Couple Pay $2.3 Million for School to Clone Dog

DALLAS —  A couple who are convinced they have the perfect dog with the perfect bark are giving $2.3 million to Texas A&M; University to clone their beloved mixed-breed Missy.

The mystery couple sent out requests for proposals from research institutions a year ago via the Internet. This summer, Texas A&M; was chosen and a contract signed for what is being called the Missyplicity Project.

Missy, 11, a collie-husky mix, has already been flown to the university in College Station to have tissue samples taken.

“I think it’s extremely valuable” research, Dr. Mark Westhusin, co-director of the university’s Reproductive Sciences Laboratory, said Tuesday. “It goes beyond the impetus of cloning dogs.”

And it’s no joke, said Lou Hawthorne, president of Bio Arts and Research Corp., or BARC, of San Francisco. The company served as the go-between for the dog-loving millionaires and Texas A&M.;

He said the dog’s owners demanded anonymity because they “just doesn’t want to deal with a lot of disruptions” from the media.

Scientists have made carbon copies of mice, cows and sheep, but not dogs.

Besides making a litter of Missy pups, the Texas A&M; scientists hope to learn more about canine reproduction and improve contraception and sterilization methods, Westhusin said. He said the project could also lead to the replication of exceptional animals, such as guide dogs or rescue dogs.

“If we’re very lucky, we should have puppies within a year,” he said.

On a Web site, (https://www.missyplicity.com) Missy’s owners describe falling in love with her at first sight:

“At the pound, we met Missy, a stray. She was 4 months old, frisky, and oh so beautiful,” they wrote. “I offered a howl to her, and she raised her nose and howled at the roof. I barked at her and she barked right back, a low, rich-toned, businesslike bark. I whined, she whined.”