Animal rights organizations have sued his medical neurotechnology company Neuralink Elon Musk for careless experiments on animals that lead to their unnecessary torture or death.
The federal investigation, first revealed by an exclusive Reuters report, is being conducted by the US Department of Agriculture’s inspector general at the request of a federal prosecutor. The prosecutor is looking into accusations that Neuralink violated the law on the protection of animals in the field of scientific research.
Neuralink has fallen behind its original schedule to develop a brain implant, which will allow, among other things, the paralyzed to walk and to the blind to regain their sight. Musk is under pressure to show tangible results, which seems to have an impact on how the company conducts its research with lab animals.
Within 4 years, 1,500 animals were killed
About 1,500 animals (excluding rodents) have since 2018 been killed in Neuralink experiments, including more than 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys. Some current and former employees of the company complain that these deaths are more than necessary and are due to Musk’s excessive demandswhich often they lead stressed researchers working under high pressure to rush and make mistakes. And this as other competing companies, such as Synchron, appear to be making faster progress in the same field of electronic brain implants.
Some researchers have left Neuralink, which was founded in 2016 and has large facilities in Texas and California precisely because of their concerns about the way animal studies are done and the bioethical issues they raise.
Musk, reports the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency, who already has major headaches with the takeover and stormy reorganization of Twitter (which has led to mass layoffs and voluntary flight of executives and employees), is rushing to start tests of the implant in people within the next six months and hopes to get approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its product.
Source: News Beast
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