Jay Ingram's latest book tackles our frequently asked questions about pets — read an excerpt now

CBC Books

· Posted: Mar 05, 2025 7:18 AM EST | Last Updated: 9 hours ago

Have you ever wondered wherefore your canine spins astir erstwhile they're excited? Or if your feline truly likes your company? Jay Ingram's latest book The Science of Pets aims to reply those questions and more, done rigorous probe and reporting. 

"We are entering an unprecedented epoch of favored ownership. Both the planetary request for pets and the assortment of animals bred oregon captured to fulfill that request are going done the roof," helium told CBC Books successful an email.

"At the aforesaid clip we're conscionable starting to summation insights into however pets deliberation and feel. What we request present is simply a amended knowing our broadside of the relationship."

Ingram is the Victoria-based erstwhile big of CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks. He is the writer of 20 books, which person been translated into 15 languages, including the five-volume The Science of Why series.

Ingram won the Walter C. Alvarez Award from the American Medical Writers' Association for excellence successful wellness attraction communications in 2015 and is simply a Member of the Order of Canada.

In his signature easy-to-understand penning packed with insights and comic asides, Ingram's The Science of Pets makes subject accessible arsenic it relates to our each time beingness and the pets we emotion truthful dearly.

"Readers mightiness beryllium amazed by the sheer measurement of technological probe connected pets, including however favored ownership disturbs the earthy world, however we whitethorn ne'er cognize erstwhile our ancestors began keeping pets and how, supra all, thing we larn astir pets tells america thing astir ourselves."

The Science of Pets will beryllium released connected Nov. 4, 2025. You tin work an excerpt below.

Bring 'em Back Alive

Freeze drying and/or taxidermy person a beardown entreaty for those who can't ideate surviving without immoderate benignant of beingness of their deceased favored with them. Others, dissatisfied with this approach, privation a surviving mentation of their pet. The 2 ways of keeping it live beyond its years are some highly tricky, each astatine this constituent a Hail Mary astatine best, and neither precisely extends the beingness of the pet. One, successful fact, is truthful improbable arsenic to hardly merit mention. Nonetheless present we go:

"Insights from One Thousand Cloned Dogs" is the rubric of a caller insubstantial successful the diary Scientific Reports. It is conscionable what it says: a summary of what has been learned from cloning a 1000 dogs implicit the past 2 decades. (Published successful 2022, the lag betwixt probe and work means that 1 1000 is really closing successful connected 2 1000 today.)

You had nary thought that dogs were being cloned, fto unsocial a 1000 of them? Or that immoderate carnal had been cloned? Cloning has go an industry, and portion the cloning of pets is simply a tiny part, it raises issues that travel closest to america all.

Cloning has a unusual history. Its technological lineage is straightforward. In the aboriginal 1960s British idiosyncratic John Gurdon managed to make clones of frogs, for which helium received the Nobel Prize successful 2012. In typically opaque fashion, the Nobel Committee explained that helium had won "for the find that mature cells tin beryllium reprogrammed to become
pluripotent."

This little flurry of fascination with cloning near its mark; cloning has ever since had this eerie premix of menace and promise. There is nary grounds contiguous that a quality anyplace has been cloned, but for different animals the method has go widespread. Cloning has produced teams of polo horses, cows that nutrient much beverage and pigs that are meatier. Chinese scientists person adjacent reported utilizing robots to nutrient cloned pigs much efficiently. And past determination are pets.

How did we get to "one 1000 cloned dogs"? Ironically it started successful 2001 with a feline named C.C. (Carbon Copy oregon Copy Cat, whichever you prefer). Success successful this archetypal lawsuit was hard-won: 87 cloned embryos were implanted into 8 surrogate pistillate cats, resulting successful a expansive full of 1 failed gestation and 1 success. While the likelihood person improved since then, cloning is seldom straightforward.

The archetypal dog(s) were cloned successful 2005 successful Seoul, South Korea. Of the 2 born, one, an Afghan called "Snuppy" (Seoul National University-puppy) lived for 10 years. The different unnamed puppy died aft lone 10 days. Snuppy himself was cloned and 3 retired of 4 offspring survived.

So canine cloning is solidly established. But wherefore bash it? One exertion has thing to bash with pets. Dogs stock thing similar 350 familial defects with humans, and from the aesculapian probe constituent of view, being capable to clone specified dogs would expedite the probe into these defects.

But determination is besides a user request for cloning favored dogs. Barbra Streisand, already famous, became much truthful with the revelation that she had had her canine Sammie cloned aft she died. Sammie was a curly haired (they're commonly straight-haired) Coton de Tuléar, and Streisand truly wanted different curly haired version. But due to the fact that they're
rare, she opted for cloning. She forwarded cells that had been taken from Sammie earlier she died to ViaGen, an American institution specializing successful favored cloning. Fifty 1000 dollars later, Sammie had been successfully cloned into 4 puppies. One died, Streisand gave 2 distant 2 and she kept one. Paris Hilton has besides had a canine cloned.

There are astatine slightest 3 issues with having your canine oregon feline cloned. In nary peculiar bid they are: misplaced expectations, the ethical issues of the process and the missed accidental to follow 1 of the hundreds of thousands of structure dogs.

As acold arsenic motives go, Barbra Streisand's was not unusual: "I was truthful devastated by the nonaccomplishment of my beloved Samantha, aft 14 years together, that I conscionable wanted to support her with maine successful immoderate way. It was easier to fto Sammie spell if I knew I could support immoderate portion of her alive, thing that came from her DNA." To her credit, her emotion of dogs was arsenic almighty arsenic her emotion of that dog: portion waiting for the laboratory results, she adopted a structure dog.

Excerpted from The Science of Pets by Jay Ingram, published by Simon & Schuster. Copyright © 2025 by Jay Ingram.  All rights reserved.