Pet cloning booms in China

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Pet cloning is on the increase in China, as grieving owners turn to science to try to bring their furry friend back from the dead.

An idea once “confined to the pages of science fiction”, pet cloning is now an “established business” in the country, “fuelled by deep emotional attachments, advancing biotechnology” and a booming pet market, said The Independent.

‘Genetically identical twin’

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‘Twice as many pets as toddlers’

And that’s led to the second trend: a surge in pet ownership. Millions of Chinese people got a pet during the pandemic, and figures suggest that, by 2030, there will twice as many pets in China as toddlers. There is now a booming industry “to pamper them”, said Bloomberg, with 4.7 million pet-related companies in the country, up by almost 50% in the past 12 months alone. It’s a market already worth ¥300.2 billion (£32 billion), said Global Times, and forecast to reach ¥400 billion (£42.6 billion) by 2027.

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