Little Nicky (cat)
Little Nicky (born October 17, 2004) is the first commercially-produced cat clone. He was produced from the DNA of a 17-year-old cat named Nicky who died in 2003. Little Nicky's owner, a north Texas woman named Julie (her last name was not released) who paid $50,000 to have Nicky cloned, claimed that Little Nicky's behavior is similar to that of her late cat Nicky, including an unusual liking for water.
The cloning operation was performed by the California-based company Genetic Savings & Clone, which later closed in 2006.
The Humane Society and other animal welfare groups denounced the cloning, saying that the $50,000 could have been better used to save some of the millions of pets put to sleep each year.
The cat showed no negative side effects from the cloning and is alive and healthy.
See also
- Pet cloning
- CopyCat - the first cloned pet
- The 6th Day - a fictional movie in which a company sells cloned pets