US bio-technology company Allerca are calling them “Lifestyle pets”.  If that conjures up images of building your own customised furry family member via some sort of snazzy Cat-Constructor online interface then you’re sadly mistaken.  For the moment, anyway…

Far from enabling you to build your very own purple furred, glow in the dark feline with bluetooth and integrated DAB digital radio, Allerca are offering a solution to millions of cat lovers around the world who’s allergies either prevent them from having a cat entirely or force them to simply grin and bear it.

The firm has spent a number of years tracking down suitable cats to breed from, those being ones who’s skin, fur and saliva do not contain ”glycoprotein Fel d1″, the protein responsible for causing an allergic reaction in humans.  Allerca are quick to point out that this is not genetic modification, merely selective breeding and, with only 1 in 50,000 would-be parents making the grade, it’s been a labourious process.

One can’t help but wonder if there’s an extremely good reason that this protein is only missing from one in every 50,000 cats, but until peoples’ four-thousand dollar moggies start spontaneously combusting up trees we’re probably not going to know.  Unlike Dell, it’s going to be a bit trickier for them to issue a re-call when their products start exploding.

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Keywords: Allerca, Breeding, Cats, Genetics, Hypoallergenic, Lifestyle