Bloke flies 10,000 miles and spends £30,000 freezing his canine to allow them to reunite

Dale Pearce took the drastic step of freezing his beloved dog Neren after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer in the hope they can be reunited again in the future

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A bloke jetted 10,000 miles and splashed out £30,000 to have his dead dog cryogenically FROZEN – so they can be reunited in the future.

Dale Pearce rescued Australian Kelpie Neren when she was just two years old and enjoyed many years of fun together – regularly hiking and watching TV together.

During a routine check-up nine years later, the 44-year-old received the devastating news that she had terminal cancer.

In a bid to buy them both more time together, the game developer began researching ways to extend her life. It was during online searches that he stumbled upon the Cryonics Institute [CI] in Michigan, US, 10,000 miles away from his Melbourne home, which offers cryopreservation.

The process involves replacing a recently deceased person, or pet’s, bodily fluids with a medical-grade ‘antifreeze’ and cooling them to a bone-chilling -196C. The goal is for the person or animal to be revived by future science.

Delighted at the prospect of being united in the future, Dale signed Neren and himself up for the process. Before taking Neren to be cryopreserved, Dale took her on a final £15,700 two-week holiday across Australia, Hawaii and San Francisco to enjoy some precious last moments together.

At the end of the trip, Dale visited a vet in Detroit, Michigan, US, to have Neren put to sleep before splashing out £14,920 [$20,000] to have her frozen.

Nine years on from Neren’s procedure in March 2017, Dale is now sharing his experience to raise awareness about the process to other pet owners.

Dale, from Melbourne, Australia, said: “Me and Neron enjoyed going to places together like cafes.

“It was nice to have a little creature to cuddle when I was watching TV.

“I was mentally prepared that she would get older but to have her suddenly die young I was like, ‘oh God, what am I going to do?’

“It was horrible to hear, I was expecting a good few more years with her.

“So I did a quick look around the cryo facilities that I knew of and found out pet cryo is a thing.

“Now that [£14,920] sounds like a lot because the actual procedure is just a bit of nitrogen, but that money needs to also be part of an investment to keep her there for decades.

“The ideal scenario is that I am still around in a couple of decades’ time, or I have gone through health span therapies or have also gotten frozen, and then hopefully I’m revived before she gets out.

“The way I see cryonics is it’s a probability thing.

“If you put a body in the ground, there’s a high probability it’s not going to be revived, because there’s a lot more science that would need to go into it if you have been eaten by microorganisms.

“But with getting frozen you have brought molecular interaction down to a standstill.”

Dale opted to have Neren put to sleep near the American facility to keep her in optimal condition for the procedure to be carried out.

Dale said: “I’d always wanted to do a big holiday with the dogs. My dream trip was a big car ride from Melbourne and for us to go up the coastal road all the way to the Cairns.

“I was going to see if I could squeeze something in like one big holiday, but with the progression of the cancer the time was cutting down.

” I picked a date we had to be in Detroit by and booked the holiday from there. It cost just under $30,000 [Aus], which would be around £15,700.

“It was in the last few days that she started getting very tired and I knew it was time [to put her to sleep].

“I didn’t feel like I was cutting her life short.

“My thoughts about it were split because on one hand I was thinking ‘this might be the last time I see her’ but on the other hand at least there is a chance, it keeps me going.

“[If we do get reunited], this is going to sound more pragmatic than magical, but once she’s revived, there’s going to be a whole healing process.

“Because it’s one thing to start the body up. There may be other healing things that need to be done that could take days or weeks or however long.

“Then after that, we will just backtrack the entire trip home.”

There are currently no cryopreservation labs in the UK but it’s believed that more than 120 British people have signed up to be cryonically frozen with the institute when they die.

Dennis Kowalski, the president of Cryonics Institute, said: “So many things that are impossible today will be possible tomorrow, right?

“One hundred years ago if you died your heart would stop and that was it, but today we routinely shock people with cardiac defibrillation.

“Could you imagine trying to describe to someone 60 years ago removing a heart from a cadaver and stitching it into another person and then going on to live for another 34 years?

“They’d say that that sounds a lot like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but yet today we routinely do that and people’s grandmothers, sisters and brothers are alive because of this.

“We’re a nonprofit and you can see where every penny goes in this project – we only charge what we need to ensure that we will be around for the future, to keep doing what we’re doing.

“We’re fighting the good fight. This is about love of family, love of friends. I believe it’s a very ethical endeavour to save those we love around us.

“We do not pretend to be a hospital, we are the ambulance ride to that future hospital – and we are optimistic that the future won’t be dystopian.

“We think that it will be much more advanced and maybe not utopian, but it won’t be dystopian either. It’ll just be the future.”

Total cost to cryogenically freeze Neren:

Two-week holiday (including flights and accommodation): £15,700 ($30,000 AUD)

Cryogenic freezing process: £14,920 ($20,000 USD)

TOTAL = £30,620