HKTVmall parent firm under fire for testing how long detached animal heads can survive

he research project has attracted a backlash over animal ethics concerns.

Photo: Jelly Tse The parent company of Hong Kong online retailer HKTVmall has defended its life science project involving testing the viability of detached animal heads and limbs, responding to animal ethics concerns by saying no pet animals were experimented on.

Hong Kong Technology Venture Company Limited revealed the project on Monday in its annual results, and said it believed the research to be a world first that could be applied to organ transplants and potentially “extending human lifespan”. “The related experiments have been conducted in strict compliance with local government regulations and the standards of laboratory animal ethics,” a spokeswoman told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday. “The animals involved in the studies are pigs and sheep, species that are commonly used in scientific research on organ transplantation. “We noted that there are media reports with the insertion of pictures of experiments with cats, dogs and rabbits, and these are misrepresentations that are not related to the subject life science project.” The company said the project had run for four years, adding that the experiments were conducted outside Hong Kong.

It stopped short of revealing the exact location. “Should the technologies we are developing prove successful, they could have applications in organ transplant and potentially in extending human lifespan,” the spokeswoman said.

The company said more than 20 experts had been working on the project, including neurosurgeons, neurologists, veterinarians, university professors, anaesthesiologists and research specialists.

The team was dedicated to developing and refining equipment designed to maintain the viability of detached body organs, such as limbs and heads, the spokeswoman said.

She added that the project focused on developing technologies that enabled the long-term preservation of human organs.

Asked how experts tested that the animals were still alive, she said the research team had relied on based their results on the heads and limbs’ neuromuscular responses to electrical stimulation, and electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings via surface electrode or deep-electrode measurement.

But she said that the company was currently unable to “accurately predict the project’s success rate or financial returns, nor can we reliably forecast its long-term development”.

Ricky Wong, the company’s vice-chairman, disclosed in the annual

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