Meet Mella, a cloned dog at a North Bay winery
In the world of wine, there's one ingredient you can't bottle.
Arthur Murray is the President of Flambeaux, a Sonoma vineyard so picture perfect a rainbow graced the vines the day we were there, along with its most famous ambassador — Stella.
"I drive all over town with her and it's like, 'Stella's coming!' She's kind of a celeb," he said.
Stella is what's known as a winery dog, and she does more than charm visitors — She guards the grapes and keeps unwanted invaders at bay. She's so good at her job — She even made the wine dog calendar as Miss July.
But after a decade on duty, Stella was slowing down. Murray couldn't bear the thought of her not being here.
"She's a part of the family. She's a part of the wine. I want that to continue," he said.
He thought he'd have to get another dog. But then someone half-jokingly suggested he cloned her.
Enter Mella — Stella's genetic twin and the world's first cloned winery dog.
It cost about $50,000. The best part? Stella gets to train her mini-mini. In the 30 years since a sheep named Dolly made headlines as the first mammal to be cloned, the practice has become a booming business.
The cloning process takes roughly four to five months, including gestation and nursing process.
But not everyone's toasting the idea. Robert Klitzman, a physician and bioethicist at Columbia University said pet cloning involves potential stress and health risks for both surrogates and the clones. He also points to a lack of transparency within the industry.
"These are not benign procedures, and people should realize the cost — not just financially, but in terms of suffering," Klitzman said.
Not to mention, they're not a carbon copy. Like twins, they have different personalities. Stella is a serious dog, while Mella is all about play.
But for Murray it's close enough.
"To me, immediately I fell in love with her and it's because I was just looking at Stella," he said