Experience with Sydney Funnel Web?? Atrax. Robustus

[SingaporeB]

Although extremely rare, they're certainly in America via illegal imports...however good luck getting someone who owns one to ever admit that to you.

A customer who asked that question should instantly be rebuffed as a customer. I've never asked anyone where they got some kind of animal. My questions are only to do with the animals care.

"A new species of iridescent blue tarantula has been discovered by zoologists in remote and mountainous areas of Brazil"

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/sep/17/blue-tarantula-new-to-nature

Six years ago. Now the Pterinopelma sazimai is common in both the USA and Europe. Is this spider legal to be exported from Brazil?

Could it be there are people in Brazil who are not a special kind of stupid and these folk went out to the area where this species was discovered, caught some, packaged them for shipment as spiders are and then shipped them out express mail - without declaring them as spiders - to people in the USA and Europe who were eager to receive them?

There are no spider sniffing dogs. Sydney Funnel Web spiders are not even a protected species in Australia, they are as common as any house or yard spider in the USA and Europe.

The only reason for Sydney Funnel Web spiders not being bred and sold internationally along with all those protected Brazilian species (and Mexican as well) is Australians must be a special kind of stupid. That or they're all pissed that it's illegal to own non-Australian species there and they refuse to share their species with the rest of us.

 

[AusBugKid]

Australians must be a special kind of stupid. That or they're all pissed that it's illegal to own non-Australian species there and they refuse to share their species with the rest of us.

While I kind of resent the stupid part, the rest sounds like us. Our import/export laws are really very strict, and I understand our import laws because so far everything foreign has done more harm than good, for example European carp, foxes, rabbits, cane toads, some might argue European settlement should be on the list...

As for export, a very real concern is wild capture... While A. Robustus is really very common, the numbers could certainly be hurt by large scale capture for the pet trade, as has happened with some of our as - yet unnamed sp. of Phlogius.
Likewise, what about the less common Blue Mts Funnel web, H. Versuta? The average person looking to make a buck off the pet trade will probably not look for the very subtle differences between these, and potentially do a lot of damage to the population of a whole other species...

My point is that we have messed up a few times ecologically, and a few of them really very badly, so we tend to think about the long term effects of exploitation of natural resources in some depth. Or at least we should...

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Just a little tidbit from left field. "You must attend." This is the physicians take on the Hippocratic oath. Without regard for any circumstance whatsoever, you must undertake any and all life saving measures at your disposal.
A person gets wheeled into the ER in the US with an Atrax bite verified. ER POD gets on the phone. A few minutes later a courier is dispatched and antivenin is arranged and transport started. 'Probably going to die anyway' is ignored by the Hippocratic oath.

All the noise aside, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess what the ER bill is going to be, regardless of patient prognosis and outcome.

Yes, in the U.S I'm (almost) certain of that and what you said.

But the same thing here in Italy and, despite our health care system and all the Doc efforts, "you" are long time dead by the time the bureaucrecy machine is active.

Ippocrate couldn't imagine the hell of Italian bureaucrecy :-s

 

[Chris LXXIX]

They're more common in Europe, still extremely rare though.

Mah... for me remains a 'myth'. Zero evidence, pics, everything... only rumors

(Btw I'm not counting kinda zoo, labs or else, but only normal private keepers like us)

 

[The Snark]

Cynics corner, Peanut Gallery, somewhere in Asia.
How about Monster Media Mentality ... no, Media Monster Mentality..? Better, Media Mentality Monsters. ATRAX!! DOOM ON EIGHT LEGS!!!!! <-five of them since I don't have a dramatic narrator.
The biggest, the baddest, the meanest, the mostest, ... Hey Frank, you summed it up. WOWIE ZOWIE.

The animal gets reduced to a thing. A dramatic flag getting waved. And waved for what? LOOK AT ME AND MY THING!! I'm so cool! It doesn't withstand the reality test.
Reality test. Get a secure ventilated box, toss in some dirt. Add a heat lamp at one end and plop in a crotalid. There you go, all the drama you could possibly ask for. More than what most people are prepared for and capable of coping with. The only thing missing is the fad, the media hype. Pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffftttbbb.

 

[AusBugKid]

Cynics corner, Peanut Gallery, somewhere in Asia.
How about Monster Media Mentality ... no, Media Monster Mentality..? Better, Media Mentality Monsters. ATRAX!! DOOM ON EIGHT LEGS!!!!! <-five of them since I don't have a dramatic narrator.
The biggest, the baddest, the meanest, the mostest, ... Hey Frank, you summed it up. WOWIE ZOWIE.

The animal gets reduced to a thing. A dramatic flag getting waved. And waved for what? LOOK AT ME AND MY THING!! I'm so cool! It doesn't withstand the reality test.
Reality test. Get a secure ventilated box, toss in some dirt. Add a heat lamp at one end and plop in a crotalid. There you go, all the drama you could possibly ask for. More than what most people are prepared for and capable of coping with. The only thing missing is the fad, the media hype. Pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffftttbbb.

I couldn't agree more