. please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . march 2012 lifestyle pets industry animal breeding key people simon brodie founder website http www.lifestylepets.com footnotes references formerly allerca lifestyle pets formerly allerca is a delaware based biotechnology company that claims to have bred hypoallergenic cats through a selective breeding process . the company was originally incorporated in california . 1 according to company literature the company s cats have significantly reduced levels of a particular protein that humans suffer allergic reactions to . 2 the journal nature reported in september 2006 that in an allerca funded study sheldon spector a clinical allergy expert at the university of california los angeles found the company s cats to be less allergy inducing than the control . however neither the study nor its underlying data have been published 3 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 . 4 a july 2006 article in the san diego union tribune reported that no details about the cats have been released nor have there been any peer reviewed studies published about the company s work . 1 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 . citation needed time named the company s cats among its list of best inventions for 2006 . 5 allerca refuses to provide its kittens to clients whose allergy test results indicate a level that includes high . 6 a cat based on the domestic shorthair cost us 6 950 while ones based on the siamese and ashera cost 16 900 and 26 950 respectively . 7 in february 2006 allerca was evicted from its san diego headquarters an address that doubled as the founder simon brodie s home . 1 brodie s previous businesses have left behind unhappy clients unpaid employees debts lawsuits court judgments and liens ... 1 the company transgenic pets sued allerca and brodie for theft of trade secrets and business plans . 1 allerca settled . the settlement agreed that allerca would not re enter the genetically engineered allergen free cat market until may 31 2006 . 8 for a while allerca offered a franchising program possibly in violation of california law . 9 reports from allerca indicate that they accepted at least partial payment from potential franchisees . 9 the company announced that on january 1 2010 they will cease their breeding activities . 10 however their website remains active and recent online complaints suggest that they are still in business . 11 a report by abc news in july 2013 12 13 confirms that the cats sold by lifestyle pets are no more hypoallergenic than any other cat . contents 1 fel d 1 2 controversy 3 ashera cats 4 references 5 external links fel d 1 edit most human cat allergies are caused by fel d 1 . 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 alleles are known and documented whereas it is presently impossible to deduce allergenicity from their dna or protein sequence alone the alleged mutant cats could in fact exist but their hypoallergenicity can not be considered proven for the time being . controversy edit discussions on forums and blogs continue to debate the status of this company and whether it is vaporware . this has given rise to at least one web site complaining that creature has not been provided as promised . 14 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 . 15 a warren nj man filed suit against allerca for return of 7900 he paid in september 2007 for a hypoallergenic cat . 16 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 . 16 ashera cats edit main article ashera 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 breed . references edit a b c d e crabtree penni 2006 07 16 . questions trail local entrepreneur . sign on san diego . san diego union tribune . archived from the original on 2008 07 30 . exposure trial by leading allergist shows allerca cat is hypoallergenic allerca sept. 14 2006 allergy free pets surprisingly simple nature michael hopkin sept. 26 2006 grens kerry 2007 01 01 . felis enigmaticus . 21 1 . the scientist 32 . archived copy 2008 11 15 time best inventions 2006 allerca sales e mail hypoallergenic cats lifestyle pets crabtree penni 2006 06 08 . allerca promises sneeze free cats . sign on san diego . san diego union tribune . archived from the original on 2008 07 30 . a b crabtree penni 2006 10 25 . franchised felines . sign on san diego . san diego union tribune . archived from the original on 2008 07 30 . lifestyle pets . allerca . archived from the original on 2009 11 01 . retrieved 2009 11 01 . http www.ripoffreport.com r allerca lifestyle pets internet allerca lifestyle pets simon brodie cats are not hypoallergenic internet 997100 http abcnews.go.com nightline video case hypoallergenic cat 19695208 http abcnews.go.com nightline video man hypoallergenic cats 19695238 mintz bob . allerca lifestyle pet rip off . allerca lifestyle pet rip off . archived from the original on 2008 08 06 . cahoon lauren 2008 04 16 . allergy free cats fact or fiction . allergy free cats fact or fiction . abc news . archived from the original on 2008 08 06 . a b deak michael 2009 08 13 . warren man wants 7 900 back for hypoallergenic kitten . mycentraljesery.com . courier news home news tribune . archived from the original on 2009 08 17 . retrieved 2009 08 17 . external links edit http www.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 franchised felines allerca s plans to sell hypoallergenic animals new breed met with skepticism san diego union tribune designer pet founder guilty in british scheme san diego union tribune allerca must stop franchises in california san diego union tribune what the data say the scientist bred to be furry and allergy free retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title lifestyle pets & oldid 743674890 categories companies based in san diegobiotechnology companies of the united stateshidden categories wikipedia articles in need of updating from march 2012all wikipedia articles in 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