Some advice required

[Kev Moonan]

Hello,

Firstly some history; Christmas before last my arachnophobic wife bought me a kit to house a tarantula. Last December after much research and time spent ensuring that I wouldn't kill it and was comfortable enough to own one I bought one from exotic pets (.co.uk).

My problem begins when I - being quite happy at achieving a long term ambition - mentioned to a colleague that “Boris” (I let the wife name the tarantula, it seemed the least I could do) had arrived.

After numerous e-mails debating the subject the result is this email to the MSPCA (manx RSPCA) -->

A colleague of mine recently received a tarantula via the post. This sounded strange to me so I checked with the Isle of Man Post Office and was advised that sending tarantulas via the post is not permitted and they suggested that I contact the RSPCA/MSPCA.

The spider was sent to a Mr Kevin Moonan (I believe his address is xxxx) not long before Christmas. The package was labelled as containing live insects. I believe he was sent crickets to feed the spider with at the same time (it is my understanding that sending live crickets via the post is acceptable to the postal service) however, as I am sure you are aware, this labelling is misleading as the package also contained a tarantula and spiders are not insects.

Mr Moonan was not willing to give me the name of the company from which he had bought the spider. I believe he bought it from a UK based company over the internet.

I am concerned that sending tarantulas in the post is firstly cruel to the animal and secondly dangerous to postal workers (regardless of whether the animal is poisonous or not it could escape from it’s packaging and scare postal workers resulting in disruption, accidents and possibly the death of the animal).

I felt compelled to advise you of this incident in the hope that it would be investigated and the practice stopped or at least better regulated. It concerns me that animals of this nature are available so easily, that there is no record of who owns them and therefore, it would appear, no regulation of their treatment, the suitability of their owners or what different species are present on the Island.

Should you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me – also kindly advise whether I should contact the RSPCA as well as yourselves?

I look forward to hearing from you.

As I'm now expecting a visit from said folk I was wondering if I'm on solid ground or quicksand when it comes to arguing with them - enter your good selves.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Good lord, whoever's written all that sounds like a nightmare, it seems more important than if a terrorist plot had just been uncovered, it all sounds completely over the top to me. I've been posting and receiving T's in the post for years, along with thousands of other collectors. They are invertibrates, there's no problem posting providing, the weather is suitable, or a heat pack is included in colder weather, and they are correctly packaged, there's plenty of threads and advice regarding that. I personally send them out with 'handle with care - glass' or 'fragile', and as they are always posted RMSD for next day delivery, are in the post the minumum time, and generally come to no harm. Personally I would ignor it completely. That's my opinion, obviously others might take a different line. But at the end of the day, it's common practice

[Kev Moonan]

Hi,

It is a bit of a nightmare as they just don't seem to have any sense of reason. I even tried the tact of it being worse to send crickets with the intent of feeding them live through the post as worse but for some reason they think that's ok.

Thanks for the confirmation though, it never made sense to me in the first instance that this was a problem but I just wanted to double check.

[Gareth Brink]

seems to me that some one has far too much time on their hands lol