A tech company has raised $200 million to engineer dogs that are designed for war, and it’s drawn a fair bit of backlash online.
According to a report from Wired, the idea was formed by Colossal Biosciences’ Ben Lamm and Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, suggesting that the genetically engineered dogs could serve the U.S. military, law enforcement, and other emergency responders.
On October 22, a company for that idea – Warhound – finally came to the forefront, raising $200 million, putting a valuation on it of just over $1.2 billion. As per Wired, Warhound is “in the process of gene-editing its first batch of dogs,” having already “collected blood samples” from “top-performing” military dogs.
Lamm also told Wired that they are expecting the first batch of puppies to be born in early 2027. “Dog safety and performance, and then helping continue helping to improve the human handler and dog bond, and working as a team—that is what the mission is,” he added.
Warhound has genetically engineered dogs coming in 2027
The Colossal Biosciences engineer said that it has already drawn comparisons to Captain America, but it has also raised some eyebrows as well.
“Genetically engineered dogs for law enforcement. Mine was engineered to eat a sock and stare at a wall for 40 minutes,” one social media user joked.
“Awful. Will increase the “expendability” of dogs in the battlefield. Just use robot dogs,” another said. “Can we f*ckin not f*ck with animals? For f*ck sake,” commented another. “Why are we still using real dogs?” another asked.
This isn’t Colossal Biosciences first foray into the field either. They have been working on de-extinction programs for woolly mammoths, dire wolves that have survived for a few years already, as well as blue antelopes that haven’t been seen for over 200 years.
It also remains to be seen if the genetically engineered dogs will be taken up by the armed forces and first responders once they exist.
