Mark Leong's Image

Every day, workers in Rantau Prapat, Sumatra, slaughter and skin hundreds of reptiles brought to them by trappers.

'There were masses of tied-up sacks full of live pythons and monitor lizards,' says Mark. 'The men kill or at least stun each animal with a blow to the head. Then they fill the snake with water and air to make it easier to slit open, gut and skin.' The dried skins are sold to the international leather-goods industry, to be made into luxury and fashion items such as wallets, belts and boots. The gall bladders go to Chinese traditional medicine dealers. 'I wanted to convey both the volume of the processing as well as the hellish element of this assembly line, to get across the message that this is an industrial-scale wild-animal trade.'