Can Pet Longevity Drugs, Cloning and Cryonics Help Us Keep Our Pets Forever?

I don’t remember much about Peppy, my first and only cat. I remember the feeling of petting her while she purred, how she used to get stuck in trees like a cartoon character, and the time she pooped in her baby sister’s crib.

But I remember the day she went missing vividly. I was 10 years old and searched nearby fields and forests until sunset. I made a poster, but we never found her. I was devastated.

Nearly 30 years later, pet owners have an expanding number of ways to potentially extend the lives of their animals. Biotech companies are developing longevity drugs for pets, while cloning and cryonics offer ways to preserve—or attempt to recreate—a beloved companion.

But are these advances in pet longevity a good thing?

Pet longevity drugs are becoming a growing field

There is clearly a market for protecting pets from disease and extending their healthy years. A growing number of biotechnology companies are now targeting pet longevity.

Loyal is developing three potential longevity drugs for dogs. One is being studied for its potential to improve metabolic health in approximately 1,300 pet dogs across the United States. Other research programs aim to address age-related diseases, including obesity and osteoarthritis, as well as the aging process itself. Loyal is conducting clinical trials, while other companies are developing treatments through their own research pipelines.

Some companies are also focusing specifically on longevity medicine for domestic cats.

We don’t know when or how Peppy died. But if a drug had been available to help protect her from diabetes or arthritis, I would have wanted to try it.

That is where my enthusiasm for extending the lives of pets ends.

Pet cloning creates a genetic twin—not an exact replacement

Cloning is a relatively new option for people grieving the death of a pet and looking for a way to hold on to part of that relationship.

The process generally involves taking DNA from a pet, placing it into an egg cell from another animal of the same species, and developing the resulting embryo in a surrogate animal. The technique famously worked with Dolly, the sheep born the year before Peppy went missing. Since then, cloning has been successful in other mammals, including cows, horses, ferrets, cats and dogs.

In the United States, ViaGen Pets offers to clone cats and dogs for $50,000 each. The result is not an exact replica of the original animal, but a genetic twin.

There are understandable reasons why some people might choose to clone a pet. ViaGen explicitly acknowledges that customers need to be patient, since the process does not recreate the original animal or erase the experience of loss.

Lori Kogan, a professor of clinical science at Colorado State University who has studied human-animal relationships for decades, does not see pet cloning as something to condemn automatically. Humans have established rituals for dealing with death, including funerals, memorials and time away from work. Comparable rituals are not always available for pets.

As a result, grieving pet owners can experience what is known as disenfranchised grief: emotional pain that is not fully acknowledged or supported by society. When grief goes unrecognized, people can feel isolated. If cloning brings peace to someone, Kogan asks, “Who are we to judge?”

Could childhood pet loss be an important part of growing up?

That argument is fair. Still, I wonder whether losing a childhood pet is different from losing a pet as an adult.

Children often encounter death for the first time through the loss of a pet. Losing Peppy was a formative experience. Although it was painful, I think it helped prepare me for the losses I experienced later in life.

I would not want my children to believe that death is not final, or that an individual animal can simply be duplicated or replaced.

Pet cryonics promises a possible future reunion

Cryonics goes even further. Some companies offer to cool deceased pets to extremely low temperatures and store them for long periods, potentially indefinitely. The hope is that future technology will one day be able to revive the animals and treat the condition that caused their deaths.

Alcor, a cryonics facility in Arizona, stores the remains of hundreds of pets and humans. The organization has also announced that it chilled its first pet, a small marsupial known as a sugar glider.

For now, however, the chances of being reunited with a pet preserved through cryonics are slim to none. People working in the field acknowledge that there is currently no way to bring the animals or humans in cryogenic storage back to life.

Would I clone or freeze my cat?

I miss Peppy. But if I had the chance, would I place her in a vat of liquid nitrogen? Would I have another cat give birth to a genetically identical animal?

No. I would not.

Rest in peace to the one and only Peppy.