is this lab a red flag?

for context, i interviewed at a lab for my masters a month ago. the PI told me i was being highly recruited and seemed very supportive of my future career goal. he gave me the opportunity to chat to current lab students. he also offered a summer position so that i can get trained early. the grad students told me that they didn’t regret their choice although it is very intense. everyone seemed close and collaborative. overall, i didn’t have any strong aversion to this lab since it was also my first choice.

so now i’m currently working in the lab for the summer, but the training has been very half ass. they show me once how to do the surgeries on the rats and when it is my turn to try, they don’t even see if i’m doing it correctly (they are busy on their computers). when i ask a question to confirm if it what i’m doing is right, they seemed bothered. for example, my first week there, i was taking a long time (it’s my first time doing the surgery) and the grad student turned to me, saying “you’re still on this step?!” i also told them i’m nervous to touch the rat (since it was starting to twitch in the middle of the process and i have never handled rodents before), but the grad student just told me it’s not going to bite me and turned to do her own work.

the longer I stay, the more I see how stressed these students are. I learned that the PI is very demanding and the students often get into arguments with him to the point of them crying. sometimes he would call them at 1 am demanding information. another student always wears her earphones in case he suddenly calls or texts since he gets mad if they don’t. apparently someone interviewed with him in the past and when the student ghosted the PI, he later told his grad students that he would make sure that student never succeeds if he ever sees that student’s name…

i also have realized that i’m more scared of rats than i initially thought. i know they don’t bite and maybe it’ll get better as time goes on, but i’m feeling very discouraged and am questioning whether this lab would be good for me to stay for the next two years…..

is this normal in academia?? am i being dramatic?

i’m really stuck and scared to talk to my PI if i do eventually decide to leave this lab…