Company backed by billionaire Peter Thiel is cryogenically freezing PETS for around $30,000

What if you could be reunited with a beloved former family pet? 

That is the goal of a new startup backed by billionaire Peter Thiel that will freeze dead dogs, cats and even hamsters until a cure for aging or illness can be found.

Cryopets is open to the public, with plans to preserve the first pet in one to two months, and has 500 animals currently on the waitlist.

The Utah-based company plans to set up shop in veterinarian hospitals across the US, where doctors cool the corpse to extremely low temperatures, drain the blood and administer cryoprotectants.

Kai Micah Mills founded Cryopets. He has an 11-year-old cat that he hopes to cryogenically freeze when the time comes

Cryopets uses science fiction-like tech to cool down the body, which is stored in a massive facility for future resurrections. Animals will be stored in steel tanks filled with liquid nitrogen

The frozen animals are then placed inside dewars filled with liquid nitrogen and stored in a warehouse – the location is unknown – until scientists discover cures for aging and disease.

The company’s founder Kai Micah Mills told DailyMail.com that Cryopets has 500 pets on the waitlist, including a labradoodle, horse, monkey and hamster.

And pricing depends on the size – the 80-pound labradoodle is quoted at $30,000 while a cat $10,000. 

Mills told DailyMail.com: ‘[Pricing for procedure] varies. For a cat, it will probably be around $10,000.

‘We have an 80-pound labradoodle on the waitlist that we did a full quote of around $30,000.’ 

Mills gave an example of cryopreserving a dog dying from old age or cancer.

Euthanasia is typically a planned event, which would be given a hefty dose of seizure medication that renders them unconscious. 

‘As soon as this happens, we start cooling the body down immediately to avoid ischemic damage,’ Mills said.

‘We want to avoid any degradation of the brain’s structure.’

Once completed, the dog is moved to an ice bath and given a cocktail of medications, including anesthesia, that stops the animal from being revived when chest compressions are administered.

And when the body is cooled, the animal undergoes chest surgery to keep their blood circulating.

A profusion circuit, similar to a heart-lung machine, is placed in the body to keep blood from clotting so it can be filtered out and replaced with cryoprotectant.

Mills said the animal’s body is continually cooled down during this process.

‘When the animal cooled to a temperate we want, we put them in what is called a cooldown box,’ he said.

Nitrogen is vital to the process, which is administered as a vapor and in liquid form

Cyropets is ready to start cryogenically freezing pets thanks to the help of its investors, specifically Peter Thiel (pictured), who has long been a fan of freezing himself to be revived later

‘There isn’t anything like it in the world. It is essentially like a control rate freezer that is much larger because it needs to fit human-sized dogs. Like really, really big animals down to a hamster.’

In the box, the animal is introduced to a nitrogen vapor that continues the cool-down process.

Mills said Cyropets aims to make its own nitrogen eventually.

And then, the animal is transferred into liquid nitrogen inside a steal dewar.

The company plans to build a massive facility to house the frozen animals. 

Mills said the process is similar when freezing humans, but the amount of medications administered would differ.

But Mills is not all about the money when it comes to his company, but sees it as a way to cheat death – and preserving humans is his ultimate goal.

He told DailyMail.com that he was brought up Mormon and was very religious as a child.

But the Utah native began to question his faith around 13 years old, leading him to the 2045 Initiative founded by Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov who is working toward human mortality but in the form of cyborgs.

‘In general, love that idea of getting everything I was promised the religion, but through science, you know, real tangible that we can accomplish it,’ Mills said.

‘That is what spurred my obsession with life extension. We will all die and there’s nothing after; that is a big problem. This is the only problem, and it needs to be solved.’

And that led to the start of Cyropets.

Mills has an 11-year-old cat, which he calls ‘The Cat.’

‘I figured if I want to cryopreserve with my pet, there will be at least some other crazy people out there who will also want to do that,’ he said.

Cyropets is ready to start cryogenically freezing pets thanks to the help of its investors, specifically Thiel, who has long been a fan of freezing himself to be revived later. 

Earlier this month, Thiel, who has an estimated net worth of $8.13 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, spoke about the technology on journalist Bari Weiss’s podcast.

Weiss asked: ‘Is it true that you’re signed up to be cryonically preserved when you die so that you might be brought back to life in the future?’ 

Thiel confirmed it, saying: ‘Yes, but I think of it more as an ideological statement.’

He continued: ‘I don’t necessarily expect it to work, but I think it’s the sort of thing we’re supposed to try to do.’

Thiel’s interest in cryogenics has been well documented and he first revealed his plans in The Telegraph in 2014.

He said: ‘In telling you that I’ve signed up for it [cryogenics], there’s always this reaction that it’s really crazy, it’s disturbing.

‘But my take on it is it’s only disturbing because it challenges our complacency.’

The company Thiel says he has signed up with, Alcor, describe their work as being the ‘practice of preserving life by pausing the dying process using subfreezing temperatures with the intent of restoring good health with medical technology in the future.’

The minimum cost for being Cryopreserved by the company is priced at $200,000, they also offer the option of just having your brain frozen for $80,000.