Chinanews, Changsha, July 13 – On July 11, a reporter from Sanxiang Metropolitan News went to the Xichangjie Aquatic Market, the largest aquatic market in Changsha to have a look. This reporter saw that lots of snake cages lined up on both sides of the street in the market. There were about ten snakes lying in each cage. With a rough calculation, this reporter saw that in less than 50 meters, there were as many as 17 shops selling snakes.“Want some snakes? My snakes sell at 30 yuan a kilo, or 12 yuan each after skins were stripped. The snakes in my store are all wild snakes. Their meat is tender and delicious, ”a woman seller solicited this reporter to buy it.When this reporter told her that snakes were animals protected by the state, the woman replied immediately: “These are all stink rat snakes, the most common type. It is not the rare species under the state protection. Don’t worry. It’s legal to eat them. Right now, it is the booming season for snake sale. We normally can sell 200-250 kilograms of snakes every day. In the whole aquatic market, about 1,000 kilograms of snakes can be sold every day. If it is illegal, we might have shut down our business long time ago.”Indeed, her business was really good. At her store, ten snakes were sold in just 30 minutes.In Changsha, about 10 tons of snake meat were eaten by people every day. 30% of these snakes were wild ones. Hunan is a province where lots of snakes inhabit there. People in Changsha, consume the largest amount of snake meat in China, according to information released by the Hunan Provincial Wild Animals and Plants Protection Association.If Changsha people eat 3 tons of snake meat every day, it will mean that over 1,000 tons of snake meat are consumed in Changsha every year. If one snake weighs about 1 kilogram, this will mean that about one million wild snakes have been eaten. These one million snakes are able to kill 400 million rats every year.