Pet owners spend nearly £20,000 to clone their cat after she dies

Kelly Anderson, 32, from Texas, has shared how her cat Chai, who died in 2017, was the closest thing she had to a soulmate and she decided to have her cloned, which cost her almost £20,000

A cat owner has told how she spent nearly £20,000 cloning her ‘soulmate’ when she died.

Kelly Anderson, 32, of Texas, was mourning the loss of her five-year-old cat, Chai, who died in 2017 when she decided to contact a company that provides animal cloning services.

She said the process of cloning her cat took four years and now she has a new pet named Belle who shares the same DNA.

Speaking on ITV’s This Morning, Kelly said Chai was “the closest thing she could have to a soulmate”.

She said: “I lost her very young and when she died I remembered a conversation I had with my roommate about cloning and I reached out to ViaGen Pets.

“Belle only came into my life last year.”

Texas-based ViaGen Pets is part of TransOva Genetics, which has been cloning horses and livestock for 17 years and recently started offering the service for dogs and cats as well.

Kelly had her cat cloned for $25,000 (£19,100) and it’s now $10,000 more expensive, while dog cloning costs $50,000.

She explained: “She’s her own cat. I never expected her to be chai, I never wanted her to be chai.

“It’s a piece of chai and the most important thing to me is that I can carry a piece of her along.”

The decision to clone animals has been controversial, with many people on social media questioning why she didn’t adopt a cat.

One person tweeted that “animals are not objects.”

Another said: “It’s not the same pet you had. It won’t have the same personality or even develop the same connections with you.

“If you’re trying to overcome the death of a pet, cloning is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing.”

Others on Kelly’s Instagram complimented her on her cloned cat.

One said: “So adorable”, while another added: “Handsome”.

And Kelly has also said she’s adopted cats and has housed over 100 in the past, citing the cost as people regularly spend the same amount on cars.