Things that bite; or why people choose to own aggressive animals.

[JayzunBoget]

The reason that I started this thread was to fish for stories for an episode of "Text Me TV", a late night TV show that airs in the greater Lansing/Detroit area of Michigan. The pet store I work for show up every other week with some cool animals and tell people about them and answer text-ed ? ) in questions.
In two weeks, I will be doing the show and my theme is "Things That Bite; or why people choose to keep aggressive animals".
There is a variety of different reasons that people do choose to keep these creatures, and talking to people where I work I've heard quite a few interesting stories that illustrate those reasons.
I was wondering if anybody else had thoughts on this topic or experiences that express those thoughts that they wanted to share. If you have a cool story that illustrates your views, and you were ok with it, I might mention it on air and credit you with it.
What follows is one such story...

 

[JayzunBoget]

MSU Army National Guard Recruiting Station

A few months ago a group of soldiers from the local Army National Guard recruiting office came into the pet store where I work. They were interested in getting a tarantula for their office. Because noone in the office had ever owned a tarantula, they wanted to learn about them and find out wich one was right for them. They must have spent half an hour to an hour asking me questions and listening to my recommendations as we went over our tarantulas. I told them our recommendations for a living environment, and they bought what they would need for it.
At the end of it all, they decided that they wanted a Rose Hair because its current size, its hardiness and ease of keeping and its price. What they hadn't decided on was which one.
I had three Rosies at the time. Two of which where typical bright pink eight legged puppies, and one that had identity issues. It was convinced it was a Cobalt Blue. This thing would throw a threat posture at people through the glass. Stan Schultz, the author of The Tarantula Keepers Guidebook, was going to demonstrate a restraining hold on a Rosey for me when he visited my store. He opened this tarantulas cage and took one look at this thing with its cephalothorax perpendicular to the ground, fangs spread, and quietly closed it back up and politely asked me if I, perhaps, had another rose hair.
These soldiers liked the ease with which you could manage a typical rosey, but loved the idea of having a T that freaking tough to represent and defend Americas interests. They decided to go home, set up the cage and sleep on it.
They were back the next day, cash in hand, to buy "General Patton" to represent their office.
Now, for them, this wasn't just some adolescent thrill thing. They respected this spider. They set him up in a low traffic part of their office so he wouldn't be disturbed. By questions they asked and responses they made, I knew that they cared for this animal and its quality of life.
They just liked what she represented, for them.

That is their story. What is yours?

 

[Aubrey Sidwell]

I don't have a story for you but I would like to give you some educational advice especially if you actually plan to show this on TV. The first and most important thing to know about any animal that bites is that they should not be considered aggressive. All animals have instincts which cause them to react to situations. The situations a tarantula may have to endure in captivity changes ones perception of their intentions.

Some tarantulas are docile by nature and others are much more high strung or nervous but any of them can bite. The term that is preferred is that tarantulas, as well as any other animal, are defensive. Aggressive means they purposely go after you just to bite you. Defensive means you have invaded their space which they aim to protect whether they are in the wild or in captivity. If someone were to tell me a tarantula bit them on the arm for no reason and therefore referred to it as aggressive because it was unprovoked I would simply state the provocation came from the individual deciding to hold it in the first place. When and why a tarantula bites will never be known but you must accept that they feel threatened in some miniscule way which caused them to bite.

Tarantulas have earned a bad rap and many are scared of them because they hear that they are capable of jumping on people from far away and that they bite and have poisonous venom that kills. The truth is that terrestrial spiders can be killed by a fall so they certainly can't jump ridiculously long distances. Arboreal spiders can jump from tree to tree but they are strategically measured jumps since they lose altitude when they jump. Yes they bite and if you don't want to get bit never hold one and the venom is only meant to incapacitate prey that is equal to or smaller than the tarantula itself. No confirmed cases of human death from an envenomated tarantula bite.

 

[CharlaineC]

respect

When I was stationed in Iraq I was terrified of finding scorps and other killed bugs in my be. To the point I had a black light sent to me. I sarted checking everything every night and morning. I started to place the "scorps that I was finding inplastic buckets. At first it was for a poor and crule reason I wanted to cast them in reasen. so that I could have this huge brick of killer scorps I found in my bed. After a few weeks of feeding, researching, and wathing them I begain to not only respect them but to realise how beautiful they really are. Many people Get into this hobbiy for the coolness facter of it all. I feel that the hobby chose me. I have not been bitten but I have had a threat display or two I have been pinched and chased out of the cages. But it was because I envaded their space. T's and scorps are one of natures most beautiful creatues but over the years we have been trained by the movie indristry to be scare of them. Thanks to movies like " The Spider, Ants, Scorpion, Arachnid, and many others." As far as other so called dangerous cratures keeping them all depemds on the person who is keeping them. Many who do it is because of respect, others it is for the danger, and some it is due toth lack of information and research. All in all I beleave that aggresion is in the eye of the beholder and the uneducated.

 

[Rochelle]

I wish I had an eloquent reason for keeping T's but it's actually very simple; I was tired of being petrified of little bugs I couldn't avoid.
Tired of being unable to walk into a room if I knew there was a dime sized spider in the corner of the ceiling; tired of being unable to take a shower without checking every corner of the bathroom; tired of being scared of the basement; tired of doing the hippy-chicken dance every time I walked into a cob web in a field. Tired of being UBER-aware of the fact that there are approximately 9 million spiders per acre of average land.
So I bought a Tarantula. I figured if I could make myself get over it enough to take care of this huge monster of a spider, then maybe I'd be able to get through regular life without constantly watching the corners. (Bedtime was a bear; you have to close your eyes, sometime ).
I fortunately ended up with "Gladys" the world's nicest G.rosea. (He turned out to be a boy, but we didn't have the heart to change his name.) We didn't know a darned thing about T. keeping then.....but 98 Tarantulas later; I don't sweat the corners anymore.
In short ~ I choose to keep pets that bite because they force me to recognize the reality of what they really are; and gain self confidence and surety in knowing that I can be comfortable with their presence. I am empowered in their successful keeping and occasional comradeship.
(I hope that didn't sound too nerdy.)

 

[7mary3]

Rochelle, that's actually very similar to the same reason that I started keeping. I needed to confront my fears. In the past I've been known to freeze up at the site of a wolfspider, have a full blown panic attack at the sight of two or three hundred dock spiders coming my way, and in once extreme incident, I actually shot a spider... no, I am not kidding. One of my roommates bought a T well over a year ago now, and it started to force me to come to grips with my fears. I became curious though still extremely wary. Eventually I wound up getting my own T, and I fell in love with the hobby. I've since done as much research as possible on Ts and have expanded my collection greatly. I definately do not possess that irrational fear anymore, and I've got a great hobby to show for it.

That Jayzun, is why I keep my Ts (but you already knew that).


EDIT--- Oh and Rochelle, your avatars continue to freak me out in that delightful sort of way.

 

[von_z]

Rochelle, that's actually very similar to the same reason that I started keeping. I needed to confront my fears. In the past I've been known to freeze up at the site of a wolfspider, have a full blown panic attack at the sight of two or three hundred dock spiders coming my way, and in once extreme incident, I actually shot a spider... no, I am not kidding. One of my roommates bought a T well over a year ago now, and it started to force me to come to grips with my fears. I became curious though still extremely wary. Eventually I wound up getting my own T, and I fell in love with the hobby. I've since done as much research as possible on Ts and have expanded my collection greatly. I definately do not possess that irrational fear anymore, and I've got a great hobby to show for it.

That Jayzun, is why I keep my Ts (but you already knew that).


EDIT--- Oh and Rochelle, your avatars continue to freak me out in that delightful sort of way.

That is exactly why I got into the hobby as well. Ditto on everything (including the avatars )

 

[Lucara]

The only reason I started owning T's was to get over my fear of them. I suppose that owning dangerous animals is sort of like a challenged to yourself. Getting over your fear or just being able to say that you can successfully own and care for pit vipers or massive tarantulas. Personally, I'm just proud of myself for seeing my T's as what they really are and not some horrible monster that others have them made out to be.

 

[pinktoe23]

There is a variety of different reasons that people do choose to keep these creatures, and talking to people where I work I've heard quite a few interesting stories that illustrate those reasons. I was wondering if anybody else had thoughts on this topic or experiences that express those thoughts that they wanted to share.

I'd say fascination, respect and a genuine interest to study and observe their defensive behaviour, there's always a reason/s some sp. are more defensive than others. Note I used defensive and not aggressive for a reason. You might want to take a look at this article Josh made some time ago, he summed it up nicely and I agree 100%. Perhaps you could explain the difference in your presentation as well and help people understand these so called "aggressive" spiders are not out there to "get you"

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=89070

 

[JayzunBoget]

I should have made the distinction in the begining...

About the nature of aggression and its roots, in the majority of cases I deal with, in a fear response. I totally agree with all of you on that and I should have commented on that in the beginning as well as about misunderstandings about the true personalities of tarantulas.
That said, however, although there is massive misunderstandings about the nature of aggression in tarantulas, it is oversimplified to say there is no more to it than a simple fear response. There's territoriality or an all consuming appetite and who know what other reasons.
And while I do not condone provoking these responses for one's simple amusement, I do not think there is anything wrong with being impressed or even awed by the magnificent fury that nature is capable of displaying.
I was hoping to attract some stories of peoples respect or appreciation of that specific aspect of tarantulaphilia (not like that sickos). I do appreciate all of the responces that I have gotten so far, thanks all of you.
And BTW, when UsamburaIndian said that he once shot a spider, he didn't mean that he shot at a spider. He actually hit a wolf spider from a decent distance. What was it, from the ground to the eves of your house?
Oops, I gotta run, but I have more to say on this. I will add to this later.

 

[Rochelle]

Did I forget to mention the benefits of Tarantulas -vs.- In laws?
The in laws stay away more often than if we had rabid rottweillers chained to the front door.

My mother in law wouldn't set foot in this house even if I set free Avon samples out in candy dishes all over the place....;P

 

[MVDaniel]

For me, it all started when I caught a little jumper in my room. I bottled him up and fed him regularly, fascinated by the complexity of his behaviors. For most spiders, life ends when you get spotted by a person. They'll squash you or suck you up in the vaccum and rarely take any interest in what you're doing. I watched this little guy, did some research and found that I was able to understand a little about him by the things he was doing. The rest is history. I wanted something I could see a little easier, so a T was the perfect candidate.

 

[MVDaniel]

But yeah, now none of the guys will come over any more........lol

 

[pinktoe23]

About the nature of aggression and its roots, in the majority of cases I deal with, in a fear response.

although there is massive misunderstandings about the nature of aggression in tarantulas, it is oversimplified to say there is no more to it than a simple fear response.

There's territoriality or an all consuming appetite and who know what other reasons.

My point is there is always a reason why some species are wired to be more defensive than others starting from their localities to whether they're equipped with urticating hairs to use as primary defense mechanism to escape potential harm and danger, or don't have it and so on... It may sound oversimplified to you, but to presume the opposite and give some tarantulas' behaviour an aggressive definition would be wrong. Just my thoughts

I don't think any animal gets defensive without an estimulus, it needs something to trigger this behaviour whether it's an internal (being sick or weak, ie: a scared dog barking louder when wounded) or an external factor (like invading it's home space or getting too close).

From the article:

"AGGRESSIVE

1. characterized by or tending toward unprovoked offensives, attacks, invasions, or the like; militantly forward or menacing

DEFENSIVE

1. serving to defend; protective

DEFEND

1. To make or keep safe from danger, attack, or harm.

See the difference? Most T's do not go out of their way to come out of their tank (aka their home, their burrow *many species consider the entire tank their burrow*, etc) to try and tag you. If you stick your hand or another object in their burrow (tank) then you are invading THEIR territory and they are defending it.

 

[OTwolfe]

I also started owning Ts to get over my arachnophobia. My fiance has had Ts for a long time- all sorts of species from rosies to obts. I've been arachnophobic from childhood- I think it's something about they way they arachnids move. I've run screaming from rooms, cried uncontrollably upon findng a tiny houseguest, etc. Anyway, Aaron introduced me to Ts. He showed me websites (such as the wonderful arachnoboards) where I could gain information about ts. At first I was terrified of even touching a container with a T in it. The thing was, the more l observed and learned about Ts, the more facinating they became. Gradually, I worked up to touching the container, feeding, cage maintanance, watching Aaron handle and eventually carefully handling a (very sedate) rosie. Gradual desensitization was key. I got my own T (an Avic avic) because they now facinate me. Plus, they are the perfect apartment pet. No noise, smell, walkies, cheap to feed etc. I chose an Avic avic because they are a good beginner spider; something I could give adequate care and work my way to owning something more defensive. Plus, T's are cute!! They're fuzzy, have beautiful colors, and for some reason are not as scary as "house" spiders. Maybe it's because my T is in a container and cannot "get the drop" on me like a house spider. Whatever the case, my life is defenetly better with Ts in it.