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!"

Comments

And what happens...

[advocate_one]

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???

Prior Art

[Racter]

Cornish Rex
Devon Rex
Siberian
Sphynx

...are all "hypo-allergenic" breeds (don't produce dander).

Re:How about...

[CreatureComfort]

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.