USDA reportedly under scrutiny in animal welfare investigation into Musk’s Neuralink
Abigail Adcox
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An investigation into Elon Musk’s medical device company, Neuralink, over alleged animal welfare violations is putting a spotlight on the Department of Agriculture’s oversight of the company’s research.
The Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General is scrutinizing the agency’s role as it looks into animal testing Neuralink is conducting to research a brain implant being developed to help paralyzed people walk again, people familiar with the investigation told Reuters.
MUSK’S NEURALINK UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR BOTCHED ANIMAL TESTS
The Department of Agriculture had visited Neuralink’s facilities eight times over the past three years, a period in which employees complained that animal testing for the implant was being fast-tracked, causing unnecessary suffering and deaths.
The federal investigation into Neuralink was first opened several months ago into alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act, a 1966 law regulating the treatment and use of animals for research.
An analysis by the Congressional Research Service in July of the department’s animal care unit, which is responsible for overseeing and enforcing the law, noted that the unit has been criticized in the past for oversight issues. The unit includes 122 inspectors who oversee roughly 11,785 facilities, including research labs, zoos, breeders, and more, per the congressional report.
“Committees are concerned about the ongoing mismanagement of APHIS’s Animal Care program. News reports have repeatedly documented long and inexplicable delays by APHIS in acting against blatant violations of the Animal Welfare Act that resulted in the illness and death of many animals,” members of Congress wrote in an explanatory statement earlier this year.
At Neuralink, more than 20 current and former employees told Reuters that pressure from Musk to speed up development led to more failed experiments and animals being tested and killed. More than 1,500 animals are estimated to have been killed by the company following experiments since 2018, including 280 sheep, pigs, and monkeys.
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Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an advocacy organization of more than 17,000 physicians, called for the Food and Drug Administration to open a separate investigation into Neuralink for possible violations of “good laboratory practices,” which could later jeopardize whether the brain implant is ultimately approved by the agency.
The Washington Examiner asked the Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General for comment.