Every year, around 3.2 million cats are placed in U.S. animal shelters, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. There are many reasons why these pets are given up, but one of the most common is allergies.
Cats are one of the most common allergy triggers in the world, with at least 10 percent of Americans exhibiting some symptoms. These symptoms can be mild, but they can also cause serious health complications, particularly among younger children who are at risk of developing asthma through prolonged exposure.
And while there are a variety of ways to treat allergies, most of them only address the symptoms rather than removing the underlying cause. The only way to do that, for now, is to remove the cat itself.
“With any disease, you want to address the root cause, rather than just the symptoms, and that's all that is available today,” says Gary Jennings, a biochemist and the CEO of Swiss biotech company HypoPet. “It's suboptimal.”
Luckily for cat lovers, researchers and companies like HypoPet are working on alternative treatments to cat allergies –– ones that treat the cat instead of the human. And although this research is still in its beginning phases, don’t be surprised if cat allergies become a thing of the past sometime soon.
