Hightower Lowdown

A problem for many people who want to have cats is that they're allergic to the furry felines. Of course, one solution is to take allergy medications, as many cat lovers do, but 21st-century science says it has a better idea: Remake the cat.

A company called Transgenic Pets says that it is planning to genetically engineer a cat that will not cause allergies. The company will clone this FrankenCat again and again, selling the little cloned kitties for up to $1,000 each. The cloning specialist hired by Transgenic to develop the genetically altered animal told the New York Times: "We feel confident by 2003 we'll be able to produce an allergen- free cat."

It seems that a single protein in a cat's body causes most of the allergic reactions that people have to them. The company's plan is simply to do a bit of gene splicing in the lab to knock out the "fel dl" cat gene that produces this offending protein. Presto-chango—little Fluffy no longer causes you to sneeze!

But how will Fluffy feel about this? The honchoes at Transgenic Pets shrug off this question, saying that "available evidence suggested the protein was not really needed by the cat." Oh? Does that "evidence" include any input from the cats? Indeed, scientists say that this protein helps keep a cat's skin moist.

Will genetically altered Fluffy suffer the heartbreak of psoriasis? Is Transgenic Pets secretly intending to cash in on a new line of cat-skin moisturizers? And finally, are all of these people insane? One would think science had a few more important things it could be working on.