Is it illegal to keep Tarantulas in captivity in the Western Cape ?
Who polices this law, and what are the penalties/consequences ?
I was hoping someone could shed some light on this for me ...
Thnks
Bushviper wrote:Butterfly world is a zoo. A zoo can keep an elephant a private person may not. I dont see anyone complaining about that. They have to meet certain standards which are regulated constantly. Private people do not have visitors on a daily basis who will complain if something is not right.
To compare the two is ridiculous. Many zoos do not want the burden of keeping confiscated animals. Often they would rather not have this and would prefer the animal is removed and euthanased as soon as the court case is over due to the threat of disease from some sickly smuggled animal or the expense of keeping an animal which has no conservation or educational value. If they acquire some species they would like then it compensates for the rubbish they have to accept from the authorities.
SerpenS wrote:I checked this on a website:
The Western Cape states that to protect their EXTREMELY special and unique "fynbos", all T's are ilegal.
I am a bit baffled by this statement since a spider can only make egg sachels that could disturb the plants, but it still won't exterminate them.
Secondly, the Western Cape has it's own list of baboon spider species which are in the wild.
And thirdly, if you have a pet, it's highly unlikely that you'll just let it off into the wild or loose it after paying for it.
I have to add that some T species are quite aggressive, like OBT, which is why they are illegal in South Africa. If these aggressive species are to escape somehow, there is a possibillity that they could hunt down and feed on, or even exterminate local spider species, but as I said, it's highly unlikely that a keeper will let his/her spider escape or just let it go after paying for it.
I have to conclude that the Western Cape is a bit unreasonable, a spider doesn't feed on plants, and most of these spiders live in burrows or shelters, they don't spin webbing until they've matured a bit, and this certainly won't affect the beauty of the Western Cape's ''fynbos'.
Thanx
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