I once had a chemistry professor who used to work as a senior drug researcher at a major pharmaceutical company. He often joked about how the company treated the monkeys used for testing far better than the PhDs. If a monkey suffered a negative reaction there was a major investigation. I'm incredibly surprised Musk can be killing monkeys left and right and hasn't been thrown in jail.
The difference is that guy was working at a major pharmaceutical research firm with animal advocates and whistle-blowers and accrediting board all over them. Musk's group is new and is still in the fucking around phase. As soon as they have to answer to any outside org, suddenly this will be a huge liability.