Controversial UK entrepreneur and convicted fraudster, Simon Brodie , who founded the US company Allerca , which developed and marketed a genetically manipulated hypoallergenic cat , has put himself back in the news. Celebrating one year on from the delivery of the first hypoallergenic cat, Brodie now says that using ‘leading technologies’, Allerca is focusing on the development of pets that fit with today’s lifestyles. Earlier this year Lifestyle Pets laid claim to the creation of a new breed of exotic cat , the four foot long, leopard-like Ashera . The claim that this is a new breed remains controversial with some cat-breeders - who are claiming that the ‘new’ cat is actually the pre-existing Savannah breed. When the much criticised Californian rent-a-dog company Flexpetz announced it was expanding to the UK, it described itself as a wholly owned subsidiary of a company called Tetros Incorporated . For almost two years, a division of Simon Brodie’s Allerca has been fighting a lawsuit against the veterinary laboratories giant Idexx claiming over $700 million plus damages and that Idexx tried to stifle new technology emerging from Allerca, by putting pressure on distributors to drop a new ALLERCA diagnostic product from their books. read more

Tags: pets, , hypoallergenic dogs, breed, allerca, cat