A medical device company run by Elon Musk is under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations.
Neuralink has been testing a brain chip that allows monkeys to control a computer with their thoughts.
The firm hopes that its devices – which are the size of a coin with flexible “threads” that can be inserted into the brain – will help humans with disabilities communicate again.
But documents seen by Reuters reveal that the US Department of Agriculture is investigating the firm following complaints that its animal testing is being rushed and causing needless suffering and deaths.
Employees have reportedly complained that pressure from Musk to accelerate development has resulted in botched experiments.
Such failed tests have had to be repeated, increasing the number of animals being tested and killed, the employees say.
In all, the company has allegedly killed about 1,500 animals, including more than 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys, following experiments since 2018.
The sources characterised that figure as a rough estimate because the company does not keep precise records on the number of animals tested and killed.
Neuralink has also conducted research using rats and mice.
The total number of animal deaths does not necessarily indicate that Neuralink is violating regulations or standard research practices.
Many companies routinely use animals in experiments to advance human health care, and they face financial pressure to quickly bring products to market.
The animals are typically killed when experiments are completed, often so they can be examined post-mortem for research purposes.
But current and former Neuralink employees say the number of animal deaths is higher than it needs to be for reasons related to Musk’s demands to speed research.
One employee, in a message seen by Reuters, wrote an angry missive this year to colleagues about the need to overhaul how the company organizes animal surgeries to prevent “hack jobs”.
The rushed schedule, the employee wrote, resulted in under-prepared and over-stressed staffers scrambling to meet deadlines and making last-minute changes before surgeries, raising risks to the animals.
It’s not the first time the company has faced allegations of mistreating its animals.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed a complaint with the USDA earlier this year, accusing Neuralink of abuse during its collaboration with the University of California, Davis.
The complaint alleged that, between 2017 to 2020, the company was responsible for monkeys with missing digits “possibly from self-mutilation or some other unspecified trauma,” and another primate that allegedly developed a bloody skin infection after a test and had to be euthanized, according to The New York Post.
“Pretty much every single monkey that had had implants put in their head suffered from pretty debilitating health effects,” Jeremy Beckham, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s research advocacy director, told The Post. “They were, frankly, maiming and killing the animals.”
The company defended its record in response to the February complaint.
“At Neuralink, we are absolutely committed to working with animals in the most humane and ethical way possible,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Mr Musk and other Neuralink executives did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
