Barbra Streisand was willing to pay an enormous sum to keep her dog with her, even after it died.
The Hollywood icon admitted to spending a whopping $100,000 to clone her beloved pooch, Samantha, after her death in 2017.
Barbra now has two new puppies, Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett, who were created from cells taken from Samantha’s mouth and stomach.
However, animal rights group PETA wasn’t exactly happy about this.
The actress and singer, who has been married to James Brolin for 20 years, also has a third dog, Miss Fanny, named after her Funny Girl character Fanny Brice, who is a distant cousin of Samantha’s.
She opened up about her decision to clone the dog and explained how they aren’t the same during an interview with Variety.
The 84-year-old said, “They have different personalities. I’m waiting for them to get older so I can see if they have her brown eyes and her seriousness.”
However, PETA voiced concerns over the impact of cloning on dogs.
According to the Mirror, the organization stated, “We all want our beloved dogs to live forever, but cloning doesn’t achieve that-instead, it creates a new and different dog who has only the physical characteristics of the original.”
They continued, “Animals’ personalities, quirks, and ‘essence’ simply cannot be replicated, and considering that millions of wonderful adoptable dogs are languishing in shelters every year or dying in terrifying ways when abandoned, you realize that cloning adds to the animal population crisis.”
The organization also said that since cloning has a high failure rate, “many dogs are caged and tormented for every birth that actually occurs.”
So, it’s not fair to them, “despite the best intentions.”
They feel Streisand’s “grief at losing her beloved dog, but would also love to have talked her out of cloning.”
The singer and actress isn’t the only celebrity who has turned to cloning to keep their pets.
In 2018, Simon Cowell revealed plans to clone his Yorkshire terriers, Squiddly and Diddly.
He told The Sun on Sunday, “We’ve thoroughly looked into it, got all the details, and I can prove to you I’m going to clone them. There is documentation. I am doing it because I cannot bear the thought of them not being around.”
The judge called cloning “the solution” to ensure he never loses his favorite pets that often accompany him on travels around the world.
It’s still unknown if Cowell went through with his plans. The first animal to be cloned was Dolly the sheep in 1996.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
