Zookeeper DROPS T.blondi - Video

[Shagrath666]

Sigh.. I dunno, while I understand and partially agree with the points you made, I think what happened here is inexcusible. This guy is supposed to be an expert. But if you look at the big picture, all this comes down to is money.

-Zoo's spend millions of dollars capturing wild animals.
-Zoo's aim to make money off of the keeping of these animals.
-Many times the Zoo's underpay their employees and therefor hire employees which are under-educated or completely unqualified to handle the majority of the animals in their "care".
-To promote their Zoo and boost ticket sales, they do crappy little segments on local news stations because they're having a slow news day..
-Unqualified employee, bright lights, the anxiety of being broadcast across the city/state = prone to make a mistake.

I'm sure I'll catch some crap for saying this, but personally I dislike zoo's and will not contribute to their cause(s). They're a business like any other. Their goal is to make money. They do not have the best interest of the animals they keep in mind.

come to the Milwaukee zoo, second best one in the country (behind San Diego) the keepers are extremely knowlagable, the enclosures are clean and we have many captive breeding programs designed to release animals back into the wild and help endangered populations. A lot of the smaller zoo's may be in it for profit and under pay thier employees, but here in Mil town we dont roll like that

 

[Placeboani2]

I wish i never watched that.

 

[Talkenlate04]

This is very old news.

Back when it did happen a bunch of us wrote him, he responded back respectfully and expressed regret over the incident. He rarely handled tarantulas before that segment and was not even scheduled to do the show originally but had to fill in last minute. He is an animal lover and never meant to cause harm.

A mistake is a mistake everyone makes them. But not all of us are on national TV when we make our mistakes.

 

[Drachenjager]

This is very old news.

Back when it did happen a bunch of us wrote him, he responded back respectfully and expressed regret over the incident. He rarely handled tarantulas before that segment and was not even scheduled to do the show originally but had to fill in last minute. He is an animal lover and never meant to cause harm.

A mistake is a mistake everyone makes them. But not all of us are on national TV when we make our mistakes.

here here voice of reason. how many on here have killed their T's? come on people. many people have dropped Ts many have kept species that need high humidity too dry and lost them . its the same thing.

 

[Roski]

This is very old news.

Back when it did happen a bunch of us wrote him, he responded back respectfully and expressed regret over the incident. He rarely handled tarantulas before that segment and was not even scheduled to do the show originally but had to fill in last minute. He is an animal lover and never meant to cause harm.

A mistake is a mistake everyone makes them. But not all of us are on national TV when we make our mistakes.

i understand. i never felt he should have been blamed so harshly for what happened. watching a gravid female T. blondi crack open and drag her own guts around on a table makes anyone wince i'm sure, myself included, but certainly worse things have befallen Ts, accidental or due to ignorance, sometimes at our own hands.

What actually ended up offending me in the vid was AFTER the T was taken away. the woman in white who, upon being asked which animal she had preferred, made the remark about alligator shoes. i was really into gators and crocs for a while, and i initially thought- oh, cool, someone else who appreciates these creatures!- guess not! :wall: all animals are alive for us to kill, skin and wear on our bodies for the sake of cultural notions of beauty! when it's in the wild, it's ugly and vicious- when it's in your shoe closet, it's beautiful and valuable:evil: *carried off in straitjacket, ranting and raving*

SAVE me lord, give me apathy.

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

That goo is certainly ruptured abdominal contents rather than eggs.

 

[Hedorah99]

To everyone calling for this guys head, I have a question: Is it lonely on your pedestal?
And for anyone else who has anything to say about zoo's, feel free to ask me. I am a staff member of an AZA accredited zoo and an AAZK member. The crap I have seen posted about zoo's in previous post's makes me sick. I can assure you you are WAY off base and haven't a clue what you are talking about.

 

[Sathane]

This guy needs a dropkick to the face.

Yup, could be eggs. I suppose if I dropped a gravid female I'd see eggs too. In fact, this is how I get females to drop sacs for me. Forget messing with photo-period, temperature, and moisture - just throw it at something. Very sad

 

[Talkenlate04]

This guy needs a dropkick to the face.

A drop kick to the face for making a mistake that sounds perfectly logical to me. How many drop kicks do we get to give you?
You have no way of knowing how you would have acted in the same position. And as I mentioned before he expressed regret over the situation and is an avid animal lover. Accidents happen get over it.

 

[Sathane]

I guess it's pretty difficult to pick up on sarcasm in someone's posts here, huh Ryan? Especially when pretty much the rest of the post was also obviously sarcastic.

I was actually making fun of the other people having a fit over the mistake but whatever... ;P

EDIT: Just a quick addition, since apparently you know so much about me. I once dropped an H. incei female when I threw a prey item into her enclosure. It scared her and she bolted, falling to the floor. In front of a 5 year old boy and his mother who were complete strangers but came over to see my collection (the kid loved spiders and a buddy who owns a pet shop in Belleville asked if I would show him some of my collection as a favour). So, perhaps you shouldn't make statements you have absolutely no way to validate. Sure, I wasn't on TV but I had an audience I was unfamiliar with and I can assure you I didn't try to cover my mistake with blatant BS.

A drop kick to the face for making a mistake that sounds perfectly logical to me. How many drop kicks do we get to give you?
You have no way of knowing how you would have acted in the same position. And as I mentioned before he expressed regret over the situation and is an avid animal lover. Accidents happen get over it.

 

[Talkenlate04]

When we wrote him back on 6/23/2008 this is the reply we got back. To me this reply was given by someone that does care about wildlife and simply made a mistake but that is just me. You never know though maybe he is Satan in disguise out to kill all tarantulas.

Dear Katherine, Celeste, Patrick, Ryan, and Jennifer,

First and foremost, I want to apologize for the mishandling of the T. blondi on the CBS Early Show this past Saturday that lead to her falling and rupturing her egg sac. You are all correct in saying it was wrong for me to have the spider elevated from the table which allowed it to fall and no one feels worse about it than me. I accept total responsibility for the presentation and want you to know that your justified anger has not fallen on deaf ears.

Though there is no excuse for what happened, I do want to share with you my reasons for doing what I did and saying what I said. I did not bring any animals from Miami as I would not want to subject them to the stress of long travel for a television segment. The animals that were used for the segment were from the Tri-State area and are regularly used for educational presentations. In my briefing with the animal owners prior to the segment, we went over each animal and suggested presentation methods. In discussing the spider, I was a bit apprehensive because every T. blondi that I had worked with in the past was fairly aggressive and certainly not “hands-on.” I was told however that this individual was very passive and that she would walk out on my hand. My huge mistake of course was that I should have had my hand on the table and not above it and that is why this accident is totally my fault and I understand your disgust. I thought that having the spider come out on my had was important because one of my goals in the segment was to show people that tarantulas are not the horrible monsters that so many people believe them to be which has contributed to their persecution.

With regard to what I said regarding keeping such animals as pets, I hope you can understand the challenges that those of us in this industry have with novices keeping exotics as pets because they think it is “cool” and easy only to find out it is not and as soon as the novelty wears off, the animal suffers. Doing segments such as the one on Saturday present a tremendous challenge in trying to get facts out when you are dealing with hosts that are bombarding you with often silly comments and you only have a few minutes to give information. One of my mantras is that, as a general rule, exotic animals do not make good pets and that quite often, the exotic pet trade has contributed to the demise of several species in the wild. That being said, there are certainly qualified individuals who have dedicated themselves to working with such animals and do make responsible owners. However, in my 30 years of working with wildlife, that is certainly the exception as opposed to the rule and I received calls on a regular basis from people trying to dump their exotic pets (including tarantulas) on the zoo when they realize they have made a mistake. I certainly did not mean to offend those of you who represent the minority that have dedicated yourselves admirably to the care husbandry of tarantulas. I simply don’t have the time to address all of the exceptions in these segments and have to speak in generalities.

In closing, I want to again profusely apologize for my mishandling of the T. blondi on the Early Show this past Saturday. If it means anything, she did not die though I realize she has gone through a significant trauma. Rest assured that in the future, I will be profoundly aware of the dos and don’ts of handling such a spider and will make more of an effort to be sensitive to those of you who have dedicated yourselves to being their champion.

Sincerely,
Ron Magill
Communications & Media Director

 

[Roski]

thank you, talkenlate. hopefully posting this will end the flame war. among the topics addressed in his apology, i'm glad she lived

 

[Sathane]

He called it an "egg sac" again! FLAME ON!!!

For those who didn't pick up on it *cough* Ryan *cough*, this was sarcastic as well.

 

[vvx]

So the blondi didn't die? That's pretty amazing.

 

[Talkenlate04]

He called it an "egg sac" again! FLAME ON!!!

For those who didn't pick up on it *cough* Ryan *cough*, this was sarcastic as well.

Your attempt at sarcasm sucked pretty bad actually. It sounded exactly like every other head hunting post before it so there was no real way at all to "pick up" on your sarcasm.

As for the use of the words "egg sac" that was already addressed with him as well.

"her falling and rupturing her egg sac."
Tarantulas don't carry egg sacs inside them. They have to carry the eggs in their abdomen until they are ready to be laid into a sac made of silk. From there it can take 2-3 months (sometimes more sometimes less) depending on the species for them to hatch and be ready to start feeding.
I thank you for taking the time to respond to our messages. Most of us know you are not into the hobby like we are, but it was still nice to get a response with acknowledgment that something was done incorrectly.
Thank you again for responding.
~Ryan

And his reply,

Ryan –
I stand corrected, and again, I profoundly apologize for the accident. I made an assumption because I saw many clearly defined eggs in the mass that came out of her and misused the term “sac.” I very much appreciate your taking the time to educate me and please know that such an incident won’t happen again.

Sincerely,
Ron Magill
Communications & Media Director

 

[Sathane]

Sounds like you guys got it all sorted out then.

What about the moustache though? I think I need to send him a strongly worded email...

As for the use of the words "egg sac" that was already addressed with him as well.

 

[Warren Bautista]

Sounds like you guys got it all sorted out then.

What about the moustache though? I think I need to send him a strongly worded email...

Sheesh.

.

 

[Tcollector]

I think that this post should be locked. It was a simple mistake. I bet that some of the people on here that had something to say about this made mistakes themselfs with their tarantula.

 

[Sathane]

Oh, come on. Really? That last one was very obviously a joke. Wow...

Bah! Must be unfunny day south of the border.. :wall:

Oh well, back to watching movies for me then. Maybe when I wake up whoever stole all the senses of humour will have returned them.

Sheesh.

.

 

[tekkendarklord]

woah I thought he would never apologize for what happened LOL I had a hard time sleeping last night because of this