RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Ah, Barbra Streisand. She's an iconic singer, actress, director and a proud dog owner, so proud that in 2003, she even took her new puppy onto "The Oprah Winfrey Show" with her.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW")
BARBRA STREISAND: My husband saw how I loved this little dog, and he bought it for me for our fifth anniversary.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
No wonder she loved her. That puppy was named Samantha after Streisand's previous dog, Sammie, who had recently died. And when Samantha passed away last May, Streisand wanted to let her memory live on, so she cloned her.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
GREENE: Yes.
MARTIN: Sorry. I don't mean to laugh. In an interview published yesterday in Variety magazine, Streisand revealed that two of her current dogs - Miss Scarlett and Miss Violet - were clones of Samantha. Her other dog is Samantha's distant cousin, and they all played together.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STREISAND: Are you fighting over the same toy, really? What are you doing? Look at this.
GREENE: Not everyone likes this, actually. The animal rights group PETA says enough is enough. Streisand and other celebrities should stop cloning their dogs. But Streisand is not letting PETA stop her. According to Variety, she asked their photographer to take a picture of her with her dogs and give it the caption send in the clones.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEND IN THE CLOWNS")
STREISAND: (Singing) Send in the clowns. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.