The Korean customs service has unveiled a group of seven cloned Labrador retrievers that are being trained to sniff out explosives and drugs at ports and airports.
The cloning was carried out by Seoul National University scientists, who in 2005 created the first known dog clone.
The team is led by Lee Byeong-chum, a former aide to Hwang Woo-suks. Recently Hwang's reported breakthroughs on stem cell research turned out to be false (you think his name would have given them a clue), but independent tests proved that dog cloning was genuine. This is like saying that you didn't climb Everest but that the mountain does exist.
The dogs were born five to six months ago after being separately cloned from an experienced drug-sniffing dog. For now, they all share the name "Toppy" - a combination of "tomorrow" and "puppy." Their father 'Yesog' - a combination of 'yesterday' and 'dog', is said to be very proud but was too high to be interviewed.
"They have a superior nature. They are active and excel in accepting the training," said Kim Nak-seung, a trainer at a centre near Incheon airport, who was putting the dogs through their paces yesterday.
In February all the dogs passed a behaviour test to see whether they are genetically qualified to work as sniffing dogs. Only 10%-15% of naturally born dogs pass the test. The paws of the others are too small to hold the pencil, allegedly.
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