The Deep-Mountain Snake Farmer: A Visit to a Snake Breeding Operation in Liping, Guizhou

In the mountains of Niujiaowan, Defeng Town, Liping County, Guizhou Province, sits a quiet little courtyard. From several neat rows of single-story houses comes an intermittent "whoosh, whoosh" sound. This is the only specialized snake breeding base in Liping County; at its peak, it housed nearly 10,000 snakes of various species, large and small, including cobras and king ratsnakes.

The owner of this snake house is Luo Han, 40 years old, a relocated resident of Liping County, Guizhou Province, under the ecological migration program.

Luo Han and the snakes he raises

To give this reporter a more direct look at the snakes he raises, Luo Han put on special snake-handling gloves and used a snake catcher to lift a cobra about 2 m long out of its pit. With the thumb, index finger and middle finger of his right hand, he pinched three points on the snake's head - top, left and right - then reinforced the grip with the base of his fingers and his remaining fingers, and was able to hold the snake's head firmly under control. The snake, weighing nearly 3 jin, could do nothing in Luo Han's hands but wag its tail; it could no longer attack anyone.

Luo Han began working away from home as a teenager. He once ran a guitar factory in Dongguan and also operated a restaurant featuring Guizhou specialties. He had once been "riding high," but the financial crisis brought his business to failure.

"I have to find a way out." The resolute Luo Han did not give up. Because of his earlier business, he had often dealt with Cantonese people, and he noticed that they had a great demand for snakes (Cantonese people like to eat snake).

It is well known that cobras and other venomous snakes from the deep mountains of Guizhou are considered a "delicacy" on dining tables in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other regions. However, wildlife resources are protected by the state. To that end, Luo Han went specifically to specialized breeding bases in Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi and other places to learn the techniques of breeding venomous snakes.

In 2009, after losing most of his capital, Luo Han chose to return to his hometown of Liping and start a specialized snake breeding business.

"Snake farming is a skilled trade, but there is no systematic textbook, and the various snake farms don't have a very systematic training system either. I could only figure it out bit by bit." In 2010, Luo Han officially began experimental snake farming.

"The most important thing in snake farming is safety. You have to prevent the snakes from escaping, and even more importantly, you must pay attention to emergency treatment after a snakebite." To avoid causing panic among the villagers, besides choosing a secluded location for the snake farm, multiple layers of protection were installed inside and outside the snake house.

It is understood that the snake house is divided into three layers in total: inside the first gate is an area for letting the snakes out; every summer, newly hatched baby snakes play here. Inside the second gate is the snakes' "bedroom," wrapped in multiple layers of wire mesh.

Besides taking protective measures, mastering first-aid methods and antidote prescriptions for venomous snakebites is also a skill every snake farmer must have. That is why in his office there are snake medicines and first-aid kits visible everywhere.

Being bitten by a snake is a risk almost every snake farmer must encounter. In 2010, Luo Han began trying to breed cobras, five-paced pit vipers, king ratsnakes and other snakes on a small scale. Just when the results were beginning to show, he accidentally "got hit."

"That bite hurt more than being stung by a bee. It was the first time in my life I faced death directly." He calmed himself fully at once, immediately fetched a first-aid kit and used a three-edged knife to enlarge the wound. After enlarging the wound, he immediately washed it with plenty of water and injected potassium permanganate to destroy the proteases...

Now on the back of Luo Han's left hand, two tiny scars can still be seen, which he jokingly calls "a man's medals."

Because he was afraid his family would worry, only his wife knew at home about his snake-related injury. To this day, his wife still often nags him, saying she does not oppose his snake farming, because it has indeed brought their family income, but she hopes he will stop raising venomous snakes like cobras.

"Because of the snake's habits, once it is full it rarely moves around, and normally a snake eats once every three to four days. In fact, snake farming is an industry with relatively low labor costs." Luo Han told this reporter that raising one snake takes a year, and it can reach a weight of more than 2 jin, while the cost is only 80 yuan, and the unit price of a commercial snake is 130 yuan.

According to Luo Han, raising 3 snakes brings a profit equivalent to raising 1 pig.

Through several years of effective development, the breeding scale gradually expanded. In 2014, Luo Han registered and established Guizhou Province Liping County Qianlongcheng Special Breeding Development Co., Ltd. The company has successively registered with the competent departments for industry and commerce, forestry and others, and obtained qualifications for snake breeding, sales, snake product development and so on.

At present, Luo Han's company raises more than 9,000 cobras and king ratsnakes, has hatched more than 10,000 baby snakes, and in 2015 marketed more than 4,000 commercial snakes, with a net income of 500,000 yuan.

According to Luo Han, most of his snakes are taken away by customers in their own vehicles, but his snake farm is also equipped with special boxes for transporting snakes, and occasionally he also helps customers deliver them to designated locations.

Over 5 years of snake farming, he invested more than 1 million yuan in total, and with last year's profit from selling snakes alone, he successfully recovered his costs. Luo Han analyzed that compared with raising pigs, snake farming has the advantages of requiring less energy input and lower costs.

Now, many villagers in Liping County, as well as people from surrounding Jinping County, Kaili City and even Hunan and other places, have come to seek him out to "ask for advice" on snake farming experience.

In 2014, Luo Han set up a website and wrote his own breeding teaching materials, which he distributed free to villagers. Now, Luo Han has specially opened a classroom at his breeding base to teach snake farming knowledge to villagers in need.

Next, Luo Han plans to build another breeding farm capable of marketing 20,000 to 30,000 commercial snakes per year.

"For farmers who are determined to take up snake breeding, I will certainly carefully pass on breeding techniques. I hope more people can achieve common prosperity through snake farming." Luo Han said that the current scale of his snake farm is already enough to support his family's life, but he wants greater development, so that more people can also live "good" lives like his.

"In fact, the whole snake is a treasure. Besides the meat being edible, snake skin, snake gall and snake penis are all very good traditional Chinese medicinal materials." Luo Han said that now he has no worries at all about selling his snakes; large numbers of customers in Guangdong, Hunan and Zhejiang buy snakes from him, and even snake slough (the snake skin naturally shed as the snake grows, which is a traditional Chinese medicinal material) can be sold to Chinese medicinal herb dealers.

Next, Luo Han also plans to get involved in areas such as snake "reptile pets," so that snakes can not only go on the dining table but also "enter the parlor."

"My ultimate goal is to cultivate a snake industry chain in Liping." Luo Han is a man with "ambition." He hopes more people in Liping County will raise snakes together, and once the number of snakes reaches a certain scale, he will extend his business from simply raising snakes to the snake processing industry.