"What Lazaron provides is the first step in the cloning process," Reggio says, "freezing your pet's DNA in hopes of one day cloning it." The cost to grow and freeze your pet's genetic material at Lazaron is $700, plus a monthly storage fee of $10. The cost on the actual cloning process is still unknown, but it could run to thousands.
The economic muscle of the dog - at least by proxy - has, as befits the land of shopping and political correctness, been accompanied by a growing enhancement of the animal's legal standing.
Berkeley, home of the dog culture magazine, the Bark, has recently followed Boulder, Colorado, and West Hollywood in enacting a "guardian" ordinance to transform the oppressive relationship between pet and owner into the more equal pet and "guardian". "The word guardian implies stewardship," said Dr James Wilson, a veterinarian and lawyer in Yardley, Pennsylvania.
THE ordinance ups the ante for pet owner/guardians in this semantically sensitive city. "The word Ms was a big issue 20 years ago," said Cameron Woo, publisher of the Bark. "The word guardian really does redefine the hierarchy between human individuals and pets as living beings," she argues.
Elliot Katz, founder of In Defence of Animals, an animal rights group, quotes the abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, in its campaign literature and compares animal ownership to slavery. Next on their linguistic hit list are "friend" rather than "pet" and "he" or "she" rather than "it".
Dr Robin Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley, says Americans "are troubled by status differences". "We've gotten rid of master and servant, we're downgrading the word boss in favour of employer," she explains. "The last refuge of the status barrier is animals."
In her own case, however, she admits of her cat, Catiline, named after an old Roman conspirator: "My cat and I have a clear relationship. He is the master and I am the slave."
Some animal law experts say the ordinances aren't touchy-feely gestures but part of a growing recognition of pets as more than property. Last year, for example, Tennessee passed a statute, the first in the country, that allows for damages of up to $4,000 for emotional distress from the loss of a pet through a "negligent act of another".
In a New York court, one woman was awarded $700 for her emotional distress after she discovered a strange cat in her dog's coffin right before his burial. The dog had apparently been accidentally cremated.
Similar legislation is pending in Massachusetts and New York. But not surprisingly, the American Veterinarian Service Association, which represents vets, is opposed to broadening laws related to loss of pets. The group says suits for emotional distress will drive up malpractice insurance costs for veterinarians and be passed on in higher costs for pet owners.
Oregon has copperfastened pets' rights in legacies, approving a Bill that would let courts intervene if the wishes of the owner of a dead pet are not followed through. State law currently recognises money willed to an animal as an "honorary trust", but it is not legally binding. Washington state passed a similar bill last month.
On Capitol Hill, elected officials from both political parties have become receptive to the animal rights movement's concerns, sponsoring legislation and even forming a congressional caucus called the Friends of Animals.
Meanwhile, some of the nation's leading law schools, including Harvard, Georgetown, and Rutgers, have begun to offer courses in animal-rights law, and a Washington firm founded by two veterans of Ralph Nader's consumer-advocacy group has begun regularly filing suits to expand legal protections for animals.
Some dog owners have also been affected by radical, dare one say, communistic ideas of equality and anti-breedism.
Only last month, the first Great American Mutt Show was staged. Prizes were awarded in such categories as "Mostly Poodle", "Best Tail Chaser" and "57 Varieties (Most Mixed Mutt)". Mutt, according to the New York Times no less, is chic.
The Humane Society in New York, responsible for the city's shelters, is faced with heavy demand for labrador mixes and shepherd mixes. "Cockapoos" (spaniel-poodle hybrids) are popular as are poodle-terriers, sometimes known as "Perriers".
Their cause is being championed by Animal Fair, the "lifestyle magazine for style-conscious animal lovers".
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