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Allergy-Free Kittens Produced
An anonymous reader writes "San Diego-based company, Allerca, said that using a technique known as genetic divergence, it has 'bred the world's first hypoallergenic kitten, opening the doors and arms of millions of pet lovers for whom cuddling a cat has, until now, been a curse ... After identifying the genes of kittens with proteins that provide less of a reaction in humans, they selectively bred litters over several generations to end up with an allergy-friendly super cat.' The company says its customers are expected to take delivery of their $4,000 hypoallergenic kittens in early 2007."
It'd be fun to watch my dog chase a $4,000 cat around though :-)
My bicyles
oops, they forget to mention the lawsuits against the owner, no actual product scientifically tested, and the expose done by local San Diego TV.. I'll take two..
This comment is guaranteed*
*not guaranteed
How exactly is this Your Rights Online? unless said $4000 cat is a blogger, it has nothing to do with online as i see it.
Why would you pay $4000 for a kitten that could be dead if only one person masturbates?
What does this have to do with my rights online?
Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
OMG Kittens!
So I won't break out in hives after I eat it?
Your Rights Online?
Shouldn't this be Science?
Hasn't this been on Slashdot before, a few months ago?
Who wouldn't!!!
Life is not for the lazy.
...financing?
If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.
I'm sure they will be delivering them spayed and neutered. But for my $4000, I'd want one that had all its parts... And if one got out into the wild, would they pull a "Monsanto" (Monsanto demanded and got fees from farmers who ended up with genetically altered crops from cross polarization, not because they planted them)
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Or is this going to be another monsanto deal where youre not allowed to let nature take its course under penalty of lawsuit?
In short, would i get sued for breeding my $4000 cats & selling the kittens?
They'll still track in dirt full of allergins.
Wouldn't it be much easier to just have a Bonsai Kitten? No mess, no fuss, no allergies. And you can store it neatly on the shelf.
I.O.U One Sig.
Ceiling cat is watching you
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
It would be nice to play with a cat without being miserable. However, I think we should be trying to breed healthy and smart pets instead of designer stuff like this. I'd rather have a smart mutt than one that is stupid and gets sick all the time. Yeah, I realize my ideal pet could be considered "designer". Also, YRO??
Will they still taste like Fairy Penguins?
... I'd expect my kitty to be able to say "Hello"!
This smells like a troll, but what do you think different breeds of dogs and cats are? That's basically human genetic engineering.
Not to mention that dogs and cats are artificially created animals anyway. Dogs were 'manufactured' from wolves, and cats from (whatever that proto-cat was called that I'm too lazy to look up).
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
I know the producers the genetically modified plants don't like people planting their proprietary seeds. Are people allowed to breed these genetically modified cats?
They aren't always going to cost $4000. Just at first.
Hasn't this been on Slashdot before, a few months ago?
You are correct, sir.
Sweet! When do we get lemon-scented air-freshening kittens?
I am Jack's unoriginal sig.
For someone who has grown up never having a cute,furry pet, this is something I strongly welcome. I have allergies to most things and cats are certainly one of them. There is the constant sense of envy as friends talk about what cute things their kittens have done or how proud they are that their cat has caught a few mice. You can't really say the same sort of thing about fish. Now don't get me wrong, I still care for my fishes very much but I guess that there isn't really the same sort of attachment you would get with a warm blooded mammal.
I would be willing to pay up to $4000 to buy such a kitten, for if I was to get a regular cat, I'd probably be spending as much in medication.
We need new laws to prevent such genetic polution. Farmers must be able to be confident that their crops are GMO Free if they choose to not use GMO's.
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
A link in that quote goes to a NewScientist.com article, which appears to have more details:
But they weren't made in a lab or bread in a lab to be hypo allergenic friendly.
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
...until they learn to use your digital camera and you wake up to find them walking along the ceiling.
Triksies, these ones are!
OMG!!!! Kittens!!
www.cuteoverload.com
P.S.,
This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated.
It's not right to use anti-allegery medicine. If being allergic is how you were made, then you shouldn't play God by taking it.
And while we're on the topic, something needs to be done about those people who use machines to add up thousands of numbers per second. Doing arithmetic on such a Godly scale, is just plain blasphemous and arrogant.
Then there's the people who think they can fly like gods, or move across an unnaturally-hard straight piece of ground faster than a cheetah, or breath while under water. Or kill other people at a distance far greater then the length of even a really long club. Or make music without any musicians appearing to be nearby. Or live in a cave-like habitat when there aren't any actual natural caves around. Some of the really arrogant ones, play God by drinking cold beer in spite of the fact that winter ended several months ago.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I've tried this in the past and this method seriously limited my quality of life. Most medcation that alleviate the symptoms are not without side effects. Would it not be better for all if these cats are made avaiable and people won't have to take medications. I mean, the cats wouldn't know they are geneticly engineered, so how would it possible affect their quality of life. If anything being such an expensive cat would mean the owners would take much care of it than if it was some little runt. I certain know if I was the owner of one of those cats, it would be spoilt silly.
So your problem is actualy with labs?
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
I agree -- don't mess with what the Great Magic Man Named God in the sky made. Like those assholes who wear eyeglasses or contacts -- GOD CRIPPLED YOUR VISION FOR A REASON. Oh, and don't even get me started on those fucking diabetics with their insulin. Bastards. Wait a minute... I just realized I had my wisdom teeth pulled... I'M GOING TO BURN FOR ALL ETERNITY IN FIERY HELL!!!
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
So a data dog?
Yes, I am a smart ass; it's better than the alternative.
Does it show that I didn't read TFA?
Mankind has been "playing god" with various plants & creatures for millions of years. All the various breeds of domestic cats are selectively bred alterations of different wild cat breeds. Dogs are variations of wolves. Do you think chickens evolved to their present state in the wild? Do you think a shih-tzu has a ghost of a chance surviving without humans to care for it? Have you ever seen a sheep? theyre almost completely helpless!
Where is your god anyway? Whens he going to take some responsibility for this world so man wont *have* to play god anymore?
I'm all for it, play god like mad, breed pigs with human organs for easy transplant, breed goats that give spider-milk, hell i dont even mind if they breed super-intelligent humans, maybe then the 3rd parties would get some votes!
There are some side-effects to the genetic engineering process though, while the cats are both hypoallergenic and cute beyond belief, you must keep them out of daylight, you can never get them wet and you can never ever feed them after midnight.
Until then all who wish to accept the power and glory of the savior must accept that i am both the christ and the antichrist, and those followers shall be granted power to protect me while i rest, and plot my next move.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
I, for one, welcome our Allergy-Free Super-Kitten overlords.
They use traditional breeding, a technique that humans have been using for millennia to produce domesticated animals with desirable attributes. If anything, breeding cats to be hypoallergenic is more noble than usual reasons for selective cat breeding.
Furthermore, humans play God all the time. We have treatments for diseases (genetic ones even), shape the land, and create synthetic substitutes for fabrics, transportation, etc. etc. for stuff that isn't optimal. Even if they were to directly engineer the genome, it would follow in the grand tradition of humans not settling for what God provides us -- because it sucks.
These cats may reduce allergic reactions for some people, but allergic reactions may still occur. The "Allergy-Free Kittens Produced" headline is wrong in a way that shows not merely misunderstanding, but contempt of the world and the science that explains it.
Homer dumps his cat and dog in a burlap sack to breed "a miracle hybrid, with the loyalty of a cat and the cleanliness of a dog."
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
I'm allergic to cats. However, I find that I don't have allergic reactions to Ragdoll Cats. So I'm able to tolerate my wife's cat. I've heard people call ragdolls "hypoallergenic" in the past. Maybe they are just less so. BTW, I paid $200 for the cat, not $4000.
Parent is extremely OFFTOPIC, and is verging on FLAMEBAIT.
Frodo Lives!!
So, breeding in a back yard is ok? Or breeding in a puppy mill? But put it in a lab, and that's just WRONG.
Eat a lot of paint chips when you were little?
I'm usually not a big fan of scientifically altered pets, but kitties pwn so I like this. =)
What about Mr. Bigglesworth???
Error 2101: all your sig are belong to us
I, for one, welcome our allergy-friendly, super cat overlords. ah-choo!!
-David
I wonder if the cats are DRM'd...
It isn't genetically altered. It is simply selectively bred - just like all other "purebreed" animals out there. No different than breeding your prize winning horse in the hopes of producing another prize winner.
Wouldn't allergy-free people be much more efficient?
Obligatory yes. Alternatively, if your girlfriend has a cat it never helps to ask her to shave her pussy (sfw).
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
This isn't currently about genetic engineering, from what I can tell from the article. The company tried that approach, but has now gone back to just traditional breeding. No zombie space-kittens yet, I'm afraid.
This is one cat you will NOT neuter.
Hell, you could buy a female, and then sell it's kittens for $500 a pop. Two litters, and you've made your money back.
There are no gods but ourselves.
Looks like they've gone up by $500... I wonder if George Bush is in league with the kitten tycoons too...
The Egyptian Mau is very near hypoallergenic. No point in spending $4,000 when the Mau should work just as good. The last time I visited my uncle, he decided to try and scare the crap out of me. He knows I'm INCREDIBLY allergic to cats, so he shoved his Mau in my face as soon as I walked in the door. Funny thing is... it didn't do a thing to me.
now if they can just engineer cats to 1) not pee on your bed, 2) have better smelling dumps 3) not be totally offthewall insane about 90% of the time and 4) take orders from their owners...
they just might make good pets.
I bet the cats all look like Hitler.
We could probably breed them to be hypoallergenic the old fashioned way. Instead of enviromentalists crying doom, we'd get PETA screaming about unethical treatment. Breeding animals for specific purposes does them no favours.
Do you know how inbred most purebred domestic animals are? What do you think purebred means anyway? For an animal to be purely of one breed, you have to mate it with it's not-so-distant relatives. Consequently they suffer from aliments ranging from hip dysplasia, to mental retardation, to compromised immune systems.
This would probably count as animal cruelty, particularly since hypoalergenic cats would be very hard to breed, and might require many generations of inbred test animals to get it right, some of which would need to be put down. This too is playing god, and not in a merciful or benevolent way.
Altering them in a lab is doing them a favour by comparison. You can argue that we shouldn't be playing god to begin with, but since we've been doing it for several thousand years already with every single form of domesticated life, it's a bit late to protest.
And worrying about them escaping into the wild is just moronic - domestic cats DIE in the wild. "Wild" houscats are called strays or ferals by another name, and typically only exist near human habitation. Trust me - every time some suburban moron drives their cat out to the country and lets it out, with the idiotic idea that it can fend for itself, it either dies or winds up living in somebodies garage. There is no "natural" habitat to spoil. And there are plenty of natural habitats spoiled by (unmodified) housepets already - ask an Austrailian or New Zealander.
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
If you look at it, they're not modifying kittens, or kitten embryos. They've just discovered a trait that doesn't happen to be visible and bred for it. AKC registered dogs of thousands of different types are essentially raised the same way, they just happen to be selectively bred for pointy ears or flat coats or whatever.
Ad in classifieds: Pandora's Box (no box) $5
You paid $200 for a cat to which you are allergic? You, sir, are pussy-whipped.
(all in humor, it was just too good to pass up)
My bad. From TFA:
"Allerca announced their plans three years ago, and started collecting deposits from allergic cat fans, but have now decided that their plans to use RNA interference were taking a back seat to a more traditional breeding approach, albeit one that uses genetic testing to select individuals that express low levels of FEL D1. Although no reason is given for the change of approach, it is possible the RNAi approach simply wasn't working, and if you can just find individual breeding animals where mother nature has done all the hard work, then it makes sense to take advantage of that fact"
Turns out they are using selective breeding. Bring on the inbred supercats!
Though the text doesn't specify that they aren't using genetic alteration - it just says it's "Taking a back seat", which could mean they're using both.
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
Yeah, and humans are made this way.
Let's guess who's going to change; the less important one.
Felis Lybica, a desert predator.
This is the closest to a pussy you will get ;)
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Haven't we all seen enough bad sci-fi to dread this sort of thing?
Sure- he's cute and fuzzy now. Just wait till he has kittens of his own with a Maine Coon Cat and they turn out to be hypo-allergic 4,000 pound saber-toothed Kitties. You don't DARE let them get hungry. LOL
Is that a SCSI connector or are you just glad to see me?
That is cheap. I'll take two.
If I'm TFA correctly, they're not introducing DNA from non-felines. So aside from better tools, how is this different than Mendel playing with peas?
The case is pretty clear. I don't have a link to it, but the farmer's field, that he said was contaminated by windblown encroachment, turned out to be over 80% Monsanto seed, not just Monsanto at the edges.
He knowingly reaped seed from last year's crops and replanted it. Which was against his license agreement.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
.. they stole the technology that was meant for dogs.
-- All your bass are below two Hz
Is fixatiøn with cats a førm øf "catatøia"?
seguøe
I imagine a thing as hørrific-løøking as "Mr. Biggleswørth" was sø shøcking tø the møther she gave "wiggles-birth" that dragged øn fir FøUR days and fir Fø nights...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Instead of pay $4k, go to a Siberian Forest Cat breeder and buy a kitten from them. This breed is claimed to be hypoallergenic because they contain low levels of Fel d1, meaning that if (like me) you are allergic to cats then you should have a fair chance of not being allergic to these. Note that all of the evidence so far is anecdotal, so you should give a visit to test your reaction to this breed first.
"But they weren't made in a lab or bread in a lab to be hypo allergenic friendly."
Well, I just HAD tø take yøu tø task with "bread in a lab"...
If these creetures were bread in a lab, I am sure they'd be kwite susceptibel tø yeast infectiøn.
But, if they were børn as nørmal cats, then the passage frøm the burth canal wøuld prøbably generate iøns for the feliøn møther cat. If then she dragged the birth øut før føur days and føur nites, then øne MIGHT say there was an iøn trale øut her rear.
Sørry, I just HAD tø dø that tø yøu....
Nø, if I were tø dispense with the "ø", then these cats MIGHT becøme hypERallergenic... LøL
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
You should have passed. It made no sense. He's not allergic to the cat.
--
WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
Of course the cats should be delivered spayed and neutered. Nobody has mentioned that we still have a HUGE overpopulation problem in this country with cats and dogs. My local shelter has to euthanize 80% of what comes in. There's no need to be breeding cats at all. We have way too many already. This is just more human hubris and greed.
If we had any kind of thinking lawmakers, all dog and cat breeding would be outlawed until animal shelters don't have to euthanize millions of animals every day.
How should using a genetic test for a known gene (i.e. the obvious step to take, instead of looking e.g. at the color of the fur, or in this case, making their evaluation the Worst Job Ever for someone with an allergy) be able to impart any inventiveness, and hence patent-worthiness, on the process or "product"?
Now consider this rule applied to "products" that reproduce, i.e. who have it in their nature (bio-engineered or not) to generate "infringing" offspring. While this is bad enough for plants on a planet where people are starving, the implications with respect to (or probably rather: in utter disrespect of) animals as fellow creatures are staggering.
how many people allergic to cats would pay that price?
...
and it it doesn't protect them from encounters with regular cats - like those running around at
friends houses. a non-allergic person certainly won't buy one.
is the cat DRM protected? is it allowed to mate and to run around outside?
imagine a new breed of stray cats with that "feature"
They want us to pay $4000.00 for mutant pussy?! She better look like Rogue from the Comics or I ain't buying!
hmm do you have any kind of material on the hand which shows why exactly GMO products are so evil ?
:D
:D
i mean sure, they're not fighting along the usual natural selection stuff, but neither are humans.
i would be much more affraid of non-gmo products that are being overpoisoned to keep insects off
and over fertilized to compete in the market. they turn out to be slightly poisonous
for the article: i have a kitten at home, never seen it having any allergies, got the kitten
for free from a neighbour and saved 4k$ appearantly
over the 2 years the animal hasn't even been ill once. maybe it's more up to the friendly
environment for the animal and not for some absurd gene science ? i mean you can't predict
illnesses that haven't evolved yet and therefor this type of mutating effect will never
be completely and ultimately fixing.
I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
Devon Rex cats are quite good for people with hayfeaver. I suffer from hayfeaver and have two Devon Rex cats. They don't set off my hayfeaver unlike other cats i've had. They are really smart, and act more like dogs rather than cats. If you want to buy one, it will need constant attention, so buy two to keep each other company :)
Some farmers sell their stuff for a premium because they are using "natural" methods for farming (don't recall the English term). They have certificates for that. If cross pollination caused your fields to be "infested" with GMO plants you lose that certificate AND you have to pay the patent holder a license fee for "using" their GMOs (while actually the producer or owner of the GMOs should have to pay you damages).
:D
Here in Germany the conservatives push to broaden patent protection on genetically modified plants and prevent GMO infestations from counting as damage (spewing FUD about alienating the GM crop industry without these changes) while the social democrats push for restrictions on patenting organisms and laws to prevent GMO infestations. The stances on genetic modifications for medical purposes are reversed, the cons want to outlaw that while the dems want to further it. I think the situation is the same in the US. That's one of the things you should factor in when determining who to vote for.
for the article: i have a kitten at home, never seen it having any allergies, got the kitten
for free from a neighbour and saved 4k$ appearantly
You got it the wrong way around, these kittens won't trigger a cat hair allergy a human may have.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
You know... her parents having that cat allergy.
Good reason for a special episode of Azumanga Daioh.
you could say the same about taking engineered medicines to alter or supress natural reactions.
God created us in his image. If he didn't want us to act like him he wouldn't have made us able to.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Save themselves roughly $3700 and buy a Tonkinese. These cats don't shed, and as a bonus they have a great personality.
Had too much Øl lately?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
err yea, that's kind of off topic. Anywho, do you think if your allergic to cats? That means you allergic to cat meat as well? 'cos you know a $4000 cat pie would be kind of cool.
it would not be on the feline kind ;-)
If you what I mean?
__
Sigs are like arse-holes, everybody has one
something you cannot get fur allergys off, something you can call your pussy, and something which scratches you from time to time, get yourself a woman and save the 4000 dollars upfront (although women are more expensive in feeding, and fur cleaning costs in the long run)
What's is this fixation with a "lab"? What do you have against "labs"? Wherever humans conduct experiments and pick the best results, there is a lab.
Think about two situations:
a) A cook in a kitchen tastes something and decides it would be better with a bit of vinegar.
b) A chemist in a lab uses a pH meter, decides that a substance is a bit too alkaline, and adds a few drops of acetic acid.
What's the difference between these two cases, besides the wording? A cook is a chemist, a human tongue gives estimates of the pH in food, vinegar is acetic acid.
The only difference between a kitchen and what is commonly called a "chemistry lab" is precision. Cooks have training in chemistry, but in most cases it's more intuitive than formal. Human tongues give estimates of pH but are much less precise than test reagents or electronic meters. Vinegar is mostly acetic acid and water, but it contains impurities.
When a chemist buys laboratory grade acetic acid, it comes with a detailed list of the maximum amount of each impurity ona may find in it. When a cook buys vinegar, he may choose very carefully the product, but he has much less information on what it may contain. Perhaps he is very picky, he only wants vinegar made from Chianti wine. Even then, his only assurance is that the vinegar was made from wine that came from a region in Italy and made according to some specified method. He has less control over the cooking process than a chemist has over the processes in the laboratory.
Being able to know exactly what you are doing, is that so bad?
The term used is "organic" and it doesn't mean /anything/ whatsoever. Unlike e.g. "fruit juice" or "whole grain" it has no definition in law. Several organisations give out "organic" certificates based on arbitrary criteria like not using this or that particular pesticide and growing only certain strains etc. Some of them "inspect" farms to check their hippy criteria, some take it on trust. Either way it's mostly about marketing, not science.
You can see the same thing in "envionmentally friendly" labelling. No government body authorised this nonsense, because "friendly" doesn't mean anything. Our actions alter the environment, and the environment changes us. If we see an alteration we don't like (e.g. smoke filled cities, sewage on beachs or depleted ozone in our atmosphere) we can try to change products to avoid the undesirable effect, but ideas like a general environmental "footprint" or "friendly" products don't make any sense. Again, it's a big marketing success though.
No-one has been accused of allowing cross-polinated crops to grow and had to pay damages to Monsanto. The routine cases are that farmers breach a technology agreement with Monsanto, which they have agreed to, and are ordered to pay damages. The exceptional case highlighted by anti-GMI protesters concerns a farmer who claimed not to know where the Monsanto seeds in his fields came from, he hadn't signed an agreement and didn't purchase seeds from Monsanto, so some people claimed his crops must have been cross-pollinated by adjacent fields. The court didn't address the likelyhood of this idea or the merits or otherwise of Monsanto's patents because it found no evidence that the farmer gained benefit (he didn't use Roundup) and thus there were no damages.
Personally, I don't like patents, and I'm sure Monsanto is no less evil than any other huge corporation, but I do support genetic engineering and I reject the hypothesis that new foods created by men in white coats are "less safe" and need more testing than foods which are a result of centuries of cross breeding or are "discovered" in remote areas and brought back to civilisation to be farmed. Decades after we were warned that there would soon be a catastrophe caused by our unnatural tinkering we're still waiting for it to happen, but that's apparently not sufficient testing for those who won't be happy until science is banned in principle in favour of their magical thinking...
For four grand I have a few more demands:
- The cat doesn't piss on everything.
- The cat doesn't act like he owns the place.
- There are two types of cats: the ones that run from me and the ones that spar with me. Lets eliminate the first type from the genetic pool. They suck.
- The dander eliminated better not be the one that makes mice split. That's a deal breaker.
In any case, I won't be a first adopter of this technology. Just like acquiring any other cat, you can wait until one shows up in your garage.
"I don't know where they come from but they shore do come, I hope they're comin for me!" - the Nuge
Autonomous Retard -- Is your camp safe? UnsafeCamp.com
I don't know about you, but i make the arduous trip to the other hemisphere, by foot, just to get my cold beer and not be sacrilegious. I am also a firm believer that these kittens were not genetically modified from any other kitten, but rather an individual creation by the oh so marvelous spaghetti monster. Ramen.
do FDA regs count?
n
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_certificatio
"Being able to put the word "organic" on a food product is a valuable marketing advantage in today's consumer market. Certification is intended to protect consumers from misuse of the term, and make buying organics easy. However, the organic labelling made possible by certification itself usually requires explanation.
In the US, federal organic legislation defines three levels of organics. Products made entirely with certified organic ingredients and methods can be labelled "100% organic". Products with 95% organic ingredients can use the word "organic". Both may also display the USDA organic seal. A third category, containing a minimum of 70% organic ingredients, can be labelled "made with organic ingredients". In addition, products may also display the logo of the certification body that approved them. Products made with less than 70% organic ingredients can not advertise this information to consumers and can only mention this fact in the product's ingredient statement. Similar percentages and labels apply in the EU.
"
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Me and my girlfriend breed cats, siamese and oriental shorthairs to be exact. It sounds very weird to me that a company could breed cats and sell them forward readily neutered etc. This should be done by traditional method by using breeders, that the cats will more likely to be mentally healthy (get along with humans and other cats/animals). Do you think that you would be sane if you were raised in a cage until you come to age of 16 and then released to society?
And what comes to price, it's not that high really. Our cats sell for ~600 USD and they don't have any special qualities beside the beatiful looks and nice personality.
For what it's worth, US patent law expressly provides for patents on plants, but not for animals.
Don't introduce ideas like that to the religioustupids! They'll start thinking their god must want them to blow up abortion clinics just because they can.
If someone religious starts a conversation with you, just divert the topic to sport, sitcoms or some other harmless distraction. If it's on the web, point them to the Lifestyle articles on MSN. Hopefully they'll get really into American Idol and forget that religion thing.
Well, the difference is that God alledgedly said "thou shalt not kill" but I don't recall the Bible claiming he said "thou shalt not do genetic engineering".
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Every time you masturbate, god kills an allergic-free kitten does not sound right...
how long until
In Soviet Russia, kittens are allergic to YOU!
you get two of these and they start breeding? are you a criminal in breech of copyright?
Huh? I don't see anything really bad about this. I mean, the cats were tested for their degree of allergy inducing-ness, and those with the lowest "scores" were left to breed together. There's nothing really unethical in this. If it were dogs cats living together, mass hysteria (Thanks Ghostbusters :)), sure, but it's simply picking the less allergic cats and have them breed. It's not as if they had done gene splicing and inserted lemon gene or genes from galapagos island giant turtles in the cats to make them hypoallergic. Actually, I'm really happy that someone decided to go the natural (as natural as it can get anyway) route to do this.
As for medecine, you do realize that each time you take medication, there are side-effects, which can be detrimental or not to your health, not counting the fact that nature always has a tendency to adapt and make cures useless at some point? Some of these product induce drowsiness and can be dangerous if taken with alchool. You don't want people always being on drugs. Besides, I'm pretty sure than through the lifetime of a cat, an allergic can owner would spend more on medication that on the 4000$ cat.
So, is it just me and my fiancee who play "The Sock Game" with our cat?
Anyone else?
(For those trying to figure it out, it's not perverted, but just a weeeee bit cruel)
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
1
Install windows on my workstation? You crazy? Got any idea how much I paid for the damn thing?
Last word on THAT subject...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Back in 1992, on Usenet, I proposed to sci.med the idea for a business to breed a hypoallergenic cat. It looks like someone took the idea (can’t say they got the idea from me, though) and built a business on it.
Good luck to Allerca!
"Allergy-Free" and "Hypoallergenic" are not the same thing.
;)
One supposes that the lil kittens will have no need for Benedryl, until one reads on to find that the beneficiary is the cat owner, not the cat
"There are 11 kinds of people: those who know binary, those who don't, and those who could not care less!"
a side effect is that they will scratch your eyes out while you're sleeping.
that behaves like a dog.
How about a hairless cat? I'll bet that would be hypoallergenic too, at a fraction of the price.
Collies, actually.
Fnord.
He promptly received this reply:
Presumably the two-headed cat is forthcoming.
-Waldo Jaquith
For most people that are allergic to cats, there are some breeds that just don't give off as much allergens in their saliva.
Siberians are anecdotally referred to as hypoallergenic cats. There is a study being done by a university to test that out.
I know I have a Himalayan. Most people that have cat allergies suffer only mild symptons around my cat, where they suffer really badly when around other breeds.
But $4,000 for a pet? No thanks. It's cheaper to get allergy shots, or even more successful for some, accupuncture. I know my mother when from getting max dose allergy shots for 30 years to getting none, simply by having accupuncture.
4. Profit!!!!
3. ????
2. purchase one pair of freaky hypoallergenic cats
1. second mortgage
-Billco, Fnarg.com
*Now* you tell me that people will pay $4k for these things.
*sigh*
I *had* a hypoallergenic cat almost 20 ears ago. A great many people with cat allergies could handle him without problem.
Heck, *I* didn't find out that I had cat allergies.
But he's ten years gone, and I'd had him fixed anway.
hawk, once more feeling fame and fortune slip through his fingers
Oh my. I envy you. There are at least a dozen that love to poop in my backyard.
They belong to a "feral cat colony". This is an excuse that people use for supporting dozens or hundreds of cats that run free. The cat feeders are generally unable to keep so many cats at home, supplying them with litter boxes and such.
I have a crazy person behind my house that does this. (Why are such people normally obese or elderly women?) She claims to be spaying and neutering them, but she really doesn't. The cats just had two or more litters. The kittens are everywhere.
My house smells like cat shit. My toddlers find it. Thanks lady, you have such a considerate hobby!
Why put "Not Show Quality" on the papers?
If you want to get last place in a show, that's just fine. Somebody needs to get last place. What is their problem?
We don't put "Not Olympic Quality" on birth certificates, even if it is damn obvious. Hopefully we keep our comments to ourselves.
Man, what a bunch of pricks.
Actually, it all started with cross-polarization of the chrono-gizmo during the alignment of the tachyon technobabbler by a future version of the farmer, who was actually an alternate version of an engineer suffering from timeline amnesia due to not having been born.
It was just another bad episode of one of the Star Trek spinoffs with a TLA after the colon. Don't worry; the whole episode didn't happen.
hawk, wondering if royalties are really due when a station runs an episode that, by its own terms, never happened
That's not nearly as cool. Oh well.
Perhaps genetic engineering can make me a cat that doesn't poop?
. . . stepping on a whole, moving mouse in the middle of the night.
. . . or dealing with a wife who has just done so . . .
hawk
Wasn't their winter over by the time you got there?
The post that simply states an opinion against breeding is modded flamebait, and the response that ridicules it is +5 insightful...
Are all naive religious points of view really flamebait? Some people actually believe them.
I have two cats, one male and one female. I have very mild cat allergies but if I pet Randy (the male) for a long time and I haven't put my eye drops in, I'll start reacting a little bit.
But I could pet Emily all day long and all she does is shed. Really, no reaction whatsoever. Too bad she's fixed.
Dear my that is misleading. These people are either dishonest or they truly can't do basic math and logic.
First, "Cats are usually territorial animals" is proven false. (they sort of have a home range, but they don't effectively defend it)
Second, "Frazier said the cost of euthanizing an animal is lower than having it spayed or neutered, but in the long run an animal only has to be fixed once while colonies will constantly have to be euthanized." is clearly nonsense. We could do as well to say that "an animal only has to be euthanized once while colonies will constantly have to have spaying and neutering". Duh. Comparing a single animal against a colony? WTF?
It all comes down to a desperate ploy by people who can't bear the thought of some unwanted pests being exterminated. Cat lovers will do anything to save the critters. There is no logic or reasoning in this.
BTW, extermination would be extremely cheap if it wasn't made into some complicated "euthanizing" operation. We have solutions that work for deer overpopulations, rats, etc.
A few years back a good friend of mine in his mid 30's and horribly allergic to cats - got two kittens.
:) You can't assume a cat will take up any preconceived role that you have for them.
It was about two months of horrible sneezing and sniffling - then his immune system figured out that cat allergen wasn't dangerous. Now he's fine with cats.
Your mileage may vary (and this entire post may be terrible advice that you should never follow), but I'm guessing that you were pampered as a kid - kept out of the muck and dirt, kept away from animals - to the point that your immune system doesn't know what to do when it encounters cat particulates.
I'd suggest borrowing a cat from a friend for a couple of weeks (looking after one while their owner is away would be an excellent start) - and see if you can ride it through (although always have an "exit strategy" with a mutual friend who'd be willing to take over looking after the cat if you have a serious reaction and can't cope).
And then again - your ownership experiences will vary from cat to cat. I've had a cat who hated cuddling up to me, I've had a cat who loved curling up on my lap - they are their own personalities and will do whatever they damn well feel like - even if it's nibbling on your toes at 6am on a Sunday because they want to be fed.
Also: cats are not immortal. While I would probably spend $4000 to save one of mine, I'd be very cautious about spending that on aquiring one in the first place. I've lost two cats to unnatural causes in the immediate family. One of my brother's cat simply disappeared - she went out one night and we could never find her again - one of mine died through internal organ failure that the vet reckoned was genetic.
And you also have to think long and hard about allowing your cats the risk of outdoor life. My first cat lived to the grand old age of 18 years old, and was an ourdoor cat all her life, coming and going as she pleased. But my cats are strictly indoor cats now - it's much easier and simpler to look after them and make sure they don't get in fights, etc, your vet will thank you. Although you need to schedule playtime to make sure that they have attention and stimulation.
but how do they taste??
There are 10 types of people in the world; those who can read binary, and those who can't.
What really needs to be produced is allergy-free people.
When science makes a cat that doesn't demand to be fed half the time, sleep half the time, and ignore my existance when I'm not petting it, then I'll be impressed.
This sig is false.
I need any other cat aside from Nemo? Your kidding? The first, and original hypo-allergenic cat.
Less important? I hope by that you don't mean cats! Or people for that matter...
Who are you to determine importance Mr AC? If I had the choice of your death or my cat's death, you'd be a goner - and I'd hardly give it a second thought. But if I had to choose between my cat and my best human friend, I'd choose my best human friend - and still be really upset about it.
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
I, too, got a Siberian. 1/8th the cost of the Frankencats being discussed in the article...
The reason I got one is because I am very allergic to cats. Siberians supposedly have much lower levels of the protein in their saliva that typically causes reactions in people allergic to cats. (Mechanism: Cats lick fur. Fur has dander. Fur and dander get into air. My eyes turn bright red and I stop breathing. Oops.)
The problem is that, like many things anecdotal, I was just as allergic to her as any other cat. She now lives with my mom. BUT -- I've never met a more friendly cat in my life. She is practically a dog. I like my cats to be a little more aloof... but if you are looking for a cat that will follow the rules and is as friendly and devoted as a dog: Get a Siberian. If you are looking for a cat that won't cause allergies: Get some hair clippers.
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.
What is God anyway, if not an Engineer?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Looks like Ted Nugent will have to come up with another song.
And look how well dog breeding went. A lot of breeds have serious genetic illnesses (hip displaysia (sp?)) or have been bred to certain certain standard that they can't really function as dogs anymore (those really tiny dogs.)
My cat always seems to be hacking and sneezing. It must be allergic to just about everything. I might have to get me one of these non-allergic types when the current one kicks off.
Personally I don't see this being a big seller. As others have pointed out, other cat breeds have similar qualities and those breeds are already well represented by cat breeders who are established. When someone purchases a 4000 dollar cat they usually do it through word of mouth about the breeder, their genetics and pedigree as certified, and their standing in the local Cat Fanciers Association. It's not a world easily cracked into by some random group of people. Then again they might have mitigated all this already by bringing a well known cat breeder to be their sales person etc.
The lady neuters a few every now and then, clipping the ears as she does. She's registered with the county, which makes calling animal control quite useless. It goes like this: I trap a cat, I call animal control, animal control sees the clipped ear, animal control walks NEXT DOOR and RELEASES the cat.
If I get lucky, animal control will hold the cat for a while. The cat may get a fatal disease in the shelter. The cat lady will rescue the cat if she can. If I am very lucky, the cat lady will be too slow and the shelter will euthanize the cat. I probably have to catch the same cat 10 times before it's gone for good. (well, I can claim the cat and take it to an understanding vet or take it to a shelter 100 miles away or find some other solution, which I shouldn't have to do)
The cats live in a protected wildlife area. The one and only time I've had success with animal control was when the cat lady made the mistake of admitting that she feeds them in the protected wildlife area. (we actually have endangered species there, mostly tortises I think) The cat lady got a small fine, and she got the cat back.
This lady is permitted to own zero cats. She lives in an apartment.
Sometimes I find cat shit on my lawn, but usually it is buried... in my vegetable garden or in places where my kids like to dig. Even when successfully buried, I can smell it and the flies can smell it. I wonder how much it would cost to sue this lady for endangering my family's health.
I note that you make no mention of feral cat "managers" providing litter boxes. They only provide food and vetrinary care. This is very inconsiderate. Whatever goes into the mouth must come out the other end.
I think, if you are crazy about cats, you stop having compassion for your fellow human beings and for all the native wildlife. Despite being obviously well-fed, the cats love to hide near bird feeders just for the fun of killing things like cardinals.
Note that, when trying to kill them all, cats which wander in are getting removed from the surrounding areas. The benefit is there, even if not fully localized to the area where the pest control is being done.
What do you mean, "can't really function as a dog anymore"? If a dog's only purpose is as a bodyguard, I would say you're a paranoid coward. My "little tiny dog" alerts me to something's presence and I deal with the problem. I'm the exact opposite of a pitbull owner, who hears leaves rustling and says "go get 'em Killer! I'm scared!". And then they shoot blindly into the dark with their chrome 9mm.
Give me a break! That's not protecting your home, that's coddling a neurosis.
It's not like I have a flock of sheep to be protected for fuck's sake. Just my dog and I. So, why would I need a huge horse of a dog that drops bigger turds than I do? Oh, that's right...because I should be afraid of the world. I don't even have any bears or cougars in the area. And, even if I did, the dog would lose the fight against that wild creature no matter what size dog you have. Oh, and I'm supposed to be running away from the animal while my dog is protecting me? Some pack leader I am!
Most predators(human or animal) only want the element of suprise anyway. Once they lose that, they also lose interest in the prey. Meaning my 7 pound chihuahua is just as effective as a 200 pound mastiff. It's the bark, period. Not how much bass is in your dog's bark.
"I would be willing to pay up to $4000 to buy such a kitten..."
The only way I would pay that much is if it came with the laser eyes option and could program it for guard duty.
How cool would that be?
No sig for you! Come back one year!