Dale Pearce said he was not “mentally prepared” to say goodbye to his beloved Australian Kelpie named Neren

NEED TO KNOW

• Australian Dale Pearce spent nearly $40,000 to cryogenically freeze his dog and take her on one final adventure after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, according to Kennedy News
• They traveled across multiple cities and countries before he had her preserved at the Cryonics Institute in Michigan
• Pearce feels the expense is worth it if there’s a chance he might one day be reunited with his best friend, who he said used to accompany him to cafes and cuddle with him in front of the TV

An Australian man traveled across an ocean and spent nearly $40,000 in order to cryogenically freeze his beloved dog.

Dale Pearce, 44, rescued Neren, an Australian Kelpie, when she was 2 years old. But after nine years of fun, adventures and cuddles, he received devastating news in 2017: Neren had terminal cancer.

"It was horrible to hear, I was expecting a good few more years with her,” Pearce said while recently sharing his story with Kennedy News, adding that he was not “mentally prepared” to lose her so soon.

Pearce, a game developer from Melbourne, said that he began researching ways to increase the time that he and Neren had left together. Through his research, he found the Cryonics Institute in Michigan, a facility located approximately 10,000 miles from his home, which offers cryopreservation for both humans and pets.

The process involves freezing a recently-deceased body to -321 degrees Fahrenheit in the hopes that it can be revived — and cured of disease if needed — at some point in the future.

"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,” Pearce explained.

"The way I see cryonics is it's a probability thing,” he added. "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.”

However, the procedure does not come cheap. Cryogenically freezing Neren at the Cryonics Institute cost Pearce approximately $20,000, per Kennedy News. 

Costs can vary depending on the type and size of the pet, per the official Cryonics Institute website. Cryopreservation for dogs costs $5,800 for dogs up to 15 pounds, plus $150 per pound for every pound above that — and that price does not include the Membership fee and additional costs like veterinary expenses. Clients can also freeze cats, birds and other animals.

Pearce feels the expense is worth it if there’s a chance he might one day be reunited with his best friend, who he said used to accompany him to cafes and cuddle with him in front of the TV.

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He ultimately opted to take Neren on a two-week trip across Australia, Hawaii and San Francisco to enjoy their final days together to the fullest.

"I picked a date we had to be in Detroit by and booked the holiday from there,” Pearce recalled. “It was in the last few days [of the trip] 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."

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Neren was put to sleep at a vet’s office near the Cryonics Institute so that her body could be frozen as quickly as possible — a moment that Pearce said was bittersweet.

"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,” he recalled.

All in all, Pearce spent about $40,000 on the entire trip, including the freezing process, per the outlet.

Dennis Kowalski, the president of the Cryonics Institute, said in a statement to Kennedy News that while cryogenics might sound like far-off science fiction, he does not believe it should be discounted as a real possibility for the future.

"One hundred years ago, if you died your heart would stop and that was it, but today we routinely shock people with cardiac defibrillation,” Kowalski said. "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,” he continued.

"We're fighting the good fight. This is about love of family, love of friends. I believe it's a very ethical endeavor to save those we love around us,” Kowalski added.

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