Talk:Lifestyle Pets

message: 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)
replies: text: Well done - thanks for the explanation. Johntex\talk 18:42, 22 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  POV issue 

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

message: 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)
thread_title:  Possible sources for citations 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Merger proposal 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Lifestyle Pets not quite dead? 

message: 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)
thread_title:  uncritical and softball media coverage at beginning? 

message: '  .  .  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)
thread_title:  secrecy and lack of peer review for company claims 

message: 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)
thread_title:  other sources 

message: '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)
thread_title:  fraudulent background of founder 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Trying to go right down the middle with what our references say.