When I was eleven years old, I encountered my first tarantula. We were camping during the summer- a yearly tradition not broken since Covid- and I was asleep, wrapped up in a thick sleeping bag. When I opened my eyes, there was an eight-legged creature sitting on my chest. I screamed, threw the cover of the sleeping bag into the side of the tent, and spent the next 15 minutes crouching on the opposite corner, terrified that the tarantula was coming to eat me alive.
I know what you’re thinking: jumping spiders aren’t just a variation of tarantulas. But it’s difficult to believe that. As an advocate of for animal well-being, the way I see it, the only reason some people are keeping them as pets is for the social media appeal. There’s nothing wrong with posting pictures of your pet online unless you’re not properly taking care of them, which could become more common as these pets get more and more popular online.
It’s difficult to see how people can be scared of large, supposedly “scarier” spiders one way, then turn the other and adore jumping spiders. In some ways they’re even worse. They’re smaller, which means they can hide away more easily in nooks and crannies if they ever escape their enclosure.
