Another contribution to Science in the Public Disinterest (see last contribution, on nanotech and golfballs): this one tells us about "Cat Lovers Lining Up for No-Sneeze Kitties."
And I've got only one response: Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
By the by, Joseph at Corpus Callosum picked up on earlier reports of this, back in June, and it looks like "progress" is being made. I feel obliged to keep the desirous public in the know.
Allerca, a smalll California biotech company, is making headway:
Last month, an Allerca public relations consultant, Julie Chytrowsky, kept Joshua, an Allerca cat, for several weeks at her Los Angeles area apartment. Joshua had flown to California to "do some publicity."
Ms. Chytrowsky, who says she is normally quite allergic, had no symptoms even though she allowed Joshua to sleep in her bed. "I fell in love with him," she said. "He is a real stud -- well, he is a stud, really."
Okay, two responses, the above and: Whhhhyyyyyyyyy?
Quoth the liberal pinko commie dirty hippie crunchy America-hating NYT again:
[The] small California biotech company says it is ready to deliver the Holy Grail of the $35 billion pet industry: a hypoallergenic cat.
At the start of next year, the first kittens -- which the company calls "lifestyle pets" -- will go home to eager owners who have been carefully screened and have been on a waiting list for more than two years.
Since it announced the project in October 2004, the company, Allerca, of San Diego, says it has received inquiries from people in 85 countries seeking to buy a cat bred so that its glands do not produce the protein responsible for most human cat allergies.
Cats ordered now will take 12 to 15 months for delivery in the United States, 15 to 18 months in Europe. Cost: $4,000. And owners must pass Allerca's finicky screening tests.
What else could we be devoting our resources to?
Oh, but shame on me. I'm being crotchety. The people wants it, the people gets it. Good for them; great for the cats. Am I right people?
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I seem to recall that when the first allergy-free cat was born and reported in New Scientist some one wrote in to say that there were already allergy-free cats, but we call 'em dogs!
I know - not the same thing at all.