Talk:Lifestyle Pets

POV issue

This article appears one-sided and omits criticism of the company.

First, there is no scientific proof that Allerca has ever produced such a cat, or that they ever will.

Second, a series of stories that questioned the background of this company were deleted by an anonymous user.

I question the integrity of these edits, especially given the derth of data and the questions raised by the San Diego Union-Tribune, and am reverting it back to a form where these are present.

Concerns were raised about the article on OTRS. I stubbed the article for a sourced, balanced rewrite. FCYTravis 18:10, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Well done - thanks for the explanation. Johntex\^talk 18:42, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Semi-protection

I have semi-protected the page due to vandalism from IP accounts. Johntex\^talk 19:03, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Evidencing Statements

"The cats sold will be neutered/spayed so that they can not be bred by the owners." This is not shown in any of the sources. I am going to go ahead and delete the sentence. If somebody wants to rephrase it to be more in line with the sources, then go ahead. That statement is unsupported.

It says so right there on the ordering page of the allerca web site. I would put "Allerca claims that the cats sold will be neutered/spayed so that they can not be bred by the owners."

I would find support and add it to the references before I go and start deleting things.

We need people who actually ordered these cats and can confirm it to contribute to his page. QUINTIX 20:04, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Some comments and corrections:

ALLERCA began deliveries of kittens in the latter part of 2006. Comments regarding Geneticas producing cats via RNAi are false. ALLERCA investigated the use of RNAi to manipulate the gene in cats, and conducted preliminary tests on cat cells that showed positive results, however ALLERCA decided not to proceed with RNAi, favoring naturally occurring genetic mutations.

The articles in the Diego Union Tribune were based on information provided by a fired, ex-employee of ALLERCA, Cyndi Loeffler, who is currently under investigation for providing confidential information from a computer stolen by Loeffler and given to the San Diego Union Tribune reporter, who knew the laptop had been stolen from ALLERCA. The reporter, Penni Crabtree, has failed repeatedly to make corrections to the articles about ALLERCA and knowingly published incorrect and false information, to the extent that she endangered the lives of ALLERCA employees. ALLERCA is currently suing Loeffler for damages exceeding $2 million.

The articles published in The Scientist and written by Kerry Grens were rehashed San Diego Union Tribune articles; the experts quoted in The Scientist articles (Fernando Martinez, director of the Arizona Respiratory Center; Martin Chapman, founder of Indoor Biotechnologies; Leslie Lyons, assistant professor at the UC-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine) never contacted ALLERCA to further understand or question the company's claims, hence their comments lack credibility and validity.

The ALLERCA cats were named as one of TIME magazine’s Best Invention Of The Year 2006; the founder and chairman has not been convicted in any crime as has been incorrectly reported by both the Union Tribune and The Scientist; both publications have yet to provide any proof when asked about their claims regarding Mr. Brodie. Allerca 00:11, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

• Hello Allerca, thanks for your message on my talk page. I have replied on your talk page. We want to make sure that information on Wikipedia is as accurate as possible. However, it is not up to us to decide what the truth is. We have a saying that we are striving for "verifiability not truth". We strive to follow a policy called WP:Attribution which states that information we put into articles should be verifiable by reliable sources.

I will check through this article to see if we have correctly cited the sources that we consulted in writing the article. However, if the media sources are wrong, it is not up to us to try to correct them. Unfortunately, we can't just take someone's word about incorrect information. Fortunately, if you are associated with Allerca, you could put a response to the media on your own webpage, and then we can link to your page as a second source. In that case, we would not remove the original sources, but we would add your rebuttal as a source so that we are presenting all sides of the story as well as possible.

I'll post back after I review the material in the article. in the meantime, please look over the policy links I provide above. Best, Johntex\^talk 00:32, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Please provide reliable sources which tend to rebut these claims and support your assertion that "their comments lack credibility and validity." FCYTravis 05:32, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Possible sources for citations

Got a citation, but no time to integrate it into the article? Add it here. Got some time and want to flesh out the article? Pull it from here and add it to the article. — Alan De Smet | Talk 03:48, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

• Crabtree, Penni (2008-02-05). "Dutch authorities, breeders question 'designer' cats". SignOnSanDiego.com. Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Archived from the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2008-10-06.

• Crabtree, Penni (2006-07-16). "Foundation may have gotten donations illegally". SignOnSanDiego.com. Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Archived from the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2008-10-06.

• Crabtree, Penni (2006-10-25). "Company's new pet project: $6,000 exotic cats". SignOnSanDiego.com. Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Archived from the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2006-10-06.

• THE MURKY BACKGROUND OF THE ASHERA AND ALLERCA - This essay has a lot of information on Allerca's full range of pet offerings and their history, also links to a bunch other supporting sources. Added by Violetofthevalley (talk) 17:27, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

• O'Brien, Keith (2007-07-31). "Bred to be furry and allergy-free". boston.com. Boston Globe/New York Times Company. Archived from the original on 2008-11-15. Retrieved 2008-11-15.
  • "Many former associates have raised doubts about the company, given the past of its founder, Simon Brodie, who has a history of failed ventures, a criminal conviction, and fraud allegations."
  • "But cat geneticists and allergists from Los Angeles to Boston are less convinced. They question whether Allerca has done what it says. They would like the company to release its scientific data, something that Allerca refuses to do, saying the information is proprietary."
• Pepling, Rachel (2006-06-09). ""Hypoallergenic" Cats For Sale, U.S. Firm Announces". National Geographic News. National Geographic. Archived from the original on 2008-11-15. Retrieved 2008-11-15.
• Grens, Kerry (2007-12-14). "Cat trouble brewing". TheScientist.com. The Scientist. Archived from the original on 2008-11-17. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
• Gawrylewski, Andrea (2008-02-05). "Cat trouble brewing". TheScientist.com. The Scientist. Archived from the original on 2008-11-17. Retrieved 2008-11-17.

Merger proposal

I propose merging Ashera into this article. At the moment Ashera is a bit on the stubby side. It's not a recognized breed, it's a brand name used by Lifestyle Pets. For now a single, slightly longer article covering both the Ashera line and Lifestyle Pets as a whole seems superior to a two relatively short articles. If kept as two articles, they'll be highly redundant with each other. Absent controversy, I'll make this merge "soonish." — Alan De Smet | Talk 23:22, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Sounds reasonable. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.231.21.31 (talk) 07:01, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Lifestyle Pets not quite dead?

Despite the reference (and citation) in the main article stating the Lifestyle Pets/Allerca would "...cease their breeding activities.. on January 1, 2010", their websites (both Lifestyle Pets and Allerca) are still active, and pet adoptions are listed as continuing into 2011. Ihave thus taken the liberty of placing a "dated information" tag on the article, as it appears that some updates are required.Wee Charlie (talk) 03:09, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Follow up in January 2016 -- The Allerca website is a dead link and the Lifestyle Pets website now appears to be an unrelated blog.Wee Charlie (talk) 18:18, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

uncritical and softball media coverage at beginning?

Fuzzy Kittens, Fuzzier Science: Claims of hypoallergenic cats continue to go unchallenged by press, Columbia Journalism Review, Jonah Comstock, Sept. 6, 2011.

This article says 'Allerca Lifestyle' received uncritical media coverage in the beginning, but later on more skeptical articles were published such as the following: FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 17:51, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

Bred to be furry and allergy-free: Geneticists and allergists doubtful, Boston Globe, Keith O'Brien, July 31, 2007.

secrecy and lack of peer review for company claims

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.

' . . The company has yet to provide proof of its genomics accomplishment – such as a scientific paper published in a peer-reviewed journal – and the scale of its enterprise seems far-fetched, some say. . '

' . . In an interview last month, Allerca chief executive Megan Young would not say where the company is located, how it is funded, how many people it employs, how many cats it has produced or where the cats are housed, or identify any scientists or laboratories involved in the project. . '

' . . Young has said Allerca plans soon to publish a scientific paper on its research. . '

---

Bred to be furry and allergy-free: Geneticists and allergists doubtful, Boston Globe, Keith O'Brien, July 31, 2007.

' . . . But cat geneticists and allergists from Los Angeles to Boston are less convinced. They question whether Allerca has done what it says. They would like the company to release its scientific data, something that Allerca refuses to do, saying the information is proprietary. . . '

' . . . The fact that Brodie refuses to document the science, through an independent study or in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, leaves many skeptical. . . '

' . . . But [Dr. Dale] Umetsu [pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School and an allergist and immunologist at Children's Hospital Boston] is skeptical. About a year ago, he contacted Allerca, asking if he could study its cats and perhaps publish an article about its work, he said. Their answer, he said, was no.'

With two references, I now feel confident that we can include this as a new section in our article. FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 23:07, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

other sources

World's First Hypoallergenic Cat: Scientific Breakthrough or Hype?, ABC News, Sana Venjara, July 17, 2013.

' . . . Other customers complained that they paid thousands for an Allerca cat that they never received. . . '

' . . . Indoor Biotechnologies found that the four Allerca cats it tested, including two from owners who thought their cats did cause fewer allergic reactions, were no more hypoallergenic than other cats. . . '

' . . . according to Brodie, each customer was aware of the terms and conditions of the sales agreement, which is "that an order is non-cancelable, non-refundable and that there is no time limitation on the business' obligation to deliver a pet." . . . '

I think we want to approach this topic step-by-medium-step, neither overstating nor understating. FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 19:04, 16 September 2017 (UTC)

---

http://legacy.sandiegouniontribune.com/uniontrib/20080205/news_1b5cats.html

fraudulent background of founder

'Designer pet' founder guilty in British scheme, Union-Tribune San Diego, Penni Crabtree, October 28, 2006.

' . . . Brodie, founder of Allerca, a “designer pet” company that claims to have created a hypoallergenic cat, was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail for his role in the 1992 demise of Cloudhoppers, a hot air balloon-flight business in East Sussex.

'According to British press accounts of the time, Brodie's company planned to sell dozens of franchises at 200,000 pounds each to flight operators across Britain. Instead, Brodie bilked consumers and ran up hundreds of thousands of pounds in debts, according to British press accounts. . . '

' . . . Brodie and two other Brodie-affiliated companies, Cerentis and IntegraAssociates, also defaulted on a $72,280 promissory note, according to Los Angeles County court records. . . '

---

Bred to be furry and allergy-free: Geneticists and allergists doubtful, Boston Globe, Keith O'Brien, July 31, 2007.

' . . . In 1994, according to the English newspaper the Argus, Brodie was convicted in England of seven counts of false accounting in connection with the collapse of a hot air balloon company called Cloudhoppers. He was sentenced to two years in prison. Brodie said he served less than a year and later came to the United States.

'In Delaware, in 1999, he incorporated Cerentis LLC, which among other things sold software training packages to people in England.

'Peter Wood, 40, of Essex, England, told the Globe he purchased one of these packages for more than $50,000, expecting to be trained and then employed.

'Wood was trained at a California company called Alphalogix in the fall of 1999. But Brodie "disappeared," Wood said, before the three-week course was finished, leaving him without the job he had been promised.

'According to Los Angeles County court records, Brodie also stiffed Alphalogix, never paying $30,600 in training fees. . . '

And as always, we want to be right down the middle. We want to neither overstate nor understate. FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 21:57, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

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Trying to go right down the middle with what our references say.

We don't need to 'jazz up' what our references are saying, like we might do if we were writing a screenplay. Nor do we need to water down our references, like we might do if we were writing an annual company report for shareholders or issuing a PR release. Instead, it's our goal to go right down the middle.

I think we need to say in the first or second sentence that the founder of the company has been involved in multiple fraudulent enterprises previously. Our references clearly say that this was the case. FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 20:35, 1 February 2018 (UTC)