Some people keep seemingly threatening animals as pets including pythons. though not all snakes are threatening. I am thinking about spiders as pets. Personally, I have arachnophobia and would cringe at the very thought of keeping a spider as a pet. Granted, I am familiar with many species of spiders which are harmless but the thought that comes to mind when I think of spiders is that of poisonous ones who would not hesitate to sink their fangs into your skin.
Neighborhood kids where I'm from had always kept spiders as pets but these are the non-poisonous ones. Since we're from the province where trees are abundant, beetles and spiders are always included in the roster of pets that children like to keep. I remember playing with beetles as a little girl. We have lots of fruit trees in our yard and summer would be filled with a symphony of cicadas that would play all afternoon. My brothers and our friends would climb trees to look for long-legged spiders they can keep in matchboxes and then pitch them in fights. They terrified me so I stuck to my beetle.