Tom Brady paid $50,000 to clone his beloved dog. The same procedure can help revive endangered, inbred species

[We] heard that Tom Brady had his dog cloned. The former quarterback revealed that his Junie is actually a clone of Lua, a pit bull mix that died in 2023.

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While the pampered pooches of the rich and famous may dominate … headlines, cloning technologies are also being used to diversify the genetic pools of inbred species and potentially bring other animals back from the brink of extinction.

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Pet cloning is controversial, for a few reasons. The companies themselves point out that, while the cloned animal will be a genetic twin of the original animal, it won’t be identical.

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But there are other uses for cloning technology that are arguably less trivial. [Samantha Wisely, a conservation geneticist at the University of Florida], has long been interested in diversifying the gene pool of the critically endangered black-footed ferret, for example.

Today, there are around 10,000 black-footed ferrets that have been captively bred from only seven individuals, says Wisely. That level of inbreeding isn’t good for any species—it tends to leave organisms at risk of poor health.

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