23-year-old grieving his cat spends $35,000 to create an identical ‘copy’ seven months later — and claims 'they resemble each other by 90%'

The cloning company's CEO said most clients are young grads, not rich, but eager to 'reunite' with lost pets.

PUBLISHED 3 HOURS AGO

(L ) Two white cats in a cage; (R) A man holding a white cat. (Representative Cover Source: Getty Images | Photo by (L) Svetlana Repnitskaya; (R) Mayte Torres)

Science has been witnessing several changes and breakthroughs, and similarly, animal science has now made a remarkable breakthrough in pet biotechnology. A 23-year-old pet owner in China lost his cat seven months ago and was feeling guilty for not saving it. Later, a pet cloning company came forward to create its clone, resulting in the first-ever successful domestic cat clone.

A man and his cat (Representative Image Source: Pexels | Yuliya kota) — A man and his cat. (Representative Image Source: Pexels | Yuliya kota)

According to reports of Glass Almanac published on Monday, November 17, 2025, Huang Yu was a proud owner of his cat Garlic; however, tragedy struck seven months ago, when he lost his feline buddy. "When Garlic died, I was devastated. It was so sudden that I couldn't grasp it. I blamed myself for not taking him to the hospital sooner," the cat owner lamented. Unable to grasp the loss of his beloved cat, the pet owner made the bizarre decision to make a "copy" of his cat, Garlic. He contacted Sinogene, a Beijing-based Chinese cloning company, which informed him that it would cost him more than 250,000 yuan (over $35,000) for the process.

Female vet doctors are examining a domestic cat. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | ArtistGNDphotography)

However, Huang Yu was determined about his decision and went ahead with the procedure, and he is now "satisfied" with the results. "They resemble each other by more than 90%," the pet owner revealed. Although they look alike, the Chinese man now hopes that the kitten born through a surrogate cat will have the same personality as his late cat. While the cost of the procedure drops everyone's jaws, Mi Jidong, the CEO of the company, shared that most of their clients consisted of young graduates who were not necessarily wealthy but wished to "reunite" with their lost pets. "Regardless of the pets' origins, owners treat them as family members. Pet cloning meets the emotional needs of younger generations," the CEO said.

Two White Cats. (Representative Image Source: Pexels | Lidia LI)

The pet cloning technology has been viewed as a booming market, as Sinogene began cloning domestic animals in 2015 after realizing the demand from the public through a survey. According to researcher Chen Dayuan from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the cloning market could also help bring back endangered species. This includes animals like the giant panda, which are considered vulnerable. The researcher also noted that cats could give birth to panda cubs one day with the onset of this technology, as the birth size of the two species and their gestation timelines are also very similar.

A man and his cat | (Image Source: Pexels | Preillumination SeTh) — A man and his cat. (Representative Image Source: Pexels | Preillumination SeTh)

A 2022 study published on PubMed noted that animal cloning has gone through several advancements ever since the birth of Dolly the Sheep in 1996. According to the research, more than 1,500 dogs have been cloned to date, which covers around one-fifth of all breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club. Several of these cloned canines have phenotypic differences that are rarely seen in naturally bred dogs, indicating a non-genetic effect that differs from donors and their clones.