First Heart Transplant From Genetically Altered Pig: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
January 10, 2022

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Baltimore –

Please see the following statement from Dr. Alka Chandna, Ph.D., vice president of laboratory investigations cases at PETA, regarding the first heart transplant from a genetically altered pig.

Animal-to-human transplants are unethical, dangerous, and a tremendous waste of resources that could be used to fund research that might actually help humans. The risk of transmitting unknown viruses along with the animal organ are real and, in the time of a pandemic, should be enough to end these studies forever. Animals aren’t toolsheds to be raided but complex, intelligent beings. It would be better for them and healthier for humans to leave them alone and seek cures using modern science.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.