Here's a fun thing to do: try to recount how many times you've masturbated to a photo of a cartoon shark eating a live lamb through its anus. If the answer is zero, then discard your purity ring, Nick Jonas, fire up SpankWire and get to know yourself a little better. If the tally is one or more, chances are you're an aficionado of "anal vore" – a fetish that involves fantasising about being a large, predatory creature and consuming a smaller animal through your butthole while it's still alive.

Considering the internet exists, you won't be surprised to hear that there's a thriving community of individuals interested in anal vore. Some draw pictures of their favourite anal vore scenarios – a hyena anally consuming a mouse, a bald eagle anally consuming a possum, etc, etc – and others commission artists to draw their fantasies for them. Sometimes they bid to have specific animals or characters included in the pictures during online anal vore auctions.

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To find out a little more about the fetish, I got in touch with an anal vore enthusiast called Fenris. Here's what he had to say.

VICE: Hi Fenris. So, how would you best describe the anal vore fetish?

Fenris: It’s a subcategory of the vorarephilia fetish – sexual arousal stemming from the idea of being eaten – that revolves around the predator devouring its chosen prey via its anus. In layman’s terms: in this fetish, predators eat things with their buttholes.

Okay. And what exactly is the attraction of anal vore?

I can’t speak for other people, but the attraction for me comes from several points: the ability to get a full stomach without using your mouth and it being hands-free. Hands-free things hold an odd appeal for me. Another is the sexual side of it. Being a gay male, there's an attraction to the butt area anyway, so using it as a means to partake in vore is a plus for me, especially since it results in a big belly afterwards. That's always the most important aspect of vore to me.

So wanting to have a full stomach is a sexual thing? Or is it something that appeals to you for other reasons?

Vorarephilia has many preferences associated with it. It’s a paraphilia [sexual arousal stemming from atypical objects, situations or individuals] that can span many separate fetishes, including but not limited to stomach fetishes, inflation, male pregnancy, scat, navel fetishes, force-feeding, role reversal and many others.

Psychologically, vore can take many sides, too. I know, for me, the attraction of having a full stomach is that I am being satisfied by another creature, thereby asserting my dominance and will over them as a sort of power trip. Which, in turn, I can view as a sexual experience via a form of rape when filtered through my tastes in vore.

Would you say that there's an anal vore community?

Most definitely. I’ve seen many people who either specialise solely in it or have a big fascination with it.

Does anal vore jargon exist to describe the animal that gets eaten by the anus and the owner of the anus who does the eating?

Yeah, they are known as "predator" and "prey". I’d love to call them "butt-snacks" and "butt-munchers", though.

I know that some people prefer the thought of being anally consumed to doing the anal consuming. Are you a giver or a taker?

I’d have to say that, without a doubt, I prefer shoving prey up my butt. It's so much fun to feel them squirm.

But you can't actually live vore out in real life, right? Doesn't that get frustrating?

I think it’s best if fetishes like vore stay in fiction. Otherwise, we’d have a lot more crime out there, plus a lot more obesity. Humans don’t adapt well to these kind of powers.

Do you know of anybody who's actually attempted to live it out in real life?

There are numerous accounts of people inserting live eels into themselves, and I believe that there have been a few reported injuries or deaths from people doing so. The eels were still alive and began to eat through the intestinal lining. I’m sure a bit of research could be done via googling "eel insertion death" or something similar. It’s less uncommon than you might think.

Ah yes – I just googled it and this came up. So are most anal vore enthusiasts "out" about their fetish? Or do you think it’s something most people stay in the closet about?

It’s about as weird as any other fetish out there. Most of the time it won't come up in normal conversation unless you force it, so I’d imagine people would be secretive about it up until someone brings it up. Then they would be all over the conversation. That seems to happen with me a lot.

And because of that there's a big culture of people commissioning artists to draw anal vore pieces, right? So they can visualise it better.

Yeah. It’s pretty straightforward: You come up with an idea for a picture, find an artist with a style that you like, then check if they’re open for commissions. If the answer is "yes", ask for a quote. Once the two of you agree on a price, generally an artist will show you a sketch to approve before actively working on your commission. Once they start, you should pay them. They will finish it up and contact you to let you know when it’s complete.

**Is there an anal vore rights movement in the works at all? Like a campaign to rid it of its stigma? ** That’s a novel concept, but anal vore enthusiasts aren’t being discriminated against, so there’s no reason to have a rights movement if no rights are being impinged upon.

That is a very good point. Finally, what's the future of anal vore? Where can you go next?

The future of anal vore is the same as the future of the rest of the vore community: trying to find newer and more interesting ways of getting eaten. It’s not about the person, it’s about the action and the setting it takes place in. We’ve just got to explore new territories in situational vore – that’s all.

Great. Thanks Fenris!

Artwork courtesy of KEM and Umbrage00.