HONG KONG — You can farm and eat snakes in China, but you can’t smuggle them in alive, even if you manage to slip more than 100 of them into your trousers.
That’s what one man discovered when he tried to intercept customs officials at the Futian port, a land crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen in southern China. Authorities said the smuggler, who they did not name, was in possession of 104 live snakes, including milk snakes and Texas rat snakes, when he was caught.
“During the inspection, customs officers found six canvas bags sealed with tape in the travellers’ trouser pockets,” Chinese customs officials said in a statement on Chinese social media platform WeChat on Tuesday. “When they opened the bags, they found multiple live snakes of various colours and shapes inside each bag.”
A video accompanying the statement showed officers inspecting Ziploc bags full of reptiles, many of which were species not native to China, and authorities said it was illegal “to bring or send live animals or plants into the country.”
“Violations will be held legally accountable,” the agency added, without specifying what punishment the man might face.
China is notorious for animal trafficking and is considered a global hub for the illegal trade, with exotic animals highly prized as pets and contraband such as endangered shark fins used in traditional Chinese medicine.
But authorities have cracked down on the illegal trade in recent years, imposing tougher penalties, including life imprisonment in some cases.
China’s crackdown on the sale of wild animals for food has also affected the snake trade in recent years, amid concerns about the resurgence of zoonotic diseases like the coronavirus that caused the 2020 pandemic.
Still, it’s not illegal to kill snakes for food, and they can be used in soups and alcoholic beverages. Last year, Pizza Hut partnered with a Hong Kong restaurant to offer shredded snake meat as a topping, a new option inspired by a traditional stew popular in southern China during the colder months.
The snake smuggling incident has attracted the attention of snake lovers in China, with one comment under the border control video saying, “It feels so cool to have one wrapped around your hand.” In response to a question about the difficulty of catching the snakes, one person said, “Snakes are generally very docile. It’s completely different from catching an eel.”
