In 2005, science had already cloned cats, pigs, rabbits and even a wild Indian ox. Dogs, no. Until Snuppy came. Introduced to the world by researchers at Seoul National University in South Korea, the Afghan hound puppy was considered one of the innovations of that year by Time magazine.

No wonder: cloning dogs is a difficult task. Female dogs often produce many eggs that are not yet ready to give birth to a puppy. In the case of Snuppy, it took 1,095 embryos to achieve just three pregnancies. And only two survived. One of them was Snuppy’s; the other, NT-2, who died of pneumonia at 22 days.

The experiment, however, was a success: Snuppy’s DNA was identical to that of his father, Tai.

The parent, by the way, only donated ear cells for the project. The mother, a caramel labrador, served exclusively as a hostess. That is, her genetics did not influence the puppy. Snuppy, whose name has nothing to do with Charlie Brown’s mascot, comes from the initials of Seoul National University.

The first cloned dog in history lived on the institution’s campus until he was 10 years old, when he died of cancer. Before that, scientists had taken samples of Snuppy’s stem cells and, from them, created three new clones. Yes, clone clones – the so-called reclones. Currently, specialized companies offer this type of service. One of them is ViaGen, located in Texas.