This is from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Quote:
The demise of Genetic Savings and Clone was met with great joy by animal 
rights advocates, who were outraged by the whole operation. 
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Wednesday, October 11, 2006 
The Sausalito biotechnology company that charged a bereaved pet owner $50,000 
to clone her cat two years ago is going out of business, associates confirmed 
Tuesday. 
Genetic Savings and Clone is not accepting new orders for clones because the 
company was "unable to develop the technology to the point that cloning pets 
is commercially viable," according to a letter sent out to its clients. 
The company, started by iconoclastic octogenarian and millionaire John 
Sperling, had cloned a total of two cats for sale, including Little Nicky, whose 
owner paid $50,000 for the duplicate in 2004. The company also charged clients to 
bank genetic material from pets they intended to clone. 
The long-sought goal of replicating Sperling's husky mix named Missy, who 
died in 2002 at the age of 15, was never achieved. 
The demise of Genetic Savings and Clone was met with great joy by animal 
rights advocates, who were outraged by the whole operation. 
"It was just wrong on so many levels to start this business," said Sue Leary, 
president of the American Anti-Vivisection Society, a Pennsylvania 
organization that has fought animal experimentation since 1883. "There were ethical 
problems. There were serious animal welfare problems. They were exploiting people 
who had lost a pet and were grieving. It was an impossible promise that they 
were making." 
Representatives of Savings and Clone, including Chief Executive Officer Lou 
Hawthorne, did not return phone calls. The company answering machine referred 
those who wanted to "gene-bank a pet" to contact ViaGen, a Texas biotechnology 
company that specializes in cloning livestock. 
"I understand that they are closing," said a ViaGen representative of Savings 
and Clone who declined to give her name or comment further. 
Sperling, who made millions as founder of the University of Phoenix, got the 
cloning business going by bankrolling research called "the Missyplicity 
Project," aimed at cloning his beloved dog. 
Savings and Clone experimented with cloning and eventually succeeded in 
creating the world's first-ever cloned cat -- a calico named CC (for "Carbon Copy") 
-- in 2002. Three other cloned kitties were produced. 
The creation and subsequent sale of Little Nicky, however, marked the first 
commercial transaction of a cloned cat. The second coming of Nicky set off a 
fiery ethical debate over genetic engineering and cloning for profit. 
Hawthorne, the CEO, argued that the company was playing within the rules of 
the free market. The company is not alone in the cloning game. Cloned cows are 
being peddled for $20,000 each. Mice, rabbits, goats, pigs, horses and an 
endangered Indonesian bull called a banteng have also been cloned. 
Attempts to clone human embryos have caused a great deal of concern, but, 
critics say, the attempts to exploit the emotions of people who have recently 
lost their pets is a frightening example of science run amok. 
E-mail Peter Fimrite at <A HREF="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]</A>. 
Page B - 7
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