“Thanks Piggie”: the emotional practices of killing livestock pigs in organ research experiments

Abstract Every day research animals of different species are made to live and die in research facilities as part of biomedical research. This article looks at the killing of livestock pigs for organs to be used in transplant science; a science driven by goals to save human lives by improving the use of donated organs. Based on an ethnographic study carried out in Denmark and the US, we explore how people engage in killing pigs and what it takes for humans to kill pigs for research, beyond the technical and procedural work. The article investigates the experiences and reflections related to killing pigs for organ research in three different contexts: the barn, the operating room and the slaughterhouse. The article proposes that killing pigs for organs in scientific contexts is an ethico-emotional practice where both emotions and ethics unfold through negotiations of nearness to the pig, the pig’s organs and the overall purpose of the research. Through three killing stories we show how emotions are evoked, calibrated and redirected to make killing legitimate, doable and bearable for those doing it.