Stewart said public interest in spiders and scorpions has exploded as people realize they are actually low-maintenance pets that don’t require a walk three times a day and can be kept in apartments. or a small house without a backyard. “They are fascinating creatures and they are beautiful,” says Stewart, who has been collecting them for the past 20 years.
That said, he agrees that the international spider trade can be a problem because unethical collectors can devastate wild populations. “We don’t just love recipes because they look great,” says Stewart. “We are more attracted to them and want to preserve them in the wild, so you don’t want to buy a wild-collected tarantula. Now it almost makes you a spoiler because you are part of the problem. “
Stewart doesn’t breed tarantulas himself – he says he buys them from reputable dealers – but he says it’s a lot cheaper to breed them than to import them from the wild. “Importing a recipe is a very expensive and time-consuming process,” says Stewart. “There are a lot of red tapes that you have to go through. You must obtain permits from the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Even collectors have to prove that they are from the right source and that they have been brought from the wild with the right permits just to be imported into the country.” Stewart advises people to avoid traffickers who can’t be traced to their spiders, and to research traffickers on chat groups such as Arachnoboards Leaderboard.
However, without any kind of international certification program, it can be difficult for a true tarantula lover to know the source of the creature — is the seller a legal U.S. breeder or a Collectors plucked it from its nest in a rainforest and smuggled it out of the country? In 2019, just weeks after scientists in Malaysia discovered a new species of tarantula, later named the Birupes simoroxigoruma trio of collectors from Poland went on expeditions and sent some of them to the UK without a valid permit, according to a report in the magazine Science. Members of the same rare species, also commonly known as the neon green-footed tarantula, are now being sold online in the US. Although there is no US law prohibiting the purchase of this particular species, international and US law protect certain reptile species from Sri Lanka, making it difficult to import them into the United States or cross state lines. are illegal unless they are donated to a zoo or a university, according to Stewart.
In general, most regulations fall on the supplier, not the customer. Each country requires its own permit to collect wildlife. And in the United States, a federal permit is required to import mastiffs and other exotic pets, but not to purchase them.
Currently, each state also has its own laws governing exotic pet ownership, although the new legislation passed by the House will Prohibit the sale of non-native exotic pets across state lines. Law proposed as amendment to combat wildlife trade Lacey Act and is currently standing before a Senate committee. The proposal is designed to prevent species from entering the United States, but some veterinary group says the law will make it harder for owners of exotic pets to get veterinary care.
However, Sérgio Henriques, invertebrate conservation coordinator at the Indianapolis Zoo, says that even the legal trade drives demand for rare, colorful, stressful spiders and scorpions increasing for wild populations. captive.
“I only invite people who love these animals and are interested in them to find out how those species really live,” said Henriques, co-chair of IUCN’s expert group on spiders and scorpions. any in nature. “If you love these animals, let them thrive in the wild. And let us not be in the position where they are for you now, where they will not be for the next generation.”
