Genetic Savings & Clone

Genetic Savings & Clone, Inc. was the name of a company headquartered in Sausalito, California that offered commercial pet gene banking and cloning services.

History
The company was founded and financed by billionaire John Sperling because he wanted to clone his favorite dog, Missy. Sperling is an Arizona entrepreneur who launched the for-profit University of Phoenix.

The company opened for business in February 2000; funded production of the first cloned cat, CC, in 2001; launched its pet cloning service in February 2004; and delivered the world's first commercially cloned cat, Little Nicky, in December 2004.

Little Nicky was sold to a Texas woman for a reported US$50,000. He is a genetic twin of "Nicky," a 17-year-old Maine Coon cat that had been kept as a pet.

Genetic Savings & Clone operated a petbank, to which pet owners could send tissue samples for later use in cloning.

Despite some success in cloning cats, the company was not able to create a viable commercial business and closed at the end of 2006. Letters to this effect were sent out to clients at the end of September 2006, informing them of this decision and offering to transfer any genetic material to another facility.

Controversy
The company spurred debate regarding the ethics and morality of pet cloning. Divergent arguments about these issues appear on some web sites.