Our television screens have been showing heart-wrenching images of abused dogs and cats, and with those images have come pleas for financial help to try to save those and other animals, many of them on the verge of death.

Images such as those are not just from “somewhere else.” The Altoona-based Central PA Humane Society can attest to that.

The Humane Society’s exemplary work was a chief reason why it was selected as the beneficiary of this year’s Altoona Mirror Season of Sharing Campaign.

On our TV screens this year also have been numerous pleas for financial assistance on behalf of ending the slaughter of elephants. It has been reported that each year at least 20,000 African elephants are killed illegally for their tusks to satisfy a resurgence in demand for elephant ivory, particularly in parts of Asia.

There are fears elephants might someday be extinct.

But not all of the concerns about extinction involve animals and other creatures whose habitat is confined to dry land. Oceans also are susceptible to extinctions, man-made or caused by natural forces or evolving conditions.

One serious fear of extinction involves the Atlantic Ocean and the coastlines that it touches, including Maryland’s. The subject of concern is the Limulus polyphemus, commonly known as the Atlantic horseshoe crab, whose blue blood is of great benefit to the medical and pharmaceutical industries.

The blood of horseshoe crabs, which are related to scorpions, contains unique components vital for detecting bacterial contaminants in medical applications.

Testing employing a component of horseshoe crab blood is used even during the manufacturing of vaccines, including those for helping to prevent COVID-19.

There is a downside to the harvesting of horseshoe crab blood that has created controversy and resulted in lawsuits. It is the death of the harvested crabs from which blood has been extracted.

Thousands of dead crabs have been washing up on Maryland shores after having had their blood harvested by pharmaceutical companies and fishermen, and there is no proof yet — at least apparently no publicized proof — of what actually is killing them.

One of the lawsuits referred to earlier accuses the Maryland Department of Natural Resources of failing to release information detailing exactly why those thousands of horseshoe crabs die after they have been exposed to the blood-harvesting process.

Lack of transparency needs to end.

A synthetic alternative to horseshoe crab blood, already developed, is no doubt welcomed by most people who oppose harvesting of the crabs, but use of that alternative needs to ramp up markedly.

But the horseshoe crab issue — preserving the four species of those crabs, whose existence scientists believe dates back 450 million years to the Triassic era — is complicated on a number of fronts. For example, South Carolina has halted its harvesting from March 15 to July 15 to aid seabirds that depend on the crabs for food.

Thus, it’s going to take a delicate balancing act for government agencies, environmental groups and the courts to properly address the concerns surrounding the blood harvesting and the ultimate well-being of the horseshoe population, their small distribution on this planet being only the eastern shore of America and south Asia, where their existence is quite vulnerable.

Why those concerns remain unfinished business remains puzzling and troubling even for places like Pennsylvania’s local six-county Southern Alleghenies region that currently receives the medical and pharmaceutical benefits for which the horseshoe crabs are now — and have been — a godsend.