Special Report: Frozen for the future

Kevin Boyle -- Brockton
He's my best friend.

"Thor" was like a child to Kevin Boyle of Brockton. When the 140 pound akita was diagnosed with an incurable disease, Kevin took steps to try and give him what he calls a shot at a new life by freezing him for the future.

Kevin Boyle -- Brockton
I didn't want to put him in a dirty whole in the ground. i wanted to give him the same chance i wanted for myself.

A "chance" that scientists will someday figure out how to bring people - and even pets - back to life. Kevin is such a believer he plans to join Thor one day at the Cryonics Institute a Michigan facility where bodies are frozen in liquid nitrogen and kept in tanks indefinitely.

Kevin Boyle -- Brockton
Most cryonicists will tell you fifty years to a few centuries at least. I'm a little more optimistic. I think there's a chance i could live to see Thor back.

Many of us first heard about people being frozen after the death of baseball great Ted Williams. And fans were shocked to learn his remains were being were kept on ice. But now what’s shocking is that some people preserving their pets.

Robert Ettinger-Founder, Cryonics Institute
If you want more life for yourself, why not for your pets?

Robert Ettenger - the founder of the Cryonincs Institute - tells 7News more than half of their "patients" are animals.

Robert Ettinger-Founder, Cryonics Institute
We have about 40-45 pets, to dogs cats and birds.

Kevin Boyle -- Brockton
Thor is in a large kind of cylinder, really large. I believe he's in there with one other dog and about five humans.

If someday you want to retrieve your retriever - it won't be cheap.

Robert Ettinger-Founder, Cryonics Institute
For Thor who is a very big dog it's $17,000 but for a cat or a cat sized dog they're only $6,000.

Kevin Boyle -- Brockton
Some people at work think it was a waste of money, of course, you know I don't criticize them for all the money they spend on coffee and cigarettes.

For Kevin Cryonics is more than Sci-fi. It's about saving his family - including his grandma.

Viola Dufault -- 87 years old
When I decided that's the way that Thor's going, i'm going too.. We'll all be together one day. I believe that.

Lauren Pryzbyl
Counselors we talked to said it's important and healthy to grieve for a lost pet but worry some people considering Cryonics may be prolonging the process. And may not in the end-- be getting what they paid for.

Cryonics Institute
24355 Sorrentino Court
Clinton Township, MI 48035
586.791.5961

Alcor Life Extension Foundation
7895 East Acoma Drive Suite 110
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
480.905.1906
877.462.5267

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