Scorpions are good pets in general.

=Notes=The problem with establishing that cats, dogs, birds, and other animals are good, and then comparing those animals to scorpions, is that you must first prove that those animals are good. That would require us to debate about the merits of those pets, which is clearly outside of the scope of the resolution. The resolution defines a good pet as an animal kept in captivity that is to be desired or approved of, so there is no vagueness on what a good pet would be. If there is some disagreement over the definition of these terms, then the debate should not have been accepted.=Rebuttals=There are two forms of arguments that I have to make when I engage in what I personally call 'scorpion apologetics' I must firstly make negative arguments, which are refutations of what somebody might say against keeping scorpions as pets. Then there are positive arguments, which are my own arguments in favor of the resolution. Con is mistaken when he takes my negative arguments to be positive arguments, and then criticizes them for not proving scorpions are good pets. They're not supposed to be, as they are negative arguments.When I do make positive arguments, Con seems to ignore them. For example, Con posted nothing in regards to my arguments about what one can do with pet scorpions that they have on. Con also has no thoughts on the ease of taking care of and feeding scorpions. Thus, Con has dropped these two points for this round. So far, I have seen mistakes about the nature of my negative arguments, and a lack of response to my positive arguments.We should further note that Con does not disagree with my assessment about the myths surrounding scorpions. The implication of this is that all points I made in that area can be considered true when it is time for the audience to vote.There are no statistics about how often people encounter scorpions compared to dogs or other animals. Therefore, we should be cautious when making that type of assertion. Perhaps people do avoid scorpions, but scorpions do not avoid people. I believe that it is far more likely that the low mortality rate from scorpion stings comes from their harmlessness rather than being avoided by humans. A human may not choose to approach a scorpion, but a scorpion will never think about its decision to approach a human. In areas like Arizona, scorpions are pests, and there is not much of a choice to avoid scorpions. Yet, UC Davis states that there have been no scorpion related deaths in Arizona since 1948.[1] This shows that even when you can't avoid a scorpion, it is very unlikely for it to be lethal.It is true that scorpions have extremely fragile bodies. Like all arthropods, they have skeleton, which means that their bones are on the outside, and not in the inside as us humans have. This has the obvious implication of making their bodies more fragile. Perhaps I was overstating the damage a two foot drop would do to a scorpion, and I freely admit that there is no information on how deadly certain drops would be. I am making the point that a scorpion, if it survived its escape, could possibly be killed by the pet who's safety you are worried about. You should be more worried about the threat your cat poses to the scorpion than the threat the scorpion poses to the cat!I say it is unfair to say that scorpions are bad pets because they would not survive such a fall. Imagine if your friend fell sixteen fight, and all you could say to him in the hospital was that he should have known how to take such a fall without injury. To a scorpion, a fall from a table or a desk would be like that sixteen foot fall.=Benefits of owning=In my positive argument, I laid out four things that one could do with a pet scorpion, resulting in benefits as a pet. These reasons were not rebutted during Con's round, so we should take them to be valid reasons until he does so.Con asserts from his source that 97% of people talk to their pets. This is a factually correct assertion. However, it does not follow from this that you are not able to talk to a pet scorpion. All Con can give us on that point is the vague assurance that (s)he, 'doubts most scorpion owners talk to their scorpions.' Since no evidence was providing for this assertion, we have no reason to think that somebody could not talk to a pet scorpion.=Safety of Handling=I actually agree with Con's thoughts on handling a scorpion. It is considered unnecessary to handle a scorpion, and it is often stressful to the scorpion itself. Our ideas of play could be hellish to our pet scorpion. Any harm to a scorpion as a result of handling it is to be blamed on irresponsible pet ownership. While I agree with him on this point, I don't not believe that I had ever asserted scorpions were good pets for handling. I did say that you could handle them with oven mitts or gloves if you *really* wanted to, and this negates anything about the scorpion pinching you during handling. Indeed, the fact that scorpions are bad pets for handling has no bearing on the list of things you could do with a scorpion that I presented in Round 2 of this debate.I am confused when Con asserts that an observation like, 'scorpions are not cuddly' is not a subjective statement. It should be apparent that there is no such thing as objective cuddliness, or objectively correct tastes in food. Therefore, the only option left is that this was, in fact, a subjective observation. I expect the audience to believe that his observation was subjective until he can offer an argument for why there is such a thing as objective cuddliness.I hold the same view in regards to the observation that scorpions have a terrifying appearance. Personally, I find that they have an interesting appearance. Again, these are subjective observations on the part of Con, and these cannot be debated.=Adaptability of Habitat=I feel that a scorpion can be 'at home' when it is your pet. Let's use an Emperor scorpion as an example, which is probably the most popular pet scorpion. If one assures that the temperature and humidity levels of the terrarium are in the proper ranges, and the substrate is correct, then the scorpion would have no clue that it is was not in its normal African environment.Scorpions do share space when they take up room for their terrarium. If you have to devote a specific area of your house to keeping a scorpion, then you are by definition sharing space with that scorpion. Taking part of the space you have and allowing a pet scorpion to occupy it is what we call sharing space.=Conclusions=- Con has erroneously taken my negative arguments to be positive arguments in favor of the resolution. Therefore, his observations that my arguments did not prove scorpions are good pets misunderstands the nature of the arguments he is responding to.- Con has dropped two points that I made in Round 2: the ease of feeding and taking care of a scorpion, and what one can do with a pet scorpion.- Con has agreed with my refutation of myths surrounding the real danger of scorpions, and these should be taken to be true when the time comes for the audience to vote.- In areas where humans cannot avoid scorpions, there are rarely fatalities from scorpion stings. Therefore, the idea that scorpions do not kill people very often because they are avoided can be considered false.-Con's statement about talking to pets does not exclude talking to scorpions, so there is no reason to think that the benefits of talking to a pet cannot be received from a scorpion as well.- Con has made two subjective observations (despite his assertion that they are not) that cannot be debated.The resolution is upheld. I thank Con for this debate, and I look forward to the next round.[1] http://tinyurl.com...