If horseshoe crabs were to become less economically important, is that a good thing for horseshoe crabs? They ain't exactly Pandas, so will little Sally and Bobby care if horseshoe crabs become endangered? They're already in a precarious situation...
It’s a simple, nearly instantaneous test that goes by the name of the LAL, or Limulus amebocyte lysate, test (after the species name of the crab, Limulus polyphemus). The LAL test replaced the rather horrifying prospect of possibly contaminated substances being tested on “large colonies of rabbits.” Pharma companies didn’t like the rabbit process, either, because it was slow and expensive.