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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Australians should stop milking spiders

182 replies

Marue · 20/10/2015 12:25

Heard that they were urging people to catch more spiders to milk for anti venom, the average spider gets milked 100 times before being killed!

It just seems very inhumane to do that these days, surely with modern technology they should synthesise this?

OP posts:
TheoriginalLEM · 21/10/2015 15:46

oh yes - ive seen tarantulas with bigger teeth than my jack russel!!! Goliath tarantula my favourite spider ever!

TheoriginalLEM · 21/10/2015 15:53

oh and some of them jump but they are the cutest little critters ever

Flashbangandgone · 21/10/2015 16:03

Abortion from right to bodily autonomy PoV or forced birth/anti abortion?

What I meant was that I'd be interested to know if those so concerned spider welfare that they want seemingly rather innocuous process of spider 'milking' stopped on the basis of presumed pain and angst caused to a (relatively) small invertebrate with a tiny brain (if they indeed even have a brain as such), are pro-choice or not.... I would imagine the consistent position would have to be anti-abortion?

psychotropic · 21/10/2015 16:09

on the basis of presumed pain and angst cause

But we don't have to presume anything the pain and angst women endure when their access to reproductive health services is blocked or denied, we can only work with what we know for sure?

LaContessaDiPlump · 21/10/2015 16:18

Shock I hate you both Thumb and LEM

TheoriginalLEM · 21/10/2015 16:57

why would you assume that? it is a massive assumption.

Flashbangandgone · 21/10/2015 17:51

why would you assume that? it is a massive assumption.

More a hypothesis than an assumption.

If someone presumes spiders to have a human-like capacity to experience pain and angst such that we shouldn't 'milk', let alone kill, them, then it would seem a bit inconsistent if they didn't feel similarly to a foetus, who, at say 20 weeks, is arguably considerably more developed than a spider.

psychotropic · 21/10/2015 17:56

But it's not about the imagined suffering of a potential human is it, it's about someone who already is an autonomous being.

Collaborate · 21/10/2015 18:00

I don't accept that anyone in their right mind would refuse a milked antidote if they were bitten, including OP. Even if it would save one little spider from being "milked" to replace the anti-venom.

Flashbangandgone · 21/10/2015 19:00

psychotropic

Surely it's a far bigger leap in the imagination to suppose that a spider 'suffers'.

Flashbangandgone · 21/10/2015 19:03

Also to say a spider is 'someone' rather than 'something' is anthroporthise in the extreme!

TheAussieProject · 21/10/2015 19:30

Funnelweb spiders are not only deadly, but nasty as well. Milk them, kill them. Twice, just to be sure.

psychotropic · 21/10/2015 20:00

flash I'm a bit lost! Are you referring to 'someone who is an autonomous being'? By that I meant the person opting to terminate her pregnancy as opposed to the potential person who might have resulted from the pregnancy.

As for other animals and their capacity to suffer I imagine or hope we will continue adding to our (arguably limited!) understanding of this throughout time.

Flashbangandgone · 21/10/2015 20:10

Haha. Sorry. What you've written makes sense now. It's obvious when I read back again that you meant mother and not spider!!

SoupDragon · 21/10/2015 21:06

Cows do it. They are locked into cow parlours and milked twice daily. Nobody makes a fuss about that.

I do! I'm. Egan

Did you mean vegan, OP? Only because on Monday you were asking about whether you should have a macaroni and cheese pie, made with real cheese...

TitusGibbonicus · 21/10/2015 21:17

It's spiders.

Fuck 'em.

TheoriginalLEM · 21/10/2015 21:18

maybe thats why she was asking?

OverAndAbove · 21/10/2015 22:52

Ah, now I get it - about the vertebrates and invertebrates. I honestly had never realised that before (duh!) Very interesting, thank you

kali110 · 21/10/2015 23:09

I think unfortunately it is an important process that needs to be done.
People die every year from a single bite.
Are they really killed at the end though and not released?
I think that is awful! Sad
You're right about the sympathy though, if it were a cute little bunny people would be a lot more caring( this is coming from a person terrified of spiders!)

kali110 · 21/10/2015 23:19

Actually there has been research into whether siders, insects in general can feel pain and there is evidence on both sides.
It seems to be yes they can,it's just not in the way we feel pain.

OddSocksHighHeels · 21/10/2015 23:26

This thread has taught me about what milking spiders means and what the process is. I've been told that they are indeed treated well throughout the process and they aren't hurt by the milking. I would like any living creature to not be mistreated. I don't kill spiders/insects/whatever as I don't need to in the UK where they can't harm me.

I am also pro-choice and have terminated myself. I would terminate again if I was pregnant now. I had no idea there was any link between these two points.

psychotropic · 21/10/2015 23:36

"People die every year from a single bite"

I thought someone said nobody had died since 1979! Or was that just from one specific type of spider?

Francoitalialan · 22/10/2015 00:35

Only on Mumsnet would parallels be drawn between women's' rights to corporal autonomy and fucking spiders. Bloody hell.

If all spiders were dead you wouldn't have to milk any. Simples.

psychotropic · 22/10/2015 00:41

If all spiders were dead all people would be too! They are on the list of animals we couldn't live without, probably because of their role as natural pesticides protecting our crops.

CrazyBoo · 22/10/2015 02:36

Funnel webs hide in my rockery garden. I'm happier digging around in there knowing that, should I be bitten, I won't die in a gibbering foaming-at-the-mouth mess - because the anti-venom exists. OP, come and have a look at one in the flesh. I guarantee you'll back away quickly, glad that SOMETHING would help you if it sunk its fangs into you.

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