The small town of kapetakan, West of the Indonesian province of Java, is one of the most important centers of production of shoes, belts, purses, bags and other objects made from snakeskin. Here the snakes, hated in the rest of the planet, are a valuable raw material: from it the skin is used, but also the meat and bones to make traditional remedies to cure skin diseases, asthma or impotence.
It is a very lucrative business, as many of its snakeskin products are sold in the West at prices that exaggerately multiply the cost of production. But the really interesting thing about this place is to see how the local economy and ways of life revolve around these reptiles. Fascinating for some, repulsive for others.
The snakes are caught in their natural habitat by the locals themselves, who are paid for each captured animal. Real armies of snake hunters are organized that comb large areas of jungle in search of pythons and other species.
In the factory the show is cruelLive snakes are slaughtered with an accurate blow to the head with a machete. Then their jaws are opened to introduce a water hose that literally inflates the animals as if they were balloons. The goal is to loosen the skin so it will shed better. It is then placed on a table and left to dry in the sun for a couple of days.
There are many legal and illegal snakeskin tanning factories in Indonesia. It is estimated that about 175.000 people work in this industry, most of them as snake hunters. The destination of these skins is usually Europe, especially Italy, Germany and France, where the shoes and bags that are sold throughout the world are manufactured. The main consuming countries are the United States and Japan.
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