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Hypo-Allergenic Cats Now Available for Pre-Order
humuhumunukunukuapu' writes "Allerca Inc is now taking reservations for genetically engineered hypo-allergenic cats, which it calls 'lifestyle pets'... and apparently they are just the beginning... Read the press release here... and you can take delivery of a cuddy non-sinus bothering bundle of joy for just $3500. 'The hypoallergenic cats produced by ALLERCA will allow consumers to enjoy the love and companionship of a pet without the cost, inconvenience, risk, and limited effectiveness of current allergy treatments. Clients will take delivery of the first ALLERCA kittens in 2007. The hypoallergenic cat is the first of a planned series of lifestyle pets that ALLERCA will develop over the next few years.' Meow!"
Wait until one mistake that turns these cute little kittens into Hyper-Allergenic.
On a more serious note though, I think everybody has her/his ideal world in mind, and this GE is offering the opportunity to achieve that.
However, like the old saying "One person's meat is another person's poison", I believe there is a reason for such allergy symptoms (maybe telling your body to get away from that bleeming cat?), and without this warning, I wonder if the still-allergic-to-cat person will suffer from far worse sickness because one of the cat allergens wasn't identified and removed?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
when owners start breeding from them and selling on the kittens??? Will there be a strict EULA that forbids the owner from breeding and that they must have them neutered at the first available opportunity???
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Cornish Rex
...are all "hypo-allergenic" breeds (don't produce dander).
Devon Rex
Siberian
Sphynx
I treated him like a dog right from the beginning and that's how he acts. He'll even follow me around the neighborhood if he isn't stalking something. He doesn't jerk me around because he knows I'll win - if he gets picky about his food, it'll look a lot tastier tomorrow. If he can't decide whether or not to come in, it's easier to decide 4 hours from now. If I piss him off, he wakes me up at 5am rather than make a mess, because he ends up wearing the mess and if he doesn't clean himself up, he takes a shower with shampoo.
I really don't understand why people baby their cats. I'm far from an expert on pets but I think a lot of a cat's personality is how they're socialized when young. Mine is pretty much the ideal cat because, I think, I made it really clear that I wasn't going to put up with the typical cat personality crap.
Worth a couple grand? I dunno - mine cost me $5 at the local animal shelter. Hell, maybe he just came to grips with his own tender mortality at a young age and appreciates how I feed him and play with him.
funny but I take you haven't met my mom, who, although not a cleaningless freak, did keep a spotless house and encouraged me to learn proper hygiene from an early age :-)
The more I think about this the more I wonder if the prevalence of carpeting as a flooring material here in North America is to blame for the much higher incidence of allergies, as where I'm from pretty much everybody has marble/tiles/cotto/hardwood floors and basically nobody has carpet.
Also since it's not customary at all to have visitors remove their shoes, people tend to wash their floors at least daily, where people here probably wash their carpets once a year (if that much).
-- the cake is a lie
Cats can be trained, they require a different stimulus than dopey dogs. Dogs are pack animals, and are satisifed with your affection as long as they think you are in charge. Cats want something for their efforts, like food or scratching. It took me less than an hour to train my cat to come when called for a treat, and I trained him to jump into my lap when I whistle to get scratched. It doesn't work all the time, but often enough that a few of my friends that have cats have also been able to train theirs.
You may think that this training is a waste or just for entertainment (it is pretty funny), but it comes in handy. One day my fiancee saw a black cat on the garage roof and thought that somehow my cat had gotten out. She got all panicky and searched the apartment, then ran outside. I just sat at the dining room table and yelled 'Here Bear, Here Bear', and he came walking from the bedroom with that 'where is my treat' look.
She got panicky because here in Phoenix cats are called 'coyote treats'.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
I once read a study (my bookmarked link seems to be dead) that reviewed most of the studies on cancer preventative diets. You know the fish oil/olive oil/red wine/etc. reports. The researchers pointed out that all of the reasons each of these foods had been studied was because they were primary dietary components of groups of people with low cancer rates, compared to American society. When they started correlating factors the big commonality they found was that most of these societies used an extremely low amount of preservatives in their diet, with almost no artificial preservatives consumed at all. Through the data gathered by the other studies, and logical explanation of how preservatives work and the effect they probably have when induced into a living organism, they were able to convincingly postulate that what may be driving the high incidents of cancer in the western world, particularly the U.S., could be the massive amounts of preservatives the typical "modern world" person consumes over their lifetime.
At the time this was published there was quite a bit of talk about it on some of the research biology mailing lists. One of the students working for the main researchers posted some comments that the grant request to study the possible harmful effects of artificial preservatives had been turned down by their university. One of the reasons given was that the ability to preserve food for long periods was essential to modern food distribution methods, and if preservatives ended up having to be banned or heavily regulated as cancer causing agents it could mean mass starvation and worse health problems from food spoilage. To date I still have not seen any large scale or in depth studies on the cancer causing potential of artificial preservatives when taken in large quantities over a period of years.
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar