That’s not a thing they would admit to publicly, but it’s a true statement. It’s not just spiders, either. Sometimes it’s Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Or scorpions. Ez has even bought a few praying mantises and walking sticks that way. The trick to the van is this: People buy spiders and they don’t really want spiders. Either they buy them and get freaked out, or they buy a Chilean rose tarantula and realize they really should have bought a rock because they’re about the same level of excitement. Or they buy one and get bit, or get stuck with the practically invisible urticating hairs that New World tarantulas can fling at you if they’re feeling particularly sassy that day. (Ez has never had that problem, because Ez is a professional.) There aren’t many rescue organizations for tarantulas like there are for cutey-wootey little poochies. For the most part, people do what they shouldn’t do: they throw them out into the wild (which isn’t legal) or they kill them (which isn’t legal, either).
