What Needs to Change

In an ideal world, commercial pet cloning would be banned. It is an unnecessary practice that treats innocent animals as science experiments, and it is not a compelling use of advanced technology that could instead be used for animal conservation. Companies like ViaGen pat themselves on the back by pointing out how commercial pet cloning funds conservation efforts. yet the numbers go unpublished.

Commercial pet cloning companies are incredibly vague with sharing information about the process with the general public. Their websites do not provide much information about the actual cloning process, the animals involved, or what happens to them after their role in the process ends. According to an interview in 2024, ViaGen claimed that animals are limited to being surrogates just two times, while in 2025 claiming that surrogates are retired and put up for adoption after one litter. It is left ambiguous if ViaGen counts unsuccessful embryo transfers or pregnancies toward the limit.

There is a severe lack of transparency about the entire process. How many dogs/cats provide eggs or carry pregnancies for a single order? How many times does each animal go through these procedures? Where are these egg donors and surrogates coming from? Where do the egg donors and surrogates go when the company retires them? So long as commercial pet cloning is permitted,  companies should be required to publish independently verified reports that account for every attempt. As it stands, an order is considered a success even if it takes multiple embryo transfers and several failed pregnancies to produce a healthy clone. Consumers (as well as the general public) should know what happens behind closed doors. Success rates need a denominator. Reports often obfuscate the numbers and make it unclear how many attempts were actually performed, if reported at all.

Furthermore, companies that point to conservation efforts to justify their commercial pet cloning business should be required to disclose how much they contribute and which conservation projects they support.

If animal cloning is to continue, there should be stricter regulations in place about how animals are used in the process. There needs to be clear limits to how many times an animal can undergo egg collection or embryo transfer, and how many pregnancies can be induced and carried out before an animal is retired. There needs to be clearer guidance for what happens to these surrogates after they give birth, as the company's responsibility to the animal extends past the duration of pregnancy.

It is easy to understand why someone who lost a pet would want one more day with them. However, the dogs and cats used to fulfill those wishes deserve the same level of concern we feel for the pets we love.