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WASHINGTON, Friday (Reuters) "Store your favourite pet's DNA," urges the Internet Web site of Genetic Savings and Clone, the company that helped fund the cloning of the first domestic cat.

While other groups are working to clone sheep and cattle that produce medicine in their milk, Genetic Savings and Clone has a less ambitious but perhaps more heart-warming goal - helping people breed twins of their beloved pets.

Scientists at Texas A&M University said they had used a grant from Genetic Savings and Clone to clone a house cat, and presented the result, a 2-month-old kitten they called cc:, short for carbon copy.

The Humane Society of the United States objected instantly, saying there are already too many unwanted cats and dogs in the United States.

"What is the compelling social purpose behind this experimental practice?" asked Wayne Pacelle, senior vice president of the group.

Lou Hawthorne, chief executive officer of Genetic Savings and Clone, says it is not too different from championship breeding.

"Cloning is simply the latest form of assisted reproduction, not all that different from artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization - which were also controversial when first introduced," says the company's Web site at http://www.savingsandclone.com.

He said millions of homeless cats and dogs destroyed at shelters each year may eventually benefit from the research.

"It takes eggs to make clones, hundreds if not thousands of eggs. Where do we get those eggs? From spay clinics. What do we give them in exchange for those eggs? We give them money. They will spay hundreds of times more cats with the money we give them than each single clone we make," Hawthorne said.

"We are going to make so few of these animals in the foreseeable future," he added.

Genetic Savings and Clone, which also promises to clone endangered animals and livestock, was founded with cash from businessman John Sperling's Apollo Group Inc.

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