A few weeks ago, I spoke out against YouTube’s tarantula abuse problem after stumbling across several videos in which tarantulas were put in terrible, dangerous situations to raise views for popular YouTube channels. You can find that post here if you want to do a deeper dive, and it got me thinking about other disturbing tarantula videos I have seen that have no business being on the internet.

It’s unfortunate that if this kind of abuse were happening to a dog or cat, YouTube would be having none of it and people would be lining up to sign petitions and protest. Unfortunately, there isn’t much in terms of tarantula activism on the internet despite the fact that there are these terrible videos out. While I think the greatest atrocities against tarantulas definitely have to be the terrible prank videos, there are a few more that I believe should be canceled because it encourages abuse and terrible treatment of these creatures. Here are some of my thoughts based on what I’ve seen:

Tarantulas vs. mice videos

I’ve spoken out about my dislike for tarantulas being fed pinky mice. That’s not what this is about. What I’m talking about is when tarantula owners intentionally put a tarantula in an enclosure with a live mouse – and one that is usually just as big or bigger than they are. It seems that in these videos, the focus is not really about feeding the tarantula – because if this were true, a thawed pinky mouse would have been sufficient. These videos seem to be geared toward a sick desire to see two living things fight to the death, and that’s something I don’t agree with for the mouse or the spider. Now, we can argue that this happens in nature all the time – and that’s true. But I have a big issue with any type of creatures being trapped in a box together until one of them dies – especially when it’s for no other reason than human entertainment. I think this videos are very cruel, and dangerous. While tarantulas may be perfectly capable of taking down a mouse, there’s a high risk for them to become hurt in the process and the fact that some people purposefully put them in those situations is disgusting.

Irresponsible handling videos

While most people in the tarantula hobby are incredibly caring and careful with their pets, there’s a lot of surprisingly bad handling videos on the internet. The videos that most concern me are the ones handling tarantulas from high heights that are clearly unsafe for the spider, and the worst offenders: the ones with tarantulas crawling on people’s faces. And of course, then there’s the ones that are for comedic/shock value.

Heights

This is just dangerous. It’s not good for the spider – handling tarantulas from great heights is actually how MANY tarantula deaths and serious accidents happen. Most of these videos also don’t educate tarantula owners about why this is dangerous and not a good idea. If you’re unaware, these creatures are extremely fragile and if they were to fall from a distance, it’s not uncommon for a tarantula’s abdomen to rupture. So in my opinion, these videos should be canceled due to the bad techniques they encourage.

Tarantulas on face

These are another that are highly problematic, particularly due to how dangerous it is for the person with the tarantula on their face, and the tarantula itself. If you were to get a tarantula bite on your face or get hairs kicked near your eyes, nose or mouth, things are not going to look good for you. I also hate these videos because it implies to newbie tarantula owners that this is an OK practice to do. If you go to most tarantula groups on Facebook – even mine – you will notice that there is a BAN on these kinds of photos – and that’s for good reason. It’s not safe or responsible, and should not be encouraged. A lot of times tarantula handling videos and photos become a place for people to share how daring they are – and that is something I do NOT support.

Comedy/shock videos

These are a little different than the prank videos, but almost as bad. There have been several appearances of tarantulas on comedy shows to thrill the audience. There have also been several “dare” style reality tv shows that have used tarantulas in their competitions. I think all these shows and clips do is encourage and normalize fears of tarantulas, as well as put these animals in very dangerous conditions where they might be hurt. I think it dogs or cats were being handled as recklessly as these spiders, we wouldn’t even see these videos on the internet anymore.

I found a great video of Tarantula Kat reacting to a popular clip of Jimmy Fallon getting tarantulas put on him during his sketch, and she does a really great job at breaking down why this is terrible:

What kind of tarantula videos make you mad?