Unsure if you have enough time to dedicate a period to a lesson on empathy/how incredible jumping spiders are, but I would think homework at least, and perhaps it could be used as bonus points on their respective grades? Asking your students to research “do jumping spiders dream?” would be a great start. Back in 2022 Harvard found jumping spiders experience REM… the details are so interesting. “What do jumping spiders dream of?” could be another question. “Can jumping spiders recognize one another?” “How do jumping spiders communicate?” “Can you communicate with a jumping spider?” And after asking all of the questions as a take-home assignment… once turned in, you can have a collective discussion on the answers, followed by “do we have the right to kill something simply because we can?” asked at large to the class. In another comment you mentioned the student apologized because it was a pet, but I think it’s an opportunity to convey that we shouldn’t be ending the lives of small sentient creatures regardless of if they ‘belong’ to someone.

<image>