INDONESIA: HORROR AT THE SNAKE SLAUGHTERHOUSES

Source: Google Images.

By Gundhramns Hammer

February 3, 2015

If you are thinking of impresing you neighbour with an expensive item, you may fall prey to the snakeskin print fashion trend which is putting some wild populations of reptiles on the verge of extinction.

This trend is spreading like powder all over the world. The demand for reptile skin products is so great that this industry is indeed contributing to the destruction of wild snake populations.

In Indonesia, for example, people have set up a true reptile skin mafia which is behind the big fashion firms at the other end of the line.

And this means animal suffering.

We humans do not have any right to put through hell any snakes, for this is exactly what happening at the snake slaughterhouses (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Horror and cruelty at the snake slaughterhouses in Indonesia. Source: Williams (2015).

"In Vietnam snakes are often inflated with air compressors until they finally suffocate, elsewhere the reptiles are skinned alive after being nailed to a tree", explains Rob Williams (2015) in a recent report on The Independent.

Our attitude must change if we want to survive as a species. We depend entirely on the health of the environment.

In the wild, snakes play an important role in the ecosystem´s functioning. Take them away and there will be an explosion of their prey such as wild rodents which will eat the crops. This is already happening in some parts of the world.

So it is a good thing leaving snakes alone.

Furthermore, we must keep snakes from going into extinction.

Thus, an important thing you can do to help snakes is NOT buying any reptile skin leather product. 

Not even if it is conveniently labelled "ecologically sustainable", for reptiles in farming exploitations depend on meat coming from animal factories (chickens, pigs, cows, etc.) which are totally antibiospherical by themselves, thereby bringing down the "sustainable" tag. 

The following will inform you more about Indonesia´s reptile skin mafia:

The gruesome details behind snakeskin purses

Source: Journeyman Pictures

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This shocking report has already been forcing change at the highest levels of Swiss politics. Travelling to Indonesia, it reveals the brutal roots of the world's luxury reptile skin industry.

"Move over leopard, the star animal print this year is snake!" For the image-conscious elite, snake skin handbags come at a price, but not with a conscience. Tracing the supply chain back to its violent origins, it appears even protected reptiles are not safe. In the rudimentary slaughterhouses instant death is not guaranteed and often the snakes are skinned alive. Laws exist to prevent this, but they are easily circumvented. With illegal snake skin supplying the major fashion houses the industry has a lot of power, which the UN regulating body has failed to control. "Overall the policy makers involved in this trade must accept that there are a range of major problems". [Video 1]

Video 1. The gruesome story behind the high fashion reptile skin purses.

References

Williams R. (2015). Stomach-churning images show shocking truth about Indonesia snake slaughterhouses. The Independent (UK), Tuesday 03 February 2015. 1 p.