March 18, 2007
Allerca, you make me cry
Growing up, my family kept cats. Well, cat for much of my childhood, but we got more later on. I love cats. I feel like my life is missing something major without them. I also live with a significant other who is violently allergic and asthmatic. I can still remember the day when he handed down the fiat from his allergist, there would be no cats in his home. It was cats or him. I'm not sure I could have been more upset if I had just been told I couldn't have biological children.
Then I found Allerca. They promised me that for the small price of about $5000 a pop (I'm including shipping, because it's non-negotiable), I could have cats. I was so blindingly happy for the short period of time before I actually looked at them carefully. If you search for Allerca or hypoallergenic cats you will find dozens of articles questioning the validity and integrity of the company, it's founder, and it's cats. I dug through all kinds of crap trying to learn more about them, from the scandal with Transgenetic Pets to a host of useless blog posts declaring Allerca's existence. Universally there was very little actual info.
I contacted Allerca itself to try to get information on it's claims and I got marketing fluff. I asked about actual papers verifying their results and they promised a scientific paper would be published some time in 2007.
A few months later, I was more than a little pissed to learn that Allerca's founder openly says there will never be a peer-reviewed scientific paper available (near the bottom of the article).
I tried to be patient with you Allerca. I tried to ignore the fact that your founder is apparently a con-artist and general scumbag. I hoped that you might pull through for me, as I suspect hundreds of other people across the country also hung on to that slimmest hope that they might someday be able to have cats.
In September of last year Allerca published the most fluffy useless piece of unscientific crap I have ever been disappointed by. This was the turning point for me. I tried to hang on, but that killed my ability to take anything from Allerca on faith.
Meanwhile, they have refused to tell anyone any useful details about their cats. They have refused to give prospective buyers any way to handle their cats before a purchase. They are pandering to the softer side of the media for publicity, but when reporters actually show up with questions they get vague and unhelpful answers. They have been trying to sell "franchise deals" while all of their cats (regardless of where you are across the world) are sold from their website. I don't know about you but I'd demand a lot more details about the business before I'd be willing to make that sort of commitment.
Allerca, if you aren't a scam, deliver the damn cats to real people and give us some details already. Provide real scientific proof. You can do that without allowing others to steal your methods or divulging the location of your breeding facilities to the general public.
If you are a scam, fall over and start on fire publicly already. I'm tired of the dark feeling I get in my chest every time I look at your website. I'm tired of wanting you to be real; your cats might as well be f'ing unicorns for all the proof you've offered me. I have reached the end of my patience with you and obviously any scientific paper you could have produced has come too late.
Comments:I stumbled across this Allerca business yesterday & everything I google makes me think the guy behind it is a scam artist (I lost track of the number of scams, starting with fraud over a hot-air balloon excursion comp. in England.)
But while googling, I heard about another breed of cats, the Siberian, which has some low-allergy individuals. A reputable breeder will let you go to their cattery & empirically test your level of allergic response to the adult parents of the kittens. If you don't react to the parents, you probably will be all right with the kitten.
I'm not a cat-breeder & don't know whether this will work for you, but if you really want a kitty, I think it worth looking into Siberians.
Thank you for your kind suggestion.
My boyfriend and I have actually been communicating with several Breeders over the last few months. His allergies are serious enough that the prognosis is poor, but we are still trying.
I understand that Siberians (or at least particular lines of the breed) work out for many people with allergies, but most breeders suggest that hopeful people visit their cats or do a fur test to make sure that they will not react.
Eva,
Did you receive your cat from Allerca?
I understand that you already paid for it, right?
Please let me know.
Ned
I did purchase a cat along with Premium placement. That was in Decmeber 2006 and it was supposed to take 10 months. I spoke to Simon numerous times between January and April of this year and he had excuse after excuse about why the cat was not yet in but would be in two weeks. Finally we asked for a refund. Doesn't look like that is coming either. No doubt about it to me now. It is a scam! You have to wonder how all the media outlets gave this guy a platform to rip people off without checking out his background. The media coverage was what encouraged me to be such a fool with my money. Worse, was breaking the news to my kids....
Forlorn Customer,
If you shelled out for the cat plus premium placement I would strongly suggest that you not walk away without a fight. There's been at least one case of a customer getting a refund after she raised enough of a public stink.
Since you'd be looking at more than $10K worth of claims, you may very well be able to get a lawyer to represent you on commission. Even if he/she were to take half of your judgment it would still be better than nothing!
If you're just someone posting anonymously to make the company look worse (not that they need help), then shame on you.
Eva
And to answer the previous anonymous comment (which I failed to somehow) I didn't lay down the money to order a cat from Allerca. I considered it for months, but in the end the company was just too skeezy for me.
I win there, since the two purebred kittens that we ended up getting (which my fiancee can tolerate just fine) were an order of magnitude cheaper and I like the breeder we went with a lot.
not saying this company could be a scam, or anything to the other people posting however this lady got her cat for her money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT3wFoJl658
i found this also, they claim as well to have produced hypoallergenic cats.
http://www.felixpets.com/
posted bysnowclovers : 5/21/2008 8:02 PM
I paid for an allerca cat in full in 2006 and have not heard from them since nor do I have a cat. we broke down and got a puppy--my husband is not allergic to him, just cats. i think the media should follow up on this story--they have helped legitmize this scam.Post a Comment
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