Elon Musk arrives at the In America: An Anthology of Fashion themed Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, on May 2.Elon Musk's Neuralink, a medical device company, is under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing is being rushed, causing needless suffering and deaths, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and sources familiar with the investigation and company operations.
The investigation has come at a time of growing employee dissent about Neuralink's animal testing, including complaints that pressure from CEO Musk to accelerate development has resulted in botched experiments, according to a Reuters review of dozens of Neuralink documents and interviews with more than 20 current and former employees.
In all, the company has killed about 1,500 animals, including more than 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys, following experiments since 2018, according to records reviewed by Reuters and sources with direct knowledge of the company's animal-testing operations. Through company discussions and documents spanning several years, along with employee interviews, Reuters identified four experiments involving 86 pigs and two monkeys that were marred in recent years by human errors.
Musk has pushed hard to accelerate Neuralink's progress, which depends heavily on animal testing, current and former employees said. On one occasion a few years ago, Musk told employees he would trigger a "market failure" at Neuralink unless they made more progress, a comment perceived by some employees as a threat to shut down operations, according to a former staffer who heard his comment.Five people who've worked on Neuralink's animal experiments told Reuters they had raised concerns internally.
Such problems could potentially delay the company's bid to start human trials, which Musk has said the company wants to do within the next six months. In the company's early years, Musk told employees he wanted the monkeys at his San Francisco Bay Area operation to live in a "monkey Taj Mahal," said a former employee who heard the comment. Another former employee recalled Musk saying he disliked using animals for research but wanted to make sure they were "the happiest animals" while alive.
The group alleged that surgeons used the wrong surgical glue twice, which led to two monkeys suffering and ultimately dying, while other monkeys had different complications from the implants.
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