The outlet sent samples to a Toronto-based company DNA My Dog. (Representative pic)
A pet company in Canada is under fire after it identified a human as a canine. The surprising results came to light after an investigative team at WBZ News decided to put pet DNA services to the test. The outlet sent samples to a Toronto-based company DNA My Dog as part of its investigation. However, on Wednesday, it revealed that it received dog breed results from the firm despite sending a sample taken from one of its reporters.
According to the results from the company, WBZ News reporter Christina Hager is 40% Alaskan malamute, 35% shar-pei and 25% labrador. The Guardian reported that Ms Hager also sent her samples to two other pet genetic testing companies. While the first company, Orivet, reported that the samples "failed to provide the data necessary to perform the breed ID analysis," the other company, Wisdom Panel, said that the sample "didn't provide... enough DNA to produce a reliable result".
However, Toronto-based company DNA My Dog not only managed to analyse the human DNA but also returned surprising results.
Notably, this is not the first time that the Toronto-based pet DNA service identified humans as dogs. According to The Guardian, last year, WBZ News sent a sample taken from pet owner Michelle Leininger to DNA My Dog. The firm identified Leininger as 40% border collie, 32% cane corso and 28% bulldog. At the time, DNA My Dog told WBZ News that it only found canine DNA on one of Leininger's two cheek swabs.
"The second sample did in fact yield canine DNA ... The results provided would not be possible on a human sample," the company said.
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The outlet also reported that the global dog DNA test market, which was valued at $235 million in 2022, is projected to grow to $723 million by 2030, according to Zion Market Research. The industry's main players include DNA My Dog, Orivet and Wisdom Panel, among others. However, the recent faulty results have cast doubt on the accuracy of the DNA tests.
Airing doubts on social media, one user wrote, "It would be interesting to see what the results would be if they sent dog DNA to one of the human DNA genealogy testing sites". "Throw money at something like this? Never!! Would never trust it," said another.