Tom Brady says dog Junie is a clone of his late pet Lua

Retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady claimed that his dog Junie is a clone of his late pet Lua.

He revealed the news through biotechnology Company Colossal Biosciences' acquisition of Viagen Pets and Equine in an announcement on Nov. 4.

“I love my animals. They mean the world to me and my family,” Brady said in a statement obtained by People. “A few years ago, I worked with Colossal and leveraged their non-invasive cloning technology through a simple blood draw of our family’s elderly dog before she passed.”

Pitbull mix Lua, adopted by Brady and his former wife Gisele, died in December 2023. According to Colossal, a blood sample was collected before the pooch's death, which was then used to create Junie.

Brady said the company gave his family a "second chance" with a clone of their beloved dog and that he is “excited" about the technology.

Viagen, also a biotech company, is known for cloning pets for celebrities including Barbra Streisand's and Paris Hilton's dogs. It has technology licenses from the Roslin Institute of Edinburgh, which famously cloned Dolly the Sheep in 1996.

Colossal Biosciences is known for its alleged de-extinction of the dire wolf, a fact disputed by conservationists.

The biotech and genetic engineering company said in April that pups Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi were born from genetic edits derived from a complete dire wolf genome.