Tag: Yellow Lab

3 Reasons Why Cloning a Hero Dog Was Not a Good Idea

Six years ago, David and Alicia Tschirhart, who was pregnant at the time, went on a mountain hike in Escondido, Calif., with their yellow Lab, Marley. When Alicia reached down to grab what she thought would make a good walking stick, Marley raced over to her and started barking.

Marley’s actions saved Alicia’s life. It wasn’t a stick that she was reaching for — it was a rattlesnake.

Sadly, not long after the birth of the Tschirharts’ daughter, Marley was diagnosed with cancer. Although the hero dog didn’t survive it, he lives on…sort of.

Last December, the Tschirharts welcomed a new yellow Lab puppy into their family. Ziggy isn’t just any yellow Lab. He’s Marley’s clone. The Tschirharts paid $50,000 to have another dog who looks and acts, they say, just like Marley.

Ziggy was created by the scientists at ViaGen Pets, the only company in the United States that clones dogs and cats. They did this by inserting a skin cell from Marley into the nuclei of eggs that were harvested from donor pets. To start the embryo’s dividing process, it was given a shock. The modified embryos were then implanted, via invasive surgery, into a surrogate dog who gave birth to Ziggy.

ViaGen Pets charges $50,000 to clone a dog or $35,000 to clone a cat.

Sure, we’ve all probably fantasized about cloning a beloved dog so we’d have a carbon copy of them around for many more years to come. But then we consider the cost and ethics, and for most of us, the idea remains just that: a fantasy.

Still, there’s currently a one-year waiting list at ViaGen Pets. Here’s hoping some of those people wanting to clone their pets become aware of these three reasons why it’s really not a good idea.

1. Adopt, don’t shop (or clone). There are thousands of homeless pets, including plenty of yellow Labs, available at shelters and rescues (find a Labrador rescue group here). You will literally save yourself tens of thousands of dollars while saving a life in the process.

2. The exorbitant cloning fees could help thousands of homeless dogs. Along with the $50,000 ViaGen charges to clone a dog, there’s a $1,600 fee for “genetic preservation,” the biopsy to remove cells from the original dog. Think of all the shelters and rescue groups that would benefit from a $51,600 donation instead.

3. Cloning pets is unethical. It’s opposed by major animal welfare organizations including the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). According to a 2019 Gallup poll, the majority (66 percent) of Americans believe it’s morally wrong. Considering that 1.5 million pets are euthanized in animal shelters every year, it makes much more sense to save their lives than to create clones that won’t necessarily share the original pet’s personality.

Instead of cloning Marley, I wish the Tschirharts had instead paid his heroic act forward by saving a life — of a doomed shelter dog.

Photo: CC0 (that’s not Ziggy or Marley)

Yellow Lab Puppy Shoots Woman (She’s Okay)

In what police reports call an “accidental” shooting — as if a dog could actually grab a gun and shoot someone intentionally — a 7-month-old Yellow Lab puppy named Molly apparently shot a 44-year-old woman named Tina Springer in Oklahoma last Thursday.

Molly was in the backseat and Springer was in the front passenger seat in a pickup truck driven by Brent Parks, 79, that was stopped at a railroad crossing. Spooked by the passing train, Molly jumped onto the console between the two front seats, causing a loaded .22 caliber handgun tucked beneath it to fire. Springer was shot in the thigh.

Parks called 911. “The dog [expletive] stepped on [the gun] and it went off,” he calmly told the operator.

“The dog shot her?” the operator asked, understandably sounding a wee bit suspicious.

“Yeah,” Parks replied. He said Springer, who could be heard moaning, was “bleeding pretty bad.” He was told to use his belt as a tourniquet. The Enid Police Department and Life EMS soon arrived, and Springer was rushed to a nearby hospital.

The good news is that Springer had surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. No one else was hurt. Molly apparently will not be charged with attempted murder. But what’s scary is that according to KFOR, police found three shell casings inside the truck, and the serial number on the gun had been scratched off.

While this case is being investigated, Deans, who told authorities the gun isn’t usually loaded, should definitely put that firearm away in a safe place.

It’s also pretty disturbing that in the video below, Molly is on a chain attached to a tree. Let’s hope it was only temporary. According to the Humane Society of the United States, “An otherwise friendly and docile dog, when kept continuously chained or intensively confined in any way, becomes neurotic, unhappy, anxious and often aggressive.” …And we already know just what Molly is capable of, har har.

Molly’s family “vows to steer clear of trains” in the future, KFOR reports. Hopefully they’ll also steer clear of keeping loaded guns in dangerous places — and they won’t chain their young dog.

Photo: KFOR Oklahoma’s News 4/YouTube

Dog Found Alive 3 Days After Fatal Boat Crash

Two men and two dogs were in a boat sailing into Tamales Bay in Northern California on Monday when it capsized in the rough surf. One man and one dog were rescued, but Brian Phidat Ho, 47, was killed. The other dog, a yellow Lab named Yoda, disappeared and had presumably drowned.

This morning, three days after the accident, Marin County Fire Battalion Chiefs Chris Martinelli and Graham Groneman were scouting locations for a water rescue orientation for firefighters. They spotted something from their rescue boat — a yellow object on a rocky shore north of where the boat had capsized.

It was Yoda.

“They were hugging the coastline when they saw the dog hunkered down under a rocky outcropping,” Battalion Chief Bret McTigue said. “They went on shore and put a lifejacket on him. He was wet and shivering after a few days out in the elements.”

Despite his ordeal, Yoda was alive and well, and appeared to be uninjured. He was taken to the Tamales Fire Station, where he warmed up by the fireplace while being given food and water.

“We called the family and we happened to reach them during the funeral,” McTigue said. “We gave them the update and they were able to make the announcement about the dog at the funeral, which was nice.”

Nice, indeed. And how nice that those two Marin County Fire battalion chiefs just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Last year, a German Shepherd/Husky mix named Luna was found five weeks after she jumped off a boat. Luna had managed to swim two miles to an island used by the Navy.

Photo credit: Marin County Fire Department

Sailors Rescue Puppy Who Fell off Italian Ferry [Video]

As Mario Di Meglio traveled across the Gulf of Naples in Italy late last month in a ferry with his new puppy, Noodle, the Yellow Lab slipped out of its leash and fell overboard.

Di Meglio begged the ferry operators to stop, but they refused, telling him Noodle had probably drowned. (Nice.)

Half an hour later, a group of six sailors from the RYCC Savoia Club couldn’t believe what they were seeing: a puppy treading water in the middle of nowhere.

“We approached, we were sailing and maneuvering was not easy,” one of the sailors, Massimiliano Cappa, told La Repubblica, ABC Perth reports.

The sailors managed to pull Noodle into their boat.

“He was visibly exhausted, his legs almost paralyzed by the cold,” Cappa said. “He was shaking and crying.”

The sailors dried Noodle with towels and held him close to their bodies to keep him warm. They contacted a rescue boat, which returned Noodle to shore, where he was eventually reunited with his ecstatic dog dad.

“I am very happy, I could embrace him again,” he said. While he was thrilled to have Noodle back, he said he was still angry that the ferry operators wouldn’t stop “when the dog fell into the sea.”

Photo via YouTube

Aww: Baby Howls along with Dogs [Video]

To see who can be “louder and more ridiculous,” a Yellow Lab and Chocolate Lab regularly get into howling competitions with each other at their home in Virginia Beach, Va., according to their dog dad, Larry Woods.

And now the dueling duo has apparently become a trio.

In a video going viral, Woods’ 5-month-old son starts howling along with the two dogs.

“They do it so often that our son has decided to join the war,” wrote Woods in the description of the video he posted Monday on YouTube.

Here’s the video. So, who do you think won the competition?

Photos via YouTube

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