KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Knoxville Police Department uses K-9s to help detect bombs, find drugs and help officers with searches. But three of the department's dogs are different than the other nine — they were cloned from other dogs.
The three K-9s share the same DNA as other dogs from three different litters. Darrell Sexton, who has been with the department for around 24 years and has been a K-9 handler for 22 years, said he first heard about the cloning technique around 2014.
He said a vendor that sold the police department some dogs got a couple puppies that were cloned in South Korea. In 2017, a former Navy Seal dog handler was teaching a class with a K-9 and a puppy that was a clone.
“The puppy was acting and performing tasks that a four-year-old dog would do,” said Sexton. “Building searches and that sort of thing.”
KPD bought its first cloned K-9 in 2018, which was placed with its SWAT unit. Whether clone or not, K-9s are usually bought when they are between a year old and 18 months old. The dogs begin training with their handlers when they're puppies, before getting extra training with KPD.
"This dog has had numerous repetitions and building searches and tracking things," said Sexton. "They catch on pretty quick on all the tasks that we do."
Sexton said he got his K-9, Eudoros 1 Alpha, when he was around 9 months old.
“He was introduced on the patrol work, on the street, when he was 10 months old or 11 months old. That's typically a little young for most police dogs," he said. "But he was able to perform those tasks. Then the other one was right about a year old when we completed him and put him into service as a bomb dog.”
To clone a dog, DNA is collected from a donor dog and eggs are taken from a female dog. After artificially inseminating the egg, it is introduced back to the female dog who later gives birth to puppies. The cloned dogs at KPD are Belgian Malinois dogs and share some of the same traits.
"She has the dog, just like regular puppies, and then they act and grow just like regular dogs," said Sexton. "In appearance and mannerisms, and the way they approach the tasks that we ask them to do, they're very similar."