Public Library Ignorance NIGHTMARE!!

Iktomi · Jul 29, 2003

My kids belong to a reading program at the local library. I just got home from work and heard about this critter guy from my wife.
He had two T's...sounds like an A. avic and a G. rosea. Anyway, as he was doing his "show" he was letting the T's crawl around his hat...on his head...together...6 feet up! Then...he let 45 or so kids PET the tarantulas on the back.
Then he PASSED AROUND his 6 foot + python. The kids passed it around!
Man I'm bent.

spider · Jul 29, 2003

Hey, Sounds like a show boat to me!

P.S= Did he even teach the kids any thing about them?

Later,

Frostbyte · Jul 29, 2003

Wanna hear a better one ? 3 weeks ago it was bring a pet to school day for my 5 year old. Out of all our pets .. Ts , Hampster , Scorpions , Dart Frogs and a Cat , he picked our 3" Rose Hair. I was like .. hmmm well OK as long as she's in her container and stays there til I get there to show her to your friends ! I explained this to his teacher and she was fine with that. I get there later to find out another teacher not only handled the T but let my kid handle the T. All because my son told her he handles the T at home . So I get bent outta shape sayin .. yeah the T under NORMAL CONDITIONS ( not around 15 other kids talkin , maybe yellin ) are around! I was so PO'ed , this is a wild arachnid Ive chosen to care for and not only want the T to be safe but also someone elses kid. People can be soooo illiterate when it comes to any pet. Luckily my Rose was her normal self and not having a bad day !

suprafly · Jul 29, 2003

you mean luckily it was a rosea and not a baboon or blondi or even an ornamental!!!

suprafly out.........................................

Buspirone · Jul 29, 2003

Originally posted by suprafly
you mean luckily it was a rosea and not a baboon or blondi or even an ornamental!!!

suprafly out.........................................

There are quite a few people who have rosies that are not the nice "docile" T that many people attribute to G. rosea. Some are down right nasty and can hold their own along side some of the more defensive species for being ill tempered.

SpiderTwin · Jul 30, 2003

It amazing how the people that should know what they are doing and should know what they are talking about have no clue. The guy that was letting them crawl around 6' up would have learned real quick if one of the T's had hit the floor.

As for the teacher, it dosen't sound like it even mattered what type of T it was, the person heard it has been handled and thought "I can do it if they do".

There will never be an end to people's ignorance.

Iktomi · Jul 30, 2003

Yep...the guy DID teach them something. He taught them that they shed their skins and it makes them really tired.
Then he crumpled up an exuvum onto the floor to show how fragile they are and the kids proceeded to play with the pieces.
AHHHHHHHH!!!!! :?

spider · Jul 30, 2003

There will never be an end to people's ignorance. [/B][/QUOTE]

A-men to that brother!

Later,

Diao · Jul 30, 2003

My high school's Student Naturalist class has a few tarantulas, and the setups are horrid. The people there are supposed to be knowledgable on their animals, but this is just plain ignorant. They had 3 Aphonopelma chalcodes in 3 seperate 10 gallons. They had just sand, no heat source and a screen top. The place was freezing in there, and I'm surprised the poor arachnids had any juice left in them at all. They were feeding them bugs they had just found in the room; neglecting that they were probably carrying pesticides. Ugh.

Code Monkey · Jul 30, 2003

I'm going to take the opposing view: lighten the heck up people!

You sound like a bunch of PETA members talking about a show with trained dogs at the county fair.

There is nothing wrong with someone making the choice to carry their tarantulas at whatever height they feel is appropriate even in a demo: they are *their* tarantulas. If they drop, well, the kids get a lesson on what happens to a T when it hits the floor and the guy has to replace some demo accessories.

Yes, to us they may be cute, wonderful, fuzzy and amazing pets, but to most people, even naturalists, they're just a bug.

@Frostbyte: you have a legitimate complaint, but between the fact that you trusted a 5 y.o. and kindergarten teacher to collectively know and behave better, that puts some of that blame right back on you. If I were concerned what happened to one of my Ts, it's for certain that I'd have been there with my kid showing it. If I couldn't make it, well, Jr. would be taking a hamster like all the other kids.

@Diao and anyone else: Define freezing. If it were over 70 there was no reason whatsoever for extra heat, it it were over 60 (and I hope a school classroom was warmer than that) it would take several months before there was a chance of harm from the temp. As for the bugs and pesticides comment, I'm pretty much sick of hearing this. Have we turned into a bunch of organic activists? There just isn't that much in the way of pesticides out there, and no reason to believe that every bug you didn't raise yourself or buy at a petstore is contaminated with pesticides. Yes, we often avoid this because of the *risk*, but that is all it is. I've fed selected wild caught bugs to Ts for years and never once had a problem. Those Ts were ordered from Carolina Biological, not even ID'd to species for about $20@, they're just a lab expense to the school and the teacher.

Aviculariinae · Jul 30, 2003

Please do not take this that i am having ago at americans,the reason i think they dont care is because tarantulas are pretty common out there and people persume you can pick them up anywhere and that thet are just a normal house spider,

Here in europe we dont have anything like that so its treated as an exotic pet with care,
diao point is my point exactly

This does not mean that no-one out there cares for there pets im just stating a point, and i know these people who keep there spiders in bad ways are very few

Code Monkey · Jul 30, 2003

Originally posted by Sham,Tarantulas
Please do not take this that i am having ago at americans,the reason i think they dont care is because tarantulas are pretty common out there and people persume you can pick them up anywhere and that thet are just a normal house spider

You have a pretty skewed view of Americans.
We don't have native tarantulas over most of the U.S. and, with the exception of few areas, they are anything but common. Also, while I've seen a few pics of Ts in garages, I think that if they made a habit of entering people's homes, there would be a lot of homes completely sealed and fumigated - people most definitely do NOT think of them like a house spider. Further, 90% or more of the Ts most people have seen at these demos or zoos are not native to America (e.g. the only native species mentioned above is the A. chalcodes in Diao's post).

At any rate, Ts are mostly treated well by T keepers anywhere in the world, and are mostly treated poorly by the rest of the populace anywhere in the world. Country of origin has nothing to do with the average H. sapiens' attitude towards giant spiders.

jper26 · Jul 30, 2003

I agree people need too loosen up he was just trying too get the kids interested. I remember my mom taking our mexican red knee when I was a kid too church to show other kids there. I would have hated if people would have started yelling at her or telling her the T shouldent be out. I would have found what this guy was doing at the library cool if I was one of those kids.

Aviculariinae · Jul 30, 2003

I cant really explain what im trying to say,its hard to put into words, so maybe i should have said nothing!My apologies!

But i did see pictures on the ATS website of people at one of there shows,and they were holding at sorts of dangerous spiders
including the brown recluse spider, now i think thats madness
Could jeprodise the whole hobby for everyone if one of them was to be bitten,
I am totally against handling ts only when nessesary should it be done,
I believe people who hold there ts for no reason are just showing off so when i seen this on the ATS show i couldnt believe it,i was shocked.

Code Monkey · Jul 30, 2003

Originally posted by Sham,Tarantulas
But i did see pictures on the ATS website of people at one of there shows,and they were holding at sorts of dangerous spiders
including the brown recluse spider, now i think thats madness
Could jeprodise the whole hobby for everyone if one of them was to be bitten,

Well, first consider that this represents, what?, maybe 0.00001% of the U.S. population - that's quite a leap of logic to go from what a very small number of people do to generalizing what the general public actually does and thinks regarding spiders. Second, the odds of being bitten by a recluse or widow in normal handling are very, very small and that's why they handle them: to show that people's fears (and your perceptions of madness) is what is ignorant. Last, even if bitten, these folks are informed of what they're getting into so no is going to be making the complaint to harm the hobby.

I am totally against handling ts only when nessesary should it be done,
I believe people who hold there ts for no reason are just showing off so when i seen this on the ATS show i couldnt believe it,i was shocked.

That's your perogrative to believe that, but it is every T owner's perogrative to do whatever they want with their Ts. If someone wants to get on the evening news every night wearing a live T. blondi on the top of his head, it's none of your business.

arcane · Jul 30, 2003

Maybe it's just sleep deprivation, but I'm starting to agree with Code Monkey on this issue. People here regularly sentence rodents to rather unpleasant deaths, and dismember insects limbs from limb.

I was never one of those kids who would pull the legs off bugs, but if you have slings and crickets, thats what you do. In fact one has to perfect the method of keeping them injured but in a semi-alive state, which is pretty perverse when you think about it. Yes, they're just crickets... but to most people, tarantulas are just spiders.

RugbyDave · Jul 30, 2003

Originally posted by arcane
Maybe it's just sleep deprivation, but I'm starting to agree with Code Monkey on this issue

oh man, thats a good one

so, it takes "sleep deprivation" to agree with chip? holy god on high, that makes for a good start of the day.

;P

peace
dave

for what its worth, i'm with the faction that says "lighten up". However, i also side with sham on the T-handling issue. I handle mine during certain times (escape, cage change, ER issues

), but it doesn't mean that other people can't handle their Ts. Its just one of those "on the fence" type issues in our wonderful hobby.

Aviculariinae · Jul 30, 2003

I knew i should never have posted an issue like this on an american website,
silly me,
But i know this view about what happened at the ATS is shared with others ,that it was wrong that the spiders were displayed like that especially by the ATS

thats my point

Code Monkey · Jul 30, 2003

Originally posted by Sham,Tarantulas
I knew i should never have posted an issue like this on an american website,
silly me,

notes that I'm probably about to be moderated ... again
Yes, you are silly, and it's not because you posted this on an "American" site, but because you think that country of origin has ANYTHING to do with keeping Ts or attitudes about keeping Ts. If you think there's some enlightened cultural elements to keeping Ts that know imaginary boundaries, then I suggest you wake up a bit. T keeping is a "strange and weird" hobby anywhere in the world, Ireland included.

But i know this view about what happened at the ATS is shared with others ,that it was wrong that the spiders were displayed like that especially by the ATS

thats my point

Yes, and the viewpoints that meat is murder, or that abortion doctors *should* be killed, or that whites are a superior race are also shared by others, doesn't make them any more right. That your arguably silly idea is shared by others certainly doesn't make it into the absolute that you're putting forth.

If you think it's wrong to handle, don't handle, but don't go getting the idea you have any right to state unequivocably that it's wrong for others to handle. They are people's personal property for them to make of what they want, be it a fuzzy wuzzy 8-wegged companion, or an arachnid display piece that happens to be alive.

RugbyDave · Jul 30, 2003

Originally posted by Code Monkey

If you think it's wrong to handle, don't handle, but don't go getting the idea you have any right to suggest it's wrong for others to handle.

nail-on-the-head, chip.

peace
dave

Public Library Ignorance NIGHTMARE!!

Arachnoservant

Arachnoprince

Arachnobaron

Arachnopeon

Arachnoprince

Arachnoangel

Arachnoservant

Arachnoprince

Arachnoknight

Arachnoemperor

Arachnoangel

Arachnoemperor

Arachnobaron

Arachnoangel

Arachnoemperor

Arachnosquire

Arachnoprince

Arachnoangel

Arachnoemperor

Arachnoprince