Yorkshire couple clone their dead dog in South Korea to have his puppies

A delighted Richard Remde and Laura Jacques picked up their new pets - called Shadow and Chance - who were created via a £67,000 cloning process from their beloved boxer Dylan after he died from a brain tumour.

Ms Jacques described Dylan’s puppies as “completely priceless” while Mr Remde said the controversial procedure was something they just “had to do” as the North Yorkshire couple collected the animals after six months in quarantine.

Mr Remde told ITV’s Real Stories programme: “Well, as you know, some people go out and buy their fancy sports cars or, you know, go on fancy holidays. We don’t do that and we decided to spend that money on these dogs.”

The couple had sent cells from Dylan to the South Korean Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Seoul where his DNA was extracted to produce two identical puppies.

Dylan’s DNA was implanted into a blank egg, which was then given electric shocks to trigger cell division and eventually implanted into a surrogate dog.

The animal-loving couple were thrilled when they found out three months later that the surrogate mother was pregnant.

They made several trips to South Korea, including a special visit to see the puppies being born and to try and bond with them.

Having finished their quarantine period in South Korea, the puppies are now to Britain.

This happiness is a big contrast to how they felt when Dylan died, according to Ms Jacques.

She told the programme: “I started thinking ‘what am I going to do?’ and I looked into getting him stuffed, which sounds awful but I didn’t want to part with him.

“I couldn’t bear the thought of never being able to see him again and I searched dog cloning and I sent Richard a message saying: ‘We can get him stuffed for two grand or cloned for sixty grand.’”

Eight-year-old Dylan suffered a seizure last year and later died. Tests showed he had an inoperable brain tumour.