Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

In "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", the difference between owning a real animal and a fake one is pretty clear. Rick is the main character of the story that secretly owns an electric sheep and he longs having a real animal since the neighboors look down on him for it. Though in order to accomplish this, he needs to retire many androids in order to have the money for a real animal. Empathy in this story is the one emotion that differentiates a human from an android since the androids have no true feelings. The difference between a mechanical breakdown ans an animal dying is similar but still different since one is falling apart artificially while the other is falling apart naturally. It was a crime not to own a real animal since Mercerism revolved around empathy and an electric sheep is obviously the opposite of something natural or being able to express empathy.