cloned dogs

There were a lot of heroes on and after 9/11, and as the the Kennel Club reminds us, not all of them were bipedal. Now, one of those courageous canines has been brought back to life through cloning.

Trakr, a German shepherd who assisted with search and rescue in the rubble of Ground Zero, died in April. However, Trakr's DNA was saved, and BioArts International produced five clones of the dog. Yesterday, the clones were presented to James Symington, the Canadian police officer who led Trakr through the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

In 2005, South Korean scientists created the world's first cloned dog, and now the country has announced plans to use clones to sniff for drugs. Yesterday the Korean Customs Service announced that seven Labrador retrievers had been cloned from an expert drug-sniffer that is still on the job. The scientists leading the research at one point worked with disgraced researcher Hwang Woo-suk, but the dog cloning work is legitimate.