US House Representatives Earl Francis Blumenauer and Adam Schiff are calling for further US Department of Agriculture (USDA) testing of Elon Musk’s Neuralink after a Reuters report revealing flaws in the brain chip company’s animal testing program, their offices said on Thursday with
Reuters reported Monday that the USDAs Inspector General determined neurolink for possible animal welfare violations amid complaints from internal staff that animal testing is being rushed and causing unnecessary suffering and deaths.
Blumenauer and Schiff, two Democrats who are members of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, wrote in a draft letter they will send to the USDA that “the treatment of the animals described in these complaints indicates a deplorable lack of oversight.”
“We are very concerned that this may be another example of high-profile animal cruelty cases involving USDA-inspected entities that have been referenced in previous letters to your agency where USDA failed to take adequate action,” they said lawmakers in a letter addressed to USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack and Kevin Shea, who oversees the agency’s inspection service.
Neuralink executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A USDA spokesman said the agency could not comment on Neuralink and referred Reuters to the inspector general’s office, which also declined to comment.
Reuters identified several issues with Neuralink’s animal experiments, including four experiments involving 86 pigs and two monkeys, that were compromised by human error after reviewing dozens of previously unreported audio recordings, emails, messages, presentations, internal company reports and interviews with more than 20 current and former employees.
The errors weakened the experiments and required repeated testing, resulting in more animals being killed. In all, the company has killed around 1,500 animals, including more than 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys, following experiments since 2018, according to Reuters.
Blumenauer and Schiff’s offices declined to comment on what they think the USDA should do beyond the inspector general’s investigation. The legislature wrote in its letter that the investigation was “vital to clarifying the needless suffering and death of animals” and possible violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
The lawmaker also cites records released by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an animal advocacy group, that released records of Neuralink’s partnership at the University of California Davis as a cause for concern. Neuralink has admitted that six monkeys died from health problems in experiments it conducted with the university during their partnership, which lasted from 2017 to 2020.
Schiff has also been critical musk Acquisition of Twitter in a value of 44 billion US dollars (approx.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
