World's biggest animal cloning factory is been constructed in China. The plan is to churn out horses, dogs and up to almost a million beef cattle a year, causing online unrest on Tuesday.

According to Enca, the project costing about 200-million-yuan will include a gene bank and cloning laboratories. The facility is being implemented by Boyalife, a Chinese biotechnology firm and Sooam Biotech, South Korea's firm. The founder of Sooam Biotech was involved in a controversy ten years ago over claims to have cloned human embryos, together with two other Chinese research institutions.

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The factory, which is in the northern port of Tianji will be cloning animals such as racehorses and cows, pet and police dogs. They will be sold on the open market on an industrial scale.

It is reported that the facility is set to start production coming year, and it is targeting a capacity of 100,000 cattle embryos a year, growing to one million.

Xu Xiaochun the chairman of Boyalife was cited by Xinhua saying that Chinese farmers have been struggling to produce enough beef cattle to meet market demand, Yahoo News reported.

The report was posted on its website on Tuesday where immediately, the social media users expressed doubt over consumer appetite for cloned meat. They pointed out that the plant will be close to the site of chemical explosions that killed almost 165 people in August due to their deadly nature, and that China is plagued with food safety scandals.

One user was quoted saying that if the meat will be sold in China, then the leaders should eat it first.

Another commenter wrote sarcastically: "This beef definitely must first be saved just for the central government staffs; only after their families and they have taken it for 10 years should they deign to give it to us, the people! Really cannot wait!"

According to Business Insider, many are worried about the ethics of the venture asking whether cloning even legal. Sooam Biotech is run by Hwang Woo-suk, who claimed in 2004 to have derived stem-cell lines from cloned human embryos for the first time in the world and was recognized as a national hero in South Korea before it emerged that his research was fraudulent and riddled with ethical lapses.

Sooam's website lists instructions for what potential clients should do if they want to clone a dead pet dog.

A common venture between Sooam and Boyalife started China's commercial cloning market last year, Xinhua said, cloning three pure-blooded Tibetan mastiff puppies.

TagsAnimal cloning factory, Chinese biotechnology firm, Sooam Biotech, Boyalife, Tibetan mastiff puppies