Toni Dimaano Tech 12.06.2022 00:Dec AM EST

Elon Musk's Neuralink Undergoes Federal Probe Over Animal Tests Backlash

Elon Musk' medical device company Neuralink faces federal investigation after employee backlash for potential animal-welfare violations.

According to Reuters, the probe comes around after internal staff complained that the rushed animal testing is causing deaths and suffering to the its subjects.

The Federal Investigation Will Review Neuralink's Brain Implant Development

Neuralink Corp has been developing a brain implant, which the company hopes to help paralyzed individuals and people with neurological ailments.

However, it is not a secret that the neurotech startup has been testing on animals to prove the effectiveness of the chip technology, and it has been getting a lot of criticisms from the authorities and the public.

With that, a federal investigation was opened by the US Department of Agriculture in recent months to focus on animal welfare violations on how researchers treat test animals.

The Guardian writes that the investigation follows growing concern from the company's employees, which includes complaints that pressure from Musk to accelerate progress is botching experiments.

Because of these failed tests, more animals are being tested and killed as per the company documents submitted previously, which included messages, audio recordings, emails, and presentations.

However, the federal prove could still not determine the full extent of the alleged problems with animal testing as US regulations do not specify how many animals companies can use for research.

Nevertheless, Reuters reports that there are about 1,500 animals, including 280 sheeps, pigs, and monkeys that have been killed due to the experiment.

The figure is only a rough estimate on the animals tested because the company reportedly does not keep precise records on the number of animals tested.

It is important to note that the number of animal deaths does not indicate that Neuralink has violated regulations and standard research practices as animal deaths are typically part of completing such experiments.

Neuralink Employees Are Alarmed By The Animal Experiments

Many companies use animals in experiments to develop products and technology to advance human health care, which the USDA approved to give scientists significant leeway for scientists.

However, Neuralink employees say that the animal deaths caused by the brain implant experiment is unnecessarily higher than it needs to be.

This is due to the immense pressure Musk demands to speed up the research, forcing mistakes to weaken experiments, leading to more animal deaths due to lack of preparation.

In fact, an employee even writes a complaint exposing that their overstressed staff at Nueralink are always scrambling to meet deadlines, making last minute surgeries and risking the animal subjects.

It can be remembered that the CEO even threatened the company that he would trigger market failure unless staff made progress, The Guardian writes.

This is not the first complaint filed against the company's testing practices as in February, an animal rights group accused the Neuralink-UC Davis project of botching surgeries, resulting in the deaths of test monkeys.

The group known as the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine claimed that the surgeons used the wrong surgical glue twice, which led to deaths and different complications from the implants.