Retail Giant Emma Cuts Ties With HKTV Over Grisly Experiments on Animals Following PETA Push

For Immediate Release:
August 17, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Emma, the world’s largest direct-to-consumer sleep brand, will close its storefront on HKTVmall, the e-commerce platform of Hong Kong Technology Venture Company Limited (HKTV), by the end of the year, after learning from PETA that HKTV funds gruesome decapitation experiments on sheep and pigs. Emma was one of HKTVmall’s largest retail partners.

Since 2022, HKTV has funded dozens of tests in which experimenters at secret overseas universities severed the heads and limbs of pigs and sheep, and kept them alive for hours, purportedly in hopes of developing technology that can keep animal organs viable for human transplantation.

PETA supporters rally outside of HKTV to condemn the company’s funding of cruel and deadly experiments on animals.
Credit: PETA Asia

HKTV’s board admits the experiments are purely exploratory and offer “no assurance” of future clinical benefits to humans, yet HKTV has already invested HK$44.5 million and plans to invest at least another HK$50 million annually. HKTV funds these experiments in part by commissions and fees paid by HKTVmall merchants.

“At Emma, we know that sleeping well is also about having a clear conscience,” says Emma Brand Reputation Manager Lorena Holanda. “As soon as we learned about the troubling animal testing funded by HKTVmall’s parent company, Emma decided not to continue its commercial relationship with HKTVmall, with the store closing and the relationship fully concluded by the end of the year. We appreciate and support PETA bringing this matter to our attention.”

“Emma made the compassionate choice in cutting ties with HKTVmall over these disturbing experiments, in which terrified pigs and sheep are chopped to pieces,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA calls on HKTV to stop tormenting animals in laboratories and transition to superior, human-relevant research methods, and urges other business partners to follow Emma’s lead and reconsider their relationships with HKTV.”

Emma joins a growing list of companies—including cosmetics giant Lush Asia Limited, companion animal health product company Pawfect Reborn, and meal delivery service Fitasty—that have cut ties with HKTVmall over the cruel and deadly experiments.

Pigs recognize their own names and sleep together in “pig piles” with their closest friends, and sheep can remember 50 different faces and leap with excitement when they see their family, but in HKTV-funded experiments, these thinking, feeling animals are hacked apart in terrifying tests and endure prolonged, agonizing deaths.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a pig is a dog is a boy. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.