New Characters
Harry Bryant: Police Inspector with the San Francisco Police Department.

Dave Holden: chief bounty hunter with the San Francisco Police Department.

Ann Marsten: Rick Deckard’s secretary.

Miss Wild: switchboard operator for the San Francisco Police Department who relays information to Deckard’s secretary.

Dr. McRae: veterinarian at the false animal shop where Rick Deckard purchased his ersatz sheep.

Summary
On his way to work, Deckard stops to window shop at a large pet store where a rare and, thus, expensive ostrich is for sale in the window. Deckard admires the ostrich, but he knows that he isn’t able to afford such a luxury.

When Deckard arrives at the Hall of Justice, his boss, Inspector Bryant, arranges for a meeting in the office of Dave Holden, the San Francisco Police Department’s chief bounty hunter who was recently attacked and seriously injured by an android. Ann Marsten, Deckard's secretary, stops Deckard and fills him in with news regarding Holden’s encounter with a Nexus-6 android and mentions that the Russians filed a formal complaint against the manufacturer of the Nexus-6 android, the Rosen Association.

With every new android model, colonial police agencies are forced to update testing that enables them to differentiate humans from androids; as the androids’ brain unit models become more highly developed, testing becomes increasingly difficult. While Deckard looks through the data files for the Nexus-6 androids, he realizes that this specific model of android surpasses the intellectual capacities of most humans who have been classified as specials. He notes that the theological movement known as Mercerism, and its inherent concept of empathy, remains unintelligible to androids regardless of their intellectual capacity. The Voigt Empathy Test, and its updated version, the Vogt-Kampff, the most current methods of testing, relies on this defect, present in all androids, and has thus far proven to be failsafe.

Mention of the Voigt-Kampff Test leads Deckard to consider his justification for retiring, or killing, androids. He summarizes the main theory that is fundamental to the widely popular theology known as Mercerism, through which all humans share in each other’s victories and defeats. He can differentiate androids from humans because of the android’s inability to possess empathetic joy or sorrow. Although most living organisms have intelligence to some degree, the concept of empathy is unique to humans.

Consideration of animals reminds Deckard of the ostrich he observed in the window of the animal store on his way to work earlier in the day. He calls the pet shop and speaks to a salesman about the price of the ostrich. Deckard realizes that its cost is well beyond his means. Rather than admitting his financial inadequacy to the salesman, Deckard offers the salesman an alias and ends the call. Deckard then calls the false-animal shop where he purchased his ersatz sheep to inquire about an ersatz ostrich. Dr. McRae answers the phone and quotes Deckard with a price that is significantly lower than the price for a real ostrich. Deckard ends the call without placing an order when he realizes he is late for his meeting with Bryant.

Analysis
Chapter Three highlights the difference between humans and androids, or the difference between the creator and its creation. In its most basic form, Mercerism centers itself upon the concept of empathy, or the understanding and comprehension of the emotional experiences of others. While evidence of intelligence can be found among a variety of organisms, only humans are capable of experiencing empathy. Androids, although proven to be intellectually superior to many humans, are incapable of empathy. In his job as a bounty hunter, Deckard appeals to this differentiation...