Horseshoe crabs have been alive on earth for nearly 200 million years and are considered to be "living fossils". They also play a key role in today's marine ecosystems. Without them, most food chains will collapse, and it will wreak havoc on the ecosystems, and the earth as a whole. 

But nowadays, horseshoe crabs are going extinct. After surviving for millions of years, they have started to disappear from our oceans. The reason? Humans. 

Every year, almost half a million horseshoe crabs are captured from the ocean and bled alive in labs for the amebocytes in their blood. Amebocytes are a special immune mechanisms that horseshoe crabs posses. It reacts with endotoxins, which makes them a key ingredient in identifying contamination of vaccines and medicines.

While most horseshoe crabs are released back into the wild after being bled, more than 1 in 3 will end up dying from the stress of bleeding. This has caused a huge drop in their population, and is heavily straining the ocean ecosystems. Moreover, the practice is simply inhumane in many ways. 

Is it possible to save the horseshoe crabs while keeping our medicine safe? In other words, is there an alternative for using horseshoe crab blood? The answer is yes. Scientists have identified an alternative, known as recombinant Factor C, which has the same effect as the amebocytes found in horseshoe crabs. The FDA has also approved this drug for usage in the pharmaceutical industry. 

However, the fact remains that most companies still use horseshoe crab blood, instead of the alternative, for the simple reason that it is cheaper. And with the emergence of CoVid19 vaccines, which require amebocytes in them, horseshoe crabs are being hunted now more than ever. 

It is up to the people to stop these atrocities. Sign the petition supporting the ban of the bleeding of horseshoe crabs today.