Four Cloned Dogs are “Advising” the Radical Candidate for President of Argentina?

I dedicate it to my "children with four paws".

That's how Javier Milei, the unconventional self-described "anarcho-capitalist" libertarian, reacted to his result in Argentina's presidential primary this fall. In the first round, surprisingly, he was only second. However, his "four-legged children" remained the object of attention.

By 2017, the "child" was only one, and his name was Conan; then he died at the age of 13. Soon after, four more suddenly appear: Robert, Murray, Milton, and Lucas.

What they all have in common, apart from all being named after famous economists: they're all clones.

Milei has already appeared in public with the four dogs. "The Original", Conan, he named after one of his closest friends and claimed that the animal saved his life and was with him at times when everyone else abandoned him. He claims to be speaking to him - and to the four "grandchildren" - with a medium. It was through a medium that Milei learned from Conan about his great mission: to become the president of Argentina.

The way he talks about Conan has baffled critics. Juan Luis González, a journalist who wrote a book about him entitled El Loco ("The Crazy One"), recalled comments from an interview with Milei in which he spoke of Conan as if he were still alive: "He's so old that I can't count them." Gonzalez explained that to Milei Conan was indeed "like a son". According to Gonzalez, there may be another Conan who is also cloned - a thesis shared by the New York Times.

He even sees a role for them in his campaign and calls them "the best strategists in the world" who never left him.

“My house is like Kosovo. In two weeks they eat almost four armchairs,” said the candidate for president of Argentina

For the first time, Milei appeared with them publicly ("exclusively") in a television studio five years ago. "Behold the sons of Conan!" exclaims the hostess as he enters with them, and the four animals are under leash. "My grandchildren," Milei replies.

After an interview with him, El Pais names three sources of unadulterated happiness for Milei: his mastiffs, his sister Karina and studying economics.

After Conan's death, Milei sent the dog's DNA sample to the animal cloning company PerPETuate, which has written publicly about Milei’s dog cloning on its company website.

At the time, the company did not know about his presidential ambitions, but a check showed that the technology was more accessible in the world than expected. Hundreds of dogs have been cloned by companies in the US, China and South Korea since the first such case in 2005. It costs just ,200 to send a sample of Conan's tissue to a university institute. Then, for the cloning itself, Milei was willing to pay ,000 in 2018 after Conan died.

The owner of PerPETuate says he's been watching Milei closely since he found out he's a politician. "As I tell my wife, I don't have a vote in the Argentine elections, but I have five dogs in the race."

Milei, however, wants to direct the Argentine state's attention to cloning by appointing a scientist who has dedicated his life to it as head of the influential National Science Council if he becomes head of state.

However, cloning is not universally accepted in any society. And for Milei, it is the only topic on which he spares his words. As Bloomberg notes after a two-hour interview with him: there are almost no taboo topics for Milei, ask him about the sale of weapons and organs that should be legalized, or about Argentina's central bank, which is for the dumpster. But for the 90-kilogram mastiffs? He refuses to talk.

In the aforementioned conversation with El Pais, he was asked if he actually had telepathic conversations with Conan, and he replied, "Yes, they also say that my dogs are my advisors and they're great, because look what I've achieved in terms of results."

Asked if he actually spoke to Conan, he told El Pais: "What I do in my house is my business."

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