Mum's dash to sorting office to save baby tarantulas

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A MOTHER who ordered a consignment of baby tarantulas for her spider-mad son had to dash to a sorting office to collect it after a power cut disrupted mail deliveries.
Janine Stead, 37, ordered the five creatures from an internet site for her son, Spencer, 10, and they were posted with a guaranteed next day delivery to her home in Woodfields, Easton-on-the-Hill.

But a power cut at the giant sorting office in Peterborough meant that mail was severely disrupted on Tuesday night and deliveries were delayed.

"I was devastated when I went to my village post office and they said they would not be getting any post," she said.

"The spiders are very delicate and are kept in tubs of tissue paper and packaged around heat because they are coldblooded. If they were delivered within 24 hours, they would be fine but the delay meant they were in real danger," she said.

She called Royal Mail but had to phone the RSPCA after she had no success.

"When I first spoke to Royal Mail, they weren't very interested," she said, "but they started looking for them after I contacted the RSPCA. In the end they were very good and very helpful."

Janine was contacted on Wednesday afternoon to let her know the package had been found.

"I dashed over to pick them up from Orton Southgate at about 5.45pm on Wednesday and they are fine," she said.

The tiny spiders are Brazilian salmon pink bird eaters that grow to the size of a DVD.

They have joined a mini-menagerie at the Stead household where the pets include a fully grown tarantula called Buffy, two bearded dragons, two English bull terriers, a snake, a canary, two parrots and a budgie.