. Lori Kogan, a Colorado State University professor who studies the bond between people and animals, notes that society has funerals and time off for human loss but few rituals for pets, so owners often grieve without recognition. If cloning brings someone peace, she asks, “who are we to judge?”