[Lee Stewart]

Horseshoe Crabs aren't crabs at all. They have more in common with spiders than they do with crabs. They were here long before the dinosaurs appeared but due to their unique blue blood, they many not be here in the near future.

Because the pharmaceutical industry exploits their precious blue blood. Their sky-blue blood contains amoebocytes, which react to toxic substances and can thus be used for the so-called horseshoe crab amoebocyte lysate test. This test is necessary for the marketing authorization of medicines and vaccines. Hundreds of thousands of horseshoe crabs die each year for this reason.