Had to evict a big ass spider from my room today and was reminded of this meme template. At least it's easier to evict spiders than cats, the latter don't fit in measuring cups.

Two panels in the "Hello, Human Resources?!" meme template. Work place setting. Title: Know the home rules. Upper Panel, entitled "appropriate": A cat overlayed on a person stands next to another person's cubicle and says "I domesticated myself and hunt pests.". The person in the cubicle is enamored and replies: "Awww, you're sweet.". Lower Panel, entitled "inappropriate": Same scenario as the upper panel. This time a spider is overlayed on the person instead. The person in the cubicle is frightened and on the phone, saying: "Hello, human resources?!"
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[–] 9 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, I'm not sure they count as "domesticated". I was always given to understand that domesticated implied some basic degree of understanding that they were part of an arrangement with humans, e.g. cats know that you're feeding them and don't attack you, whereas an otherwise-untrained wild animal will readily bite the hand that feeds it.

Cambridge Dictionary on the other hand has a different definition: "brought under human control in order to provide food, power, or company", which also doesn't fit spiders, because it implies they're under my control when they're very much not.

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  • [–] 5 points 13 hours ago

    the big thing with domestication is that they kinda need to have some genetic changes, otherwise they're just tame or chill.
    And yeah cats kinda sorta aren't domesticated, they're not very different from their ancestors and i'd wager there are african wildcats who just decide to become housecats every now and then.

    I'd class ""domestic"" spiders alongside raccoons, rats, and foxes: animals who just inherently function really well in human habitats.

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