INCHEON, South Korea — The country that created the world’s first cloned canine plans to put duplicated dogs on patrol to sniff out drugs and explosives.
On Thursday, the Korean Customs Service introduced seven cloned Labrador retrievers born five to six months ago. They were separately cloned from a skilled drug-sniffing canine in active service.
Due to the difficulties in finding dogs who are up to snuff for the critical jobs, officials said, using clones could help reduce costs. In February, all seven dogs passed a behavior test aimed at finding whether they are genetically qualified to work as sniffing dogs. Only 10 percent to 15 percent of naturally born dogs typically pass the test.
For now, the dogs all share the same name: “Toppy” — a combination of the words “tomorrow” and “puppy.”
