Elon Musk is once again in the crosshairs of the United States authorities: the Department of Agriculture is investigating the death of more than 1,500 animals in Neuralink tests, at least since 2018. The tycoon is accused of violations of the Animal Welfare Law, reported Reuters.
Despite the accusations, Neuralink has passed all inspections of the Agriculture department of the United States, reports Reuters.
Neuralink seeks to develop a brain implant that helps people with paralysis to walk again, among other situations. However, to get the best result, the company has conducted tests with sheep, pigs and monkeys, among other animals.
This type of testing is common, following legal parameters, but the Department of Agriculture’s investigation He believes that they are being accelerated by pressure from Musk, causing unnecessary suffering and death.
An example cited in the federal investigation, according to Reuters: A monkey was missing its fingers and toes ‘possibly from self-mutilation’ after an experiment.
The accusations of Neuralink employees against Elon Musk
About twenty former and current employees of the company, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the work environment has caused “careless errors during testing, causing more animal suffering and deaths.”
According to the employees, earlier in the year Musk wrote to them: “We are simply not moving fast enough. It’s driving me crazy.”
Neither Elon Musk nor other Neuralink executives have commented on the matter.
Musk is focused on the changes at Twitter, a company he acquired at the end of October for $44 billion. His most recent posts on the web are about that, as well as Tesla and SpaceX, his two main companies.
The most recent thing the South African said regarding Neuralink is that the company plans to start human clinical trials in 2023. He himself would test the brain chip device.