As a nature lover and animal rights advocate, I am deeply disturbed by the brutal treatment of horseshoe crabs along the East Coast. These ancient creatures have been around 300 million years, predating even the dinosaurs. Yet, in 2021 alone, over 700,000 crabs were drained of their blood (alive and through the heart) by five companies operating in South Carolina, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia and Maryland.
This barbaric practice has now doubled and is threatening to wipe out the population of these prehistoric creatures. Not only that but it is also disrupting the migration patterns of migratory shorebirds like red knots who rely on horseshoe crab eggs as a source of energy to fly to their breeding grounds in the Arctic.
What’s worse is that these companies are violating laws to accomplish their goal. They are engaging in a black market with fishermen and piercing live crabs’ hearts to bleed them out before chopping them up for bait or throwing them back into the ocean.
This cannot continue! We must take action now to stop this cruelty towards horseshoe crabs. Please sign this petition demanding an end to this barbaric practice before it’s too late!
Sources:
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2021/05/horseshoe-crab-blood-is-vital-for-medicine-but-harvesting-it-kills-thousands-of-the-ancient-creatures/
- https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2019/how-saving-horseshoe-crab-could-help-save-birds
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/horseshoe-crab-populations-declining-and-birds-feel-it-most-180974361/
No comments:
Post a Comment