These snakes had been beheaded several minutes before and this gentleman is preparing to remove the meat from the skin the snakes bodies are still trying to wrap around and attack each other. The masking tape is used by the butchers to prevent the bodies from urinating on them when they butcher the snakes. They tie the bodies up at the tail end and then go down to where the head was to insert their sharp knives to split the belly of the snake and to cut through the meat to the area where the snakes organs are. The snake bodies will still be writhing even at the end of this process where the skin has been removed, the internal organs have been removed and the meat has been put in a seperate container for processing. One gentleman seperated one of the snakes hearts out and it beat for over 20 minutes on the edge of the viewing area, I am not sure how long it had been since the head had been removed from the diamond back rattlesnake till when it was butchered till when he took the heart out and set it out. The hear in fact still had a visible beat after over 20 minutes.