{"id":773897,"date":"2023-10-11T07:58:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T11:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=773897"},"modified":"2023-10-11T09:25:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T13:25:30","slug":"how-neuralink-and-affiliated-university-keep-grisly-photos-of-monkey-experiments-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=773897","title":{"rendered":"INVESTIGATION: How Neuralink and affiliated primate research center keep grisly photos of monkey experiments secret"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Neuralink works purposely to keep records of its work out of the university's hands, specifically to shield them from public records requests. Hundreds of files remain sealed, including photographs of the neurological damage of botched surgeries and the suffering that resulted from Neuralink\u2019s work with the macaques. The experiments involved drilling a hole roughly the size of a US dime into the monkey\u2019s skulls, placing electrodes inside their brains, and screwing titanium plates to their skulls.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

DELL CAMERON:<\/strong> The tan Macaque with the hairless pink face could do little more than sit and shiver as her brain began to swell. The California National Primate Center staff observing her via livestream knew the signs. Whatever had been done had left her with a \u201csevere neurological defect,\u201d and it was time to put the monkey to sleep. But the client protested; the Neuralink scientist whose experiment left the 7-year-old monkey\u2019s brain mutilated wanted to wait another day. And so they did.<\/em><\/p>\n

As the attending staff sat back and observed, the monkey seized and vomited. Her pupils reacted less and less to the light. Her right leg went limp, and she could no longer support the weight of her 15-pound body without gripping the bars of her cage. One attendant moved a heat lamp beside her to try to stop her shaking. Sometimes she would wake and scratch at her throat, retching and gasping for air, before collapsing again, exhausted.<\/em><\/p>\n

An autopsy would later reveal that the mounting pressure inside her skull had deformed and ruptured her brain. A toxic adhesive around the Neuralink implant bolted to her skull had leaked internally. The resulting inflammation had caused painful pressure on a part of the brain producing cerebrospinal fluid, the slick, translucent substance in which the brain sits normally buoyant. The hind quarter of her brain visibly poked out of the base of her skull.<\/em><\/p>\n

On September 13, 2018, she was euthanized, records obtained by WIRED show. This episode, regulators later acknowledged, was a violation of the US Animal Welfare Act; a federal law meant to set minimally acceptable standards for the handling, housing, and feeding of research animals. There would be no consequences, however. Between 2016 and 2021, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) enforced the humane treatment of animals through what it called \u201cteachable moments.\u201d Because the center\u2014home to a colony of nearly 5,000 primates run by the University of California\u2013Davis\u2014had proactively reported the violation, it could not be legally cited.<\/em><\/p>\n

And neither could Neuralink. \u201cIf you want to split hairs,\u201d a former employee tells WIRED, \u201cthe implant itself did not cause death. We sacrificed her to end her suffering.\u201d The employee, who signed a confidentiality agreement, asked not to be identified.<\/em><\/p>\n

Missing from the veterinary records released by the university are hundreds of photographs taken by the primate center\u2019s staff between 2018 and 2020 of Neuralink\u2019s test subjects. Though publicly funded, thus bound by California\u2019s open records law, UC Davis has fought disclosure of the photographs for more than a year. Releasing them, it says, would not serve the public\u2019s interest.<\/em><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, videos of the experiments have seemingly vanished. Documents obtained by WIRED show that the primate center\u2019s staff wrote about reviewing a \u201ctape\u201d of the aforesaid monkey hours before they stopped her heart. The school has not acknowledged that such a tape exists, and Neuralink, whose partnership with the school ended three years ago, was permitted to store its own footage and remove it from the property when it wished…<\/em><\/p>\n

After an animal was \u201csacrificed,\u201d few if any records were created. The former employee claims Neuralink worked purposely to keep records of its work out of UC Davis\u2019 hands\u2014specifically to shield them from public records requests… Davis has released hundreds of pages of emails, contractual documents, memos, and other veterinary records detailing the public university\u2019s work for Neuralink between 2018 and 2020. The descriptions of botched surgeries and the suffering of the subjects was enough to provoke media investigations and coax comments of concern from a handful of lawmakers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hundreds of files remain under lock and key\u2014including photographs of the neurological damage that resulted from Neuralink\u2019s work with the macaques. The experiments involved drilling a hole roughly the size of a US dime into the monkey\u2019s skulls, placing electrodes inside their brains, and screwing titanium plates to their skulls. UC Davis says the value of the photos of these operations now lies exclusively in \u201cinforming future research and clinical practices,\u201d or what it calls \u201cthe refinement of surgical techniques.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In October 2022, the Physicians Committee sued UC Davis\u2014a public institution, funded in part by US taxpayers\u2014in an attempt to gain access to records of Neuralink\u2019s work… The Physicians Committee\u2019s suit… filed in California state court in Yolo County, is ongoing. As it is a public records law that UC Davis is fighting, its arguments against greater transparency are centered around what\u2019s best for the public. According to the school’s attorneys, that means the public should not see images of Neuralink\u2019s work.<\/em><\/p>\n

One researcher familiar with the photos conceded they are particularly gruesome. \u201cA macaque skull with the flesh torn out of it is not a pretty image,\u201d they say. The school routinely deals with protesters, the source says. As a result, any visual evidence of experiments or animal subjects are tightly controlled. Filming the monkeys without the permission of the facility\u2019s director is forbidden. Davis exercises the right to \u201cpre-review\u201d any media it allows to be captured. SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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