Dogsey

The birth of Britain's first cloned dog has been branded a "ridiculous waste of money" and scientists said the process raised serious ethical concerns.

Sooam Biotech, a company based in Seoul, said it had cloned the puppy, named Mini-Winnie, from a 12-year-old dachshund belonging to Rebecca Smith, a caterer in west London. She had won a competition run by the company which hopes to sell the service to pet owners for £60,000 a time.

Mini-Winnie was born after scientists took skin cells from Smith's pet and dropped them into donor eggs to make embryos that were carried by surrogate dogs. The puppy must remain in Korea for six months to satisfy British quarantine laws.

But researchers warned that while a cloned dog might look similar to its biological parent, it will be a very different animal.

"You would have about as much chance of replicating your favourite pet by choosing one from Battersea Dogs Home as you would from cloning it. And the former is likely to be loved more as it will not fail your expectations," said Robin Lovell-Badge, a geneticist at the National Institute for Medical Research in London.

"It is extremely unlikely that a puppy cloned from a favourite pet will grow up to behave the same way."