Former NFL Quarterback Tom Brady said Tuesday that his dog Junie is a clone of his family's late pet Lua, created by Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas biotech company in which Brady invested.
Co-owner Birmingham City announced the news in a statement released through Colossal, which also announced the acquisition of another cloning company, Viagen Pets and Equine. The two companies plan to combine their technologies to expand cloning services for pet owners and pet conservation projects.
“I love my animals. They mean the world to me and my family,” Brady said. “A few years ago, I worked with Colossal and used their non-invasive cloning technology by simply taking blood from our family’s elderly dog before he passed away.”
Lua, a pit bull mix adopted by Brady and his ex-wife Gisele Bündchen, died in December 2023. According to Colossal, the sample used to create Juni was collected before Lua's death.
Brady said the company “gave my family a second chance with a clone of our beloved dog” and added that he is “excited about how Colossal and Viagen's combined technology can help both families lose their beloved pets while helping save endangered species.”
Viagen, which is now owned by Colossal, has previously cloned pets for celebrities, including Barbra Streisand and Paris Hilton. The company holds the technology license from the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, which has cloned Dolly the Sheep in 1996.
Founded in 2021, Colossal has gained attention for its “de-extinction” research, including projects aimed at reviving species such as the woolly mammoth and the dodo bird. The company recently said it had produced three cloned dire wolf pups, a claim disputed by conservation groups.
Financial details of Viagen's acquisition of Colossal were not disclosed. Cloning a dog through Viagen typically costs between $50,000 and $85,000.
Dog cloning has appeared in popular culture from time to time, including an episode of the Nathan Fielder series. HBO series Rehearsalwhich explored the ethics of copying a beloved pet.
Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion and current Fox Sports broadcastersaid his family considers Juni “not a science experiment, but part of our family.”
