Jumping spiders are a wonderful pet who are small and adorable and often a first step into spiders for many. People are less intimidated by them and we have all seen the adorable videos and of course Lucas the spider!!!!!!

However, many of these people purchasing a jumper for the first time or any time are ending up in an unexpected situation because they have just bought a wild caught spider and that info was not disclosed to them or even worse tbey were lied to about it. Even if they were told it was caught they were not explained what exactly that means. So they get home and are excited about the new family member only to realize that if they have a female with in a couple weeks at most later they have a full  nest/clutch of eggs that turn into at minimum 100 babies they are now also responsible for. Raising jumper slings is not an easy job and not everyone can do it so these poor babies end up passing, being released, returned to stores or who knows what else. 

If they get a male then they end up with a spider who often soon passes as the wild caught males often pass once matured. This leaves owners heartbroken and wondering what they did when it has abdmsolutley nothing to do with them but it's about where they came from. 

Also, as a native Floridian I can say with confidence our native Regal (Phidippus Regius) jumping population is reduced due to catchers and poachers. We are currently dealing with very very strict non native species bans due to the population decline but they continue to allow poaching and wild sales. If we instead ban the sale of wild caught the. Our population can replenish and no owner should be scammed again! 

The worst part of all of this is most breeders of captive bred spiders offer similar or less costs than the stores selling wild caught and most breeders will offer wholesale prices to stores to allow them to get captive bred cheaper. Plus when considering purchase most people don't know about breeders near them and just see the cutie in a store. Also, in almost every case captive bred spiders are friendly and happy to be held. On the other hand the wild caught ones often live in fear and can possibly bite or run away or other issues that yoyr much less likely to see in a captive bred spider. 

All of us in the spider community see daily posts about people who have unknowingly ended up with a gravid (pregnant) girl and once these girls are gravid they will lay clutches every few weeks for the rest of their life so the new owners are now dealing with hundred and/or thousands of babies. This is unfair and absolutely not ethical for the animals or owners. 

May breeders are willing to do what is necessary to help reduce the population of wild caught in the trade but are helpless as most every state allows the sale of wild caught. Also, just to be clear this is in no way about the money. It's about the people who are buying these spiders with out knowing what they are signing up for! Can you imagine buying one cute little pet and ending up with hundreds that need daily care? Or buying a new pet who you love only to lose them in a few days or weeks if your lucky? Imagine the heartbreak! With wild caught there's no real way to know the age or health status of them. 

This is 2024 we should be better and we have to be better! We have so many animals in the wild now that don't belong there like the iguanas in Miami, thanks to the pet trade bringing in wild caught and selling them without setting proper expectations. Let's change this and do better. 

There is a large community of ethical breeders who are able to sell jumpers who have a zero percent chance of being gravid and who supply proper care instructions and some even offer after purchase support. 

So why are we still allowing wild caught animals to be sold at the same or higher prices when your getting so much less!!!!!???????? 

Plus imagine the poor spider living it's life in it's natural environment. . .. until suddenly you are caught, put into a tiny cup and then sold into a home who doesn't know how to care for you and now you may die young due to the stress or if your a girl you have to worry about your eggs and babies!!!!!!!! 

If you have personally experienced this please please share your story and if yoy know someone whonhas please ask them to share so we can show them this is happening to so many! 

Also we at Spoiled Spoods are passionate about taking care of all spiders. If you find yourself overrun with babies contact us we will help in any way. If you have a gravid girl accidentally contact us. The gravid females we try to adopt to class rooms as class pets and biology lessons for children to learn and emcourage the next generation of keepers. We will also replace your lost female with a captive bred spood. This is something we just consider part of the out reach we do. So it's not like we are making money off them. We donate the gravid girls and often donate or adopt out the babies to people who otherwise could not afford them. Since they are not captive bred we will not sell them. Even though we know they are not gravid and have been we cared for they still came from a WC mom and all of our babies are from captive bred parents and we only typically work woth captive bred. This is just something we offer to help owners who are in a bind. 

Regardless of your personal feelings on spiders and bugs this is still a living creature who deserves the right to live its life as nature intended.