Puppies to the Rescue! Beijing Police Force Welcomes 6 Adorable Canine Clone Recruits

Taking a bite out of crime!

Six adorable cloned dogs were officially welcomed into the Beijing Police Force as recruits earlier this week, in a special ceremony where they all received badges, collars and new uniforms, according to CBS News.

Earlier this year, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security’s Police Dog Base began working with Sinogene, a pet-cloning company, according to the outlet.

In August, the dogs, four of which came from the same litter, were born. Their DNA is over 99 percent identical to a pair of Belgian Malinois canines, who were chosen to be donors based on their excellent performance on the force.

Cloned police dogs | BEIJING MUNICIPAL PUBLIC SECURITY BUREAU
Cloned police dogs | BEIJING MUNICIPAL PUBLIC SECURITY BUREAU

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The dogs, who are now around four months old, are already demonstrating abilities that are on-par with K-9 recruits that are two months older, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.

The base will continue to work on its cloning program and hopes to create a bank of genetic material from quality police dogs. They will also monitor the training process for the six cloned canines.

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Earlier this year, Sinogene also announced the birth of another cloned police dog.

In March, the company announced that a Kunming wolfdog named Kunxun had been cloned using cells from a canine police dog described as the “Sherlock Holmes of police dogs,” Reuters reported.

Kunxun, the country’s first cloned police dog, was born in December of the previous year, using genetic material from a 7-year-old police dog who helped solve 12 murder cases and received top honors from China’s Ministry of Public Security, according to CNN.

At the time, Sinogen indicated that they hoped to be able to increase “volume production” of the cloned police dogs, CBS News reported.