Tracker dog from 9/11 lives on through cloned puppies

Jun 18, 2009, 23:09 GMT

Los Angeles - A former police officer won an essay-writing contest sponsored by a bio-engineering firm and has taken possession of his unusual prize: five puppies cloned from his former search and rescue dog Trakr, who sniffed out the last survivor in the rubble of the World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

'I always knew he'd be with me as long as I needed him,' said James Symington in Thursday's Los Angeles Times. 'I think he waited and made sure the time was right.'

Trakr died in April after 15 years of service with Symington.

Symington, formerly of Halifax, Canada, said he named the puppies after Trakr's qualities: Trust, Valor, Solace, Prodigy and Déjà vu, and that he hopes the animals will contribute to society just as Trakr did.

The competition was organized by BioArts International, a northern California company at the forefront of dog cloning, which usually charges 138,500 dollars to clone a dog. The company works with Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation where the cloning was performed by Dr Hwang Woo-Suk, who produced the world's first canine cloning in 2005.