Owner of UK's first cloned dog now has three generations and 'would do it again'

The owner of Britain's first ever to be cloned a decade ago in a TV competition says she would do it again in a heartbeat were it not for the five-figure price tag.

Rebecca Bourne's sausage dog Winnie was after winning Channel 4's £60,000 contest to clone a dog with South Korean genetics firm Sooam Biotech as part of a documentary. 'Mini Winnie' was the result, and is now a grandmother herself - as Rebecca owns one of her puppies and grand-pups and has even written a children's book about her pets.

Her story started when she saw an article on producers offering the chance to have your pet cloned for their show, The £60,000 Puppy, and immediately thought of her 12-year-old dachshund. "She was my only dog, but she was getting old and people were saying 'she's not going to live forever'," Rebecca said.

One decade on, Winnie is sadly no longer around, but mum-of-two Rebecca still dotes on her genetic twin and also has kept one of her puppies, four-year-old Wally, and his puppy, Whoopi, one. A mum herself, Rebecca has even written a children's book based on Winnie.

"I love the fact they are related," she told The . "If I could afford it, I would clone again." Cloning pets currently costs in excess of $50,000 (£37,000) and, while the process itself is done in labs overseas, Brits are increasingly turning to replicating their pets' DNA to preserve them.

While the process is not without controversy, Rebecca, 40, from Hundon, Suffolk, argues it is no different to many other genetic and medical advances we've made in recent decades, such as IVF. Rebecca said she had developed an immensely strong bond with Winnie, who she described as having been a crutch for her as a young woman, when she'd struggled with an eating disorder and navigating the trials and tribulations of university and adulthood.

Unfortunately, she died aged 17 when she was hit by a car. "It was the most awful day," she said. "I think she was also beginning to get a bit of as she was barking a lot at the wall."

Speaking to The Mirror back in 2014, Rebecca told how she was narrowed down to three hopeful dog owners after sending in videos of her with Winnie for the competition.

A sample of Winnie's skin tissue was taken and stored in liquid nitrogen before being transported to South Korea. In Seoul, her cells were put into eggs from a donor dog of the same breed. A spark of electricity then created a cloned embryo which was in turn transferred into a surrogate dog. Rebecca also travelled to Sooam Biotech in Seoul to witness Mini Winnie being born via caesarean, the process of which would have cost £60,000.

She then waited six months before Mini Winnie was weaned, quarantined and brought over to the UK. "I saw it being born and it looks exactly like Winnie," Rebecca said in 2014. "It is identical. Personality-wise I couldn’t tell you because it doesn’t see and it doesn’t hear yet – it is just a little sausage dog that wriggles around drinking milk."

Unfortunately, Winnie died aged 17 when she was hit by a car. "It was the most awful day," Rebecca said. "I think she was also beginning to get a bit of dementia as she was barking a lot at the wall."

Rebecca's assertion she would happily embark on cloning again comes as The Mirror visited what is believed to be Europe's only lab dedicated to preserving pet DNA to be sent for , with owners able to preserve their beloved animals up to five days after their deaths.

Genetics, in Whitchurch, Shropshire, extracts dog, and horse DNA before preserving it in tanks and sending it to the US where the animals are cloned and born, before being brought back to the UK. The process is being increasingly used as a means of giving pets another life after they have died, with the lab saying around 1,000 animals are now cloned each year.

Cloning is done by pet owners having tissue samples taken and sent on to the lab – these need to be taken within five days of death, before they are washed with the DNA extracted, with the process costing around £600. This is then cryogenically preserved in tanks of liquid nitrogen at -196C.

Once the owner is happy to go forward, the samples are sent to a partner lab in Texas, with the process itself costing $50-80,000 (£38-59,000) and takes up to a year, as horses' pregnancies are over 11 months. The animals are born and weaned in the US before being returned to the UK. Cloning is banned under EU regulations so the process itself cannot currently be done on UK soil, but since , many believe this could change.

Cloning remains a controversial issue. The RSPCA has previously aired its disapproval of the pet cloning market, citing "inefficient" techniques which "cause suffering" and "waste animals' lives", treating them as "commodities". However, Gemini Genetics said technology had made huge advances in recent years and that the process helps provide comfort to animal-lovers grieving the loss of a pet.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rebecca backs the practice, saying; "It's people's own money and if it gives them a sense of comfort then I don't see the harm." The mum, who owns a children's craft business and has written children's book 'The Wilbies Go To The Moon' about her , said she can spot exact identical qualities between Mini Winnie and her original, from physical markings to personality traits.

"She looks the exact same, " said Rebecca. "I've got a lot of photographs of them at the same ages where they look identical. I once played a game with friends where they had to guess which was which. Another thing I've noticed is Mini Winnie doesn't really like walks, the same as Winnie. I have to carry her, it's quite funny." Regarding cloning, she added: "I love Mini Winnie so much, and if I could afford it I would definitely do it again.

"I never thought I would love a dog as much as I loved Winnie but I love her just the same and, if anything, I think I will find it even harder to lose her because then it really will feel like the end."

The has previously aired its disapproval of the pet cloning market, citing "inefficient" techniques which "cause suffering" and "waste animals' lives", treating them as "commodities". However, Gemini Genetics said had made huge advances in recent years and that the process helps provide comfort to animal-lovers grieving the loss of a pet.