Clone Army
Chinese officials cloned a top-performing police dog, state media announced, with the goal of stamping out genetically identical dog cops. The pup, named Kunxun, is a clone of the “Sherlock Holmes of police dogs,” according to Reuters.
She’s just started police dog training, to see whether the original dog’s aptitude for drug detection and crowd control have carried over.
Dog Backlog
Kunxun was born in December in an experiment carried out by Sinogene Biotechnology and Yunnan Agricultural University and supported by the government.
It’s a genetic copy of a 7-year-old dog named Huahuangma that won accolades as a “first-class meritorious dog” for investigating homicide cases, per Chinese state-run paper Global Times. Tests show Kunxun’s DNA as 99.9% identical to Huahuangma’s.