Pig-Organ Transplant Fails for Alabama Woman: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
April 11, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Gadsden, Ala. –

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding the failure of the transplant of a kidney from a genetically altered pig into Towana Looney, a 53-year-old Alabama woman:

Humans need organs and pigs need theirs, too. Stealing them from one animal to put them into another is a long, cruel way around a far kinder and easier solution: Cleaning up the organ procurement system, which wastes as many as 28,000 organs annually, and enacting presumed consent laws. This would save more lives—including the animals’—and protect patients and society from dangerous viruses that can also be transplanted into humans with the organ.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.