BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- An American woman on Tuesday became the first customer of a South Korean company that claims to be the world's first successful commercial canine cloning service after receiving five puppies cloned from her dead pitbull, Booger.

    Seoul-based RNL Bio said the clones of Bernann McKinney's dog Booger were born last week after being cloned in cooperation with a team of Seoul National University scientists who created the world's first cloned dog in 2005.

    "It's a miracle!" McKinney repeatedly shouted Tuesday when she saw the cloned Boogers at a Seoul National University laboratory.

    "Yes, I know you! You know me, too!" McKinney said joyfully, hugging the puppies, which were sleeping with one of their two surrogate mothers, both Korean mixed breed dogs.

    Lee Byeong-chun, a former colleague of disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, headed the team of scientists working for RNL Bio. Independent tests confirmed the 2005 dog cloning was genuine, and Lee's team has since cloned more than 20 canines.

    McKinney contacted Lee after Booger died of cancer in April 2006. She had earlier asked U.S.-based Genetics Savings and Clone to clone her dog but the company shut down due to lack of demand in late 2006 after only producing a handful of cloned cats and failing to produce any dog clones.

    The Korean scientists brought the dog's frozen cells to Seoul in March and nurtured them before launching formal cloning work in late May, according to RNL Bio.

    McKinney said she was especially attached to Booger because he saved her life when she was attacked by another dog three times his size. The incident resulted in her left hand later being amputated, and injured her leg nerves and stomach.

    (Agencies)