Lifestyle Pets, formerly Allerca, was a
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
-based company which in the mid-2000s claimed to have bred
hypoallergenic cat
Allergies to cats are one of the most common allergies among human individuals. Among the eight known cat allergens, the most prominent allergen is secretoglobin Fel d 1, which is produced in the anal glands, salivary glands, and, mainly, in sebace ...
s, although it was later revealed that the company's founder had previously engaged in multiple fraudulent enterprises.
According to company literature, through selective breeding the company achieved
Ashera cats with significantly reduced levels of a particular protein that
human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
s suffer
allergic reaction
Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, refer a number of conditions caused by the hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic derma ...
s to.
[Exposure Trial by Leading Allergist Shows ALLERCA Cat Is Hypoallergenic](_blank)
Allerca, Sept. 14, 2006 The journal ''
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'' reported in September 2006 that in an Allerca-funded study, Sheldon Spector, a clinical
allergy
Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, refer a number of conditions caused by the hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic derma ...
expert at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
, found the company's cats to be less allergy-inducing than the control. However, neither the study nor its underlying data have been published,
[Allergy-free pets surprisingly simple](_blank)
''Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'', Michael Hopkin, Sept. 26, 2006 and Spector himself advises caution as regards his study's interpretation as he used an experimental setup that is generally regarded as less than reliable.
[ ]
A July 2006 article in the ''
San Diego Union-Tribune
''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868.
Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...
'' reported that no details about the cats have been released, nor have there been any
peer-reviewed
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
studies published about the company's work.
Cat experts also questioned whether the company's breeding model - stated at the time to be up to 10,000 cats by 2009 - was viable.
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
named the company's cats among its list of Best Inventions for 2006.
[TIME Best Inventions 2006](_blank)
/ref> Allerca refuses to provide its kittens to clients whose allergy test results "indicate a level that includes HIGH".[Allerca sales e-mail](_blank)
/ref> A cat based on the Domestic shorthair
A domestic short-haired cat is a cat possessing a coat of short fur, not belonging to any particular recognised cat breed. In Britain they are sometimes colloquially called moggies. Domestic short-haired cats are distinct from the British Shortha ...
cost US$6,950 while ones based on the Siamese and Ashera cost $16,900 and $26,950 respectively.
In February 2006, Allerca was evicted from its San Diego headquarters, an address that doubled as the founder Simon Brodie
Simon may refer to:
People
* Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon
* Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon
* Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...
's home.[
] Brodie's previous businesses have "left behind unhappy clients, unpaid employees, debts, lawsuits, court judgments and liens...." The company Transgenic Pets sued Allerca and Brodie for theft of trade secrets and business plans. Allerca settled. The settlement agreed that Allerca would not re-enter the genetically engineered allergen free cat market until May 31, 2006.
For a while, Allerca offered a franchising program, possibly in violation of California law. Reports from Allerca indicate that they accepted at least partial payment from potential franchisees.
[
]
The company announced that on January 1, 2010 they will cease their breeding activities. However, their website remains active, and recent online complaints suggest that they are still in business. A report by ABC news in July 2013 maintains that the cats sold by Lifestyle Pets are no more hypoallergenic than any other cat.
Fel d 1
Most human cat allergies are caused by Fel d 1
Fel d 1 is a secretoglobin protein complex that, in cats, is encoded by the ''CH1'' (chain 1/Fel d 1-A) and ''CH2'' (chain 2/Fel d 1-B) genes.
Among cats, Fel d 1 is produced largely in their saliva and by the sebaceous glands located in the ...
. Allerca (and earlier, Geneticas) scientists tried to delete or disable the gene. The company now says it has "discovered" a breed of cats that had a mutant version of the protein that did not induce an allergic response. Since a number of Fel d 1 allele
An allele (, ; ; modern formation from Greek ἄλλος ''állos'', "other") is a variation of the same sequence of nucleotides at the same place on a long DNA molecule, as described in leading textbooks on genetics and evolution.
::"The chro ...
s are known and documented whereas it is presently impossible to deduce allergenicity from their DNA or protein sequence alone, the alleged mutant cats could exist, but their hypoallergenicity has not been proven.
Secrecy and lack of peer review
Lifestyle Pets never submitted their scientific claims for peer review.[Fuzzy Kittens, Fuzzier Science: Claims of hypoallergenic cats continue to go unchallenged by press](_blank)
''Columbia Journalism Review'', Jonah Comstock, Sept. 6, 2011. In addition, the company was quite secretive. In a 2006 interview with the ''San Diego Union-Tribune
''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868.
Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...
'', the CEO at the time would not say where the company was located, how it was funded, how many people it employed, how many cats it had produced, or even where the cats were housed.
Fraudulent background of founder
In 1994, Simon Brodie was convicted of seven counts of false accounting in the UK and sentenced to approximately two years in prison in connection with the collapse of a hot-air balloon company named Cloudhoppers. The ''San Diego Union-Tribune'' reported that Brodie planned to sell franchises at £200,000 each, but instead defrauded consumers and ran up hundreds of thousands of pounds in debts.['Designer pet' founder guilty in British scheme](_blank)
''San Diego Union-Tribune'', Penni Crabtree, October 28, 2006.
In 1999, Brodie incorporate Cerentis LLC in Delaware, United States, and the company sold software training packages. Peter Wood, 40, of Essex, England, purchased one such package for more than $50,000 with the understanding that he would receive training and then an employment offer. He did receive training at a California company named Alphalogix, but Brodie disappeared before the three-week course was completed. According to Los Angeles County court records, Brodie also failed to pay Alphalogix $30,600 in training fees. Mr. Wood said, "He's an extremely accomplished con man. He's obviously very good at what we call smoke and mirrors. He portrays a real professional company. But there's no depth to it at all."
Other Brodie-affiliated companies have included Integra Associates, Samba Wireless, Geneticas Life Sciences, ForeverPet, Genetiate, GeneSentinel, and Cyntegra.
Some customers did not receive any cats
Discussions on forums and blogs continue to debate the status of this company and whether it is "vaporware
In the computer industry, vaporware (or vapourware) is a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is late or never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled. Use of the word has broade ...
". This has given rise to at least one web site complaining that creature has not been provided as promised.[
] A report page has been opened at the Better Business Bureau of Wilmington, Delaware. It shows the current rating as "Unsatisfactory." Reports of customers receiving their Allerca GD kitten are sporadic, but they can be found on the web.
In September a man filed a law suit against Allerca for return of $7900 he paid for a hypoallergenic cat.[
] Delivery was initially promised in eight months, but after repeated delays of the promised delivery date through 2008 and 2009, and a statement in March 2009 that the delivery scheduled had been affected by "decreased kitten production," the customer requested return of his money.
Another customer who did not receive a cat went to the news media from Live Oak, California, in 2009.[After one year, Live Oak woman loses hope of getting promised hypoallergenic cat](_blank)
''Santa Cruz Sentinel News'', Cathy Kelly, Sept. 17, 2009.
The company announced that they would stop taking orders for new kittens at the end of 2009 and instead focus on "veterinary diagnostic products," and that they would continue fulfilling previous orders through 2010 and 2011.
Ashera cats
Lifestyle Pets also markets a hybrid cat under the name "Ashera." Several of the cats sold under the Ashera name were actually of the Savannah cat
The Savannah is a hybrid cat breed. It results from a cross between a serval and a Cat, domestic cat. This hybridization typically produces large and lanky offspring with vibrant spotted coats.
History
The Savannah cat is the largest of the br ...
breed.[{{cite web , title=Ashera Cats the Big Hoax , url=https://www.savannahcatassociation.org/ashera-cats/ , publisher=Savannah Cat Association , access-date=14 December 2022]
References
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20141221040830/http://lifestylepets.com/ - Official site
* http://www.allerca.com - Older official site
Allergen-free cats – a breed apart (New Scientist)
Finally, you can enjoy the purr without a sneeze (International Herald Tribune)
* ttp://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20061028-9999-1b28brodie.html 'Designer pet' founder guilty in British scheme (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Allerca_must_stop_franchises_in_[California
/nowiki>_(San_Diego_Union-Tribune).html" ;"title="alifornia">Allerca must stop franchises in [California
/nowiki> (San Diego Union-Tribune)">alifornia">Allerca must stop franchises in [California
/nowiki> (San Diego Union-Tribune)
What the data say (The Scientist)
Bred to be furry and allergy-free
Companies based in San Diego
Biotechnology companies of the United States