We live in the most surprising, and unsurprising times simultaneously. So much so that you can say “Tom Brady’s dog is a clone of his dog that died two years ago,” and you’d just nod and say “yeah, that tracks.”
Yes, Brady does have a cloned version of his beloved dog Lua who died in 2023. Blood was taken from Lua prior to her death, and his new dog, Junie, is a genetic reproduction of the pet. This story doesn’t end here, because the rabbit hole goes deeper, and gets even more bizarre than that.
Welcome to Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences
This is the company who Brady got his cloned dog from. They’re a cutting edge genetic research firm that Brady is an investor in. It’s unclear whether or not he as investing in Colossal prior to getting his new pup, or if cloning Lua was a proof of concept to get Tom’s money. Either way, they have the scientific team with the chops to clone a dog.
They’re also trying to bring back to Wooly Mammoth.
That’s right. One of the major undertakings of Colossal is “de-extinction,” and their first target is the Wooly Mammoth. Conceptually the company’s idea behind bringing back extinct animals is to learn more about what made animals extinct, and apply that knowledge to prevent future extinction events. While the company notes that the majority of factors are due to climate change and other man-man disasters to animal habitat, it also wants to learn more about illnesses that may have afflicted these animals.
The end goal is to develop a complete genetic database of extinct or near-extinct animals, so they can be spun back up and recreated like popping in a home movie for future generations. The first task is to create the Wooly Mammoth, and the company is simultaneously working to bring back Australia’s Tasmanian Tiger, which has been extinct since 1936.
“This sounds cool!”
You haven’t watched Jurassic Park, have you?
Who is heading up this dog cloning / bring back extinct animals company?
There are serious chops behind Colossal. Their CEO is George Church, a world-renowned geneticist who is a professor at both Harvard and MIT. Church is at the forefront of trying to bring back the Wooly Mammoth, which has been his pet project for over a decade now — and also he had to answer questions on 60 Minutes about accepting money from Jeffrey Epstein, which he saw a silver lining to.
“So-called tainted money can be used for good… like, the tobacco money was used for good things.”
Church later apologized for his comments being insensitive, which makes sense if you’ve spent much time around scientists. They’re not always known for having the best tact or social skills, and tend to be goal-oriented a little too much for their own good.
Oh, also Church was picked as the CEO of Colossal at the advice of Elon Musk. Just had to throw that one in there.
What are the ethics of cloning a dead dog?
You have come to the wrong place, my friend. That said, it does seem beyond irresponsible to go to the effort of using the blood of a dead dog to sequence a pet, and bring a dog to term in order to birth said cloned dog, especially when the process used massive resources that could have been better spent literally anywhere else.
Just get a shelter dog next time, Tom. It won’t be exactly the same, but leave your last dog to fond memories and rescue a pupper in need. Nobody will love you like a shelter dog.
