Creepy Images From Inside A Snake Slaughterhouse In Indonesia

By Kaushik

In the small Javanese village of Kapetakan in Indonesia’s West Java province, Wakira owns a slaughterhouse that produces snake meat and skin. Known locally as “Boss Cobra”, Wakira’s snakeskin factory produces hundreds of meters of snakeskin that are sold to factories in the West and Central Java provinces which they use to make products such as bags, shoes, wallets and belts. The meat is not wasted. Snake meat is believed by some to be a remedy for skin diseases and asthma, as well as an aid to increase virility.

Wakira employs ten workers in his factory and earns up to 15 million rupiah ($ 1,562, £1,000) a month from the factory’s production. The price of a bag made from snake skin costs between 150,000 rupiah ($15, £10) and 300,000 rupiah ($ 31, £19), depending on its size. When they reach Western fashion houses their price can increase dramatically, selling for up to $4,000 (£2,500).

The snakes are caught in the wild at 3-4 years, often by villagers, who are paid per snake they capture. Sometimes organized armies of catchers work in groups in the jungles and grassland, settings nets, traps and baited hooks for the blood pythons, larger reticulated pythons and other smaller snakes. Captured snakes are stored in canvas bags and sold to primitive skinning plants, such as Wakira’s.

At the skinning factory, the snake is stunned with a blow to the head from the back of a machete. A hose pipe is forced between its jaws and water is turned on and the reptile fills up – swelling like a balloon. A leather cord is tied around its neck to prevent the liquid escaping. Then its head is impaled on a meat hook, a couple of quick incisions follow, and the now-loosened skin peeled off with a series of brutal tugs – much like a rubber glove from a hand.

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At least all the parts of the snakes are used and nothing gets wasted.Not my idea of the ideal job skinning snakes all day long but at least their earning enough to survive.