HKTVmall parent firm faces backlash over ‘cruel’ experiments on severed animal heads, limbs

Animal rights activists have denounced the parent company of online retailer HKTVmall for running animal experiments on how long severed heads or limbs can remain alive once detached from their bodies.

A HKTVmall branch in Kowloon Bay. File photo: Wikimedia Commons.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said on Wednesday in an open letter to Ricky Wong, vice chair and group CEO of Hong Kong Technology Venture Company (HKTV), that such experiments should cease and be permanently prohibited.

PETA president Jason Baker said in his letter: “In addition to being cruel, this research is purely exploratory, with highly speculative benefit.”

HKTV disclosed the controversial science project in its latest annual report on Monday, saying that it had carried out 38 experiments over the past four years in which “animals’ limbs or heads were separated from their bodies.”

The experiments, part of an ongoing “Life Science Project,” aim to develop equipment to maintain “the viability of detached body organs,” according to the company.

HKTV reported that the animal limbs remained viable for about 46 hours, while heads survived for roughly seven hours, which its research team claimed was the world’s first.

“Should the technologies we are developing prove successful, they could have applications in organ transplantation and potentially in extending human lifespan,” according to the 2025 annual report.

“However, at present, we are unable to accurately predict the project’s success rate or financial returns, nor can we reliably forecast its long-term development.”

‘No significant progress’

Citing research from 2008 to 2015, Baker of PETA said, “Studies examining spinal cord injury experiments on animals show that decades of such work have not led to significant progress in reviving spinal neurons, because of fundamental interspecies differences.”

Pigs. File photo: marnock/Pexels

He also noted that some prominent US agencies had shifted away from animal testing in recent years, while “human-relevant technologies,” such as non-invasive human imaging, have developed to improve human health.

In an emailed reply to HKFP on Wednesday, HKTV said its Life Science Project “is not intended to cause unnecessary harm to the animals, with the objective of improving the quality of life for the elderly, while contributing to advances in organ preservation, limb transplantation, and blood regeneration.”

The company said the experiments used pigs and sheep, calling them “species that are commonly used” in scientific research on organ transplantation.

Anaesthetics were used during the experiments, and the procedures were in line with “regulations regarding laboratory animal ethics [issued] by the Government,” HKTV added.

Ricky Wong. File photo: HKFP.

The research team is led by professionals such as “neurosurgeons, neurologists, veterinarians, university professors, anaesthesiologists, and research specialists,” the company said, without providing the names of the team members.

The company also said that the research team had explored “alternative experimental methods,” but the attempts had been unsuccessful to date, and that it would continue with the project.

HKTV reported a net loss of HK$149.6 million in 2025. Since 2021, the company has invested HK$44.5 million in the Life Science Project, with future investment expected to reach HK$50 million per year in the near future, according to the annual report.