With a litter of tactics, scientists work to tame cat allergies
Time magazine’s list of Best Inventions of 2006 included an unusual creation. It wasn’t a gadget; it was a cat. “Love cats but your nose doesn’t?” the magazine asked. “A San Diego company is breeding felines that are naturally hypoallergenic.” There was a 15-month waiting list for the “sniffle-proof kitties,” which sold for $3,950 or more. The company selling the cats, Allerca, had tapped into a tantalizing dream for allergy-prone cat lovers: the hypoallergenic cat. Given that just two genes are responsible for making cats a problem for many people, it seemed like a no-brainer to engineer cats that lacked those genes, or to simply breed cats with versions of the genes that made the animals less allergenic. But so far, itchy-eyed cat lovers have been left disappointed. By 2010, Allerca had stopped taking orders — and lawsuits were lining up. The sniffle-proof kitties never materialized. Some angry customers said they never received a kitten, others were sent a cat that triggered their allergies. But for...