We’ve all likely seen a tarantula prank video or two, so what I’m going to say isn’t going to be surprising to any of you, but I had to get it out just to calm myself. I recently watched something that made me so furious that I had to share it with you.

I came across a Jake Paul video that involved a tarantula prank recently. I can explain – I am not a Jake Paul fan, but he is someone that the children therapy clients watch on a regular basis so I like to sometimes keep up with his content so I can relate to them. Anyway, Jake Paul did a tarantula prank video a while ago and it led me down this terrible rabbit hole of other tarantula prank videos that were even worse.

The prank part of Jake Paul’s video did not use an actual tarantula to sneak up on people – they actually used a fake spider for this, which I can appreciate, but in other parts of the video a live tarantula appears and is handled in a very careless way around a lot of people who are scared of it. In my eyes, the tarantula keeper who agreed to be in this video was very irresponsible in allowing this tarantula to be around an unpredictable environment in which he is likely well aware that Jake Paul and his crew are going to be acting wild for their fans. But to be fair, Jake Paul’s tarantula prank video was far from the worst one.

Unfortunately, I stumbled upon what was by far the worst tarantula prank video and I wish I could unsee it. The video is by De’arra & Ken 4 Life and is wildly irresponsible and dangerous for both the humans and the poor spider who was subjected to this abuse. This tarantula could have DIED thanks to this foolish prank and I’m surprised it wasn’t severely injured. In the video, Ken blindfolds his girlfriend and places a LIVE tarantula on her stomach. Naturally, she freaks out when she takes the blindfold off and runs away, throwing the spider off her. THIS WAS A LIVE ANIMAL!!! And not just that, once his girlfriend runs away, he proceeds to capture the spider and chase her around the house with it. Here’s the infuriating video:

This was likely the worst tarantula prank video, but there were others. Here are a few other idiotic stunts that put tarantulas’ lives in danger:

And of course, the original Jake Paul tarantula prank video that took me down this terrible rabbit hole:

I honestly don’t think videos like this should be allowed on YouTube. If someone had done something similar to a dog or cat, we all know these videos wouldn’t be up or there would be some kind of prepercussion. Unfortunately, when you look in the comments, people think this is hilarious which is absolutely disgusting.

Not only is this wildly irresponsible and unsafe for animal, it is cruel to the people who are the victims of these pranks. There are people who are actually arachnophobic and they deserve to be respected. This only helps to perpetuate fear and encourage a toxic culture where non mainstream animals continue to be exploited and abused. I am completely against any tarantula prank – even ones that involve molts because I think it is cruel to subject others to things they are deathly afraid of and if we want our pets to be respected, we have to respect others as well.

These tarantulas could have been killed. I am not sure what to do as I am still very upset about what I saw in these videos. Would a petition to get these videos removed or something like that be useful?

If you’d like to report tarantula abuse, you can do so by flagging these videos and reporting abuse using YouTube’s guidelines. Please also consider signing this petition against the abuse of ALL animals including arachnids.