To the Editor:
Let’s hope new biomedical vaccine-testing guidelines — that favor the use of synthetic chemicals over horseshoe crab blood — will spare millions of aquatic animals from death and suffering. Animal-free chemicals are a cheaper, more humane, and much more effective alternative to hauling crabs into a lab, stabbing them with needles, and bleeding them — which often leads to death.
Crabs are living, feeling animals — just like our companion dogs and cats. They are emotionally complex beings who work together to gather food and for mutual protection. And they suffer the same physical pain we all do. It may be inconvenient to recognize that crabs are sentient, remarkable animals, but we now know they are, and we must look at them with fresh eyes.
Every animal is someone.
SCOTT MILLER
Norfolk, Virginia
ED. NOTE: The author is a research specialist of fishing and waterways for the PETA Foundation.
