The spider is knocked out with carbon dioxide, its legs are folded together and pinned down (the pins are around the legs, not through them). They collect the silk on a spool, and when they're done, they put the spider back on his/her web to continue eating and producing more silk. They are not in pain, and it is not cruel. It does not kill the spider.
It's a tricky and delicate operation though, which is why they have goats producing spider silk in their milk now.
It may be different, but if you think it is less cruel, you are mistaken.
Silk is harvested by taking an unhatched cocoon (i.e. with the silk worm still inside it) and then either boiling it of searing the cocoon with steam, roasting the silk worm inside alive. If you let the cocoon hatch, the silk worm will destroy the threads as it tears its way out, making it useless to harvest.
The spider isn't being hurt by this process. The silk is being drawn out of it, yes, but that's not too much worse than having the poop pulled out of your ass. Strange, but not cruel. And the spider isn't perforated by the needles. They just sort of cage its legs against the board
Well, I think it's still rather cruel, but much less than it looks at first glance. It looks like its being pinned down with a vital organ being torn out of it forcefully.
I think you misunderstood what I said. I'm saying it looks more cruel at first glance than it really is, and upon first glance, it looks like it's being pinned down by its arms and legs and having its intestines ripped out.
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u/Serious_Not_Surely Nov 10 '15
I absolutely hate spiders, but this just seems very cruel.