USDA Confirms Not To Find Animal Attempt Violations In Neuralink

Illustration of Neuralink researchers conducting experiments. (photo: twitter @neuralink)

JAKARTA - The head of the United States agency responsible for animal welfare, the Department of Agriculture (USDA/US Department of Agriculture), told legislators they did not find any violations of Elon Musk's animal research rules, except for the 2019 incident that the company had reported.

The "focused" inspection carried out by USDA officials in response to complaints about the company's treatment of animal trials found no violation of compliance, as written by Agency Secretary Thomas Vilsack in a letter to congressman Earl Blumenauer.

This inspection includes visits to two Neuralink facilities in January 2023, and Vilsack added that there will be more inspections in the future.

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Vilsack confirmed in his letter that the inspection did not cover "adverse surgical events" that occurred in Neuralink in August 2019. The company has reported it proactively and taken corrective action in accordance with the policy at the time. However, USDA regulations changed in 2021 so that reporting of violations by themselves no longer avoided sanctions.

The 2019 incident involved a Neuralink surgeon who used an adhesive to cover a hole drilled in the skull of a monkey without the consent of an animal research supervisory panel, as revealed in emails and public records obtained by the Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine (PCRM), animal welfare advocacy group.

The complaint sparked the latest inspection filed in February 2022 by PCRM against Neuralink and the University of California, Davis, in collaboration with the company at the time. The complaint stated that the company attempted deadly on 23 monkeys between 2017 and 2020. Neuralink ended cooperation with UC Davis in 2020.

Since then, USDA's Inspector General (OIG), at the request of a federal prosecutor, has investigated potential animal welfare abuses amid internal complaints from Neuralink employees that their animal research experiment is being accelerated, causing unnecessary suffering and death, as reported by Reuters.

Through interviews and internal documents over the years, Reuters identified four attempts involving 86 pigs and two monkeys that were disturbed by human error. These errors undermined the value of experimental research and caused trials to have to be repeated, so more animals had to be killed.

Vilsack did not provide any updates on the progress of the OIG investigation. "If (OIG) investigates the Neuralink facility and finds that USDA should take additional action, we will fully cooperate to take such action," he wrote in the letter.

Blumenauer responded by urging the investigation to be carried out more quickly. "I urge the Office of the Inspector General to immediately complete their investigation and publish the results of their findings," he said in a statement.

Ryan Merkley, director of PCRM research advocacy, said that USDA guarantees Neuralink.