I am surprised this policy makes sense, but somehow it seems to be the case, since they have been doing since the 80s.
My concern is that, to produce a single antivenom dose, they need about 150 spiders, which are collected as grown up spiders or eggs. Telling regular citizens to try catch some spiders on their own puts them at risk. In case of something going south, the worst case is death and the best case is an antivenom dose consumed. So by promoting this campaign, the ARP organization assumes that the average person is a highly skilled spider catchers and benefits outweight risks.
Instead I would have expected that antivenom producers would breed the spiders in captivity. This would be a safer alternative for regular citizens. If they really need to catch live spiders in the wild, I would expect some kind of public service in which individuals place a call and then a professional comes to safely catch the spider. In absence of such a public service, my instinct tells me to kill the spiders in the fastest and most reliable way.
I am surprised this policy makes sense, but somehow it seems to be the case, since they have been doing since the 80s.
My concern is that, to produce a single antivenom dose, they need about 150 spiders, which are collected as grown up spiders or eggs. Telling regular citizens to try catch some spiders on their own puts them at risk. In case of something going south, the worst case is death and the best case is an antivenom dose consumed. So by promoting this campaign, the ARP organization assumes that the average person is a highly skilled spider catchers and benefits outweight risks.
Instead I would have expected that antivenom producers would breed the spiders in captivity. This would be a safer alternative for regular citizens. If they really need to catch live spiders in the wild, I would expect some kind of public service in which individuals place a call and then a professional comes to safely catch the spider. In absence of such a public service, my instinct tells me to kill the spiders in the fastest and most reliable way.