Barbra Streisand is making biotech news. In an interview with Variety ahead of Sunday’s Oscars show, the 75-year-old singing and screen legend let out that she had her late dog Samantha cloned — twice.
At home in Malibu, she has three Coton de Tulear dogs.
“Perhaps her biggest reveal: Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett were cloned from cells taken from the mouth and stomach of her beloved 14-year-old dog Samantha, who died in 2017,” Variety said. “Miss Fanny is a distant cousin.”
Streisand told writer Ramin Setoodeh: “They have different personalities. I’m waiting for them to get older so I can see if they have her brown eyes and her seriousness.”
The Oscar-winner didn’t detail where she did the cloning, but Texas-based Viagen Pets charges $50,000 for a dog clone.
The website’s FAQ says: “Why does it cost that much to clone a pet?”
“The answer is fairly simple. The ViaGen Pets cloning program is an all-inclusive service that covers every aspect of the process. It is the ‘Cadillac’ of animal care and technology development.
“In order to ensure the highest level of care for donors and recipients, as well as cloned kittens and puppies, we provide state of the art housing, high nutrition diets, expert veterinary care and many other features that enrich the animal’s lives to keep them happy and healthy.”
The process apparently is getting cheaper.
In 2013, veterinarian Phillip Dupont cloned his 10-year-old Doberman-Catahoula mix Melvin for more than $100,000, using Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea, said a New York Post report.
Streisand featured her dogs on Instagram: