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Search for trapped tarantulas
CONCERN is growing for the welfare of five baby tarantulas contained in a parcel stuck in the huge backlog of mail at a Royal Mail sorting office.
CONCERN is growing for the welfare of five baby tarantulas contained in a parcel stuck in the huge backlog of mail at a Royal Mail sorting office.The tiny spiders, which grow to become very large and hairy, are a gift which was due to be delivered to the Stead family yesterday.
But following a power cut, the exotic package joined the thousands of items of unprocessed mail at the Royal Mail centre in Papyrus Road, Werrington, Peterborough.
Janine Stead (37) had ordered the spiders via an internet site Reptile Forum for her son Spencer (10) who is mad about creepy crawlies.
His sister Amelia (6) already has a fully grown tarantula called Buffy and the animal-loving family have a menagerie of other pets including two bearded dragons, two English bull terriers, a snake, two parrots, a canary and budgie.
But after hearing about the hitch at the sorting office, Janine, of Easton-on-the-Hill near Stamford feared the five new additions would not be able to join them.
They were wrapped in a special heat pack which keeps them warm for 24 hours, but with the backlog piling up, the housewife and mum was becoming increasingly worried that they would not survive.
She said: "I was devastated when I went to my village post office and they said they wouldn't be getting any post today.
"The baby tarantulas are for my son and he was so excited about them. They are tiny at the moment but they are Brazilian salmon pink bird-eaters, which grow to the size of a DVD and can be worth around 100.
"They are very delicate and are kept in tubs of tissue paper and packaged around heat, because they are cold-blooded. If they are delivered within 24 hours, they will be fine, but I'm not sure they will get to us before then."
Janine frantically called Royal Mail but after getting no luck, she phoned the RSPCA, prompting staff at the depot to launch a search for the spiders.
A spokeswoman for the RSPCA said: "The Royal Mail has assured us that someone is looking for the parcel and it will be put into a warm room.
"We would recommend that if people are having live animals transported to them that they arrange a more secure point of delivery because there is always a potential for this sort of problem."
A Royal Mail spokesman confirmed last night that they were trying to locate the parcel as quickly as possible.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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