A heartbroken couple are set to pay a US pet cloning clinic nearly £40k to bring their dead dog back to life after she was killed by a mystery driver.
Dominika Sojka, 34, and her partner Ian Clague, 62, lost their 10-month-old puppy Bijoux on June 29 after he escaped from the garden of their £1million Bournemouth home and was hit by a car.
The unknown driver did not stop at the scene or call the police, which is the legal duty of any motorist who hits a dog under UK Law.
Bijoux’s body was taken to a nearby vet by an anonymous driver. A man the couple believe was behind their dog’s death, given his refusal to make contact despite their pleas to staff.
It left the couple with a mix of loss and injustice – and many questions about what happened on that fateful summer evening to their beloved chow chow/husky cross – or Chowsky.
Just days after the accident and while Bijoux’s body was at the vets, Dominika, a private jet broker, was ‘not ready to say goodbye’.
She recalls: ‘She was gone so quickly. I was looking at ways to preserve her, I was thinking of stuffing her, but then I thought I didn’t want her body to be disturbed in any way.
‘Then I thought, maybe I can clone her, which I thought wasn’t really possible, but when I looked it up I realised it was possible in America. I was like ”wow”.
‘So I googled to see whether you can do it in the UK, and I found this company called Gemini Genetics. I contacted them and asked if there was any way we could clone Bijoux.
‘They said they yes, they could do it by taking Bijoux’s DNA, they would just need a small skin sample.
‘However, she was in the freezer at the vet, which they said was a problem because a frozen dog’s cells might be dead. They said they could not guarantee it was going to work.
‘But they managed to retrieve her cells and the DNA, they froze it at -197C.’
Ian, who owns and runs an engineering firm, said: ‘They culture the cells to make sure they’ve got a lot of cells and then they freeze it, so they’ve got a preserved sample, and you pay a certain amount for that.
‘But the real cost is then when you clone the animal, and that has the happen in the US because it’s not legal in the UK. But you can import you cloned dog once its alive.
‘We met the founder of Gemini Genetics, and he introduced us to his two-year-old cloned dog and it was lively and jumping and everything you’d expect.’
‘They live as long as any other animals’, added Dominika.
Ian said: ‘We haven’t cloned her yet, she’s in deep freeze at the moment. It’s quite expensive to resurrect her, about $50,000 (£40,000).
‘But at a point in time we could do that. We’ll just wait until we’ve got the funds together.’
Dominika said: ‘It gives me hope. I know it won’t be exactly the same dog – it’s a twin. The colours will be the same but the way the patches are will most likely be different.
‘But the shape, everything else will be the same as Bijoux was. So, while there is still hurt from the death, she will be back with us.’
Despite their enquiries into cloning Bijoux, the accident itself still loomed large for Dominika and Ian.
So desperate were they for answers they hired a private pet detective to hunt down the driver.
But his investigations ultimately led to nothing, and the local police dropped the case.
Dominika added: ‘She was so lovely, very lovable, and loved other dogs. She would always run to us in the morning and say hello by jumping on our bed.’
Ian said: ‘Bijoux really loved the forest. She loved to chase a hare or a rabbit or squirrel – not that she ever caught one’.
In a message to the unknown driver, Dominika said: ‘You hit our dog. The least you can do is pick up the phone and call the police.
‘I have so many questions, but zero answers. It would really help with closure’.
Ian added: ‘Had the driver called the police at the time, we may never have had to go through all this’.
In the wake of the tragedy, Ian and Dominika are calling on all drivers to be aware of their legal duty to stop at the scene and call the police if they hit a dog.
On Wednesday, the animal welfare charity Blue Cross launched the Blue Cross Code, a new safety initiative encouraging drivers and pet owners to be more alert to risks on the road.
Research by the charity reveals the majority of UK drivers would break the law if they hit a dog with their vehicle.
The study showed 86% of motorists would not call the police if they injured a dog and no owner was in sight – with that number rising to 91% in young drivers aged 18 to 24.
Under UK Law, a driver who hits a dog must stop and report the accident to the police – however, the same legal requirement does not apply if a cat is involved.
It is estimated that 80,000 dogs and 230,000 cats are hit by a car on UK roads every year.
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