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    Man Explains Why He Was Willingly Swallowed Alive By A Giant Anaconda

    Paul Rosolie told Entertainment Weekly that he was eaten and regurgitated by the snake to highlight the destruction of rainforests worldwide.

    Next month Discovery will show a documentary about Paul Rosolie, an explorer and wildlife expert who was eaten and regurgitated by an anaconda.

    To avoid being killed by the snake digesting him, Paul wore a custom built snake-proof suit.

    The stunt has provoked controversy, with more than 40,000 signatures on a Change.org petition demanding that Discovery not air the show because it is "animal abuse to the highest degree".

    Now, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rosolie has revealed his motive for the stunt.

    I've seen entire 1,000-mile stretches of rain forest burned to the ground where every single plant and animal is destroyed - and no one pays attention to that. I've seen scientists spend their entire lives tryng to rally public opinion and support, and people just don't care. People care about animals; they don't make the jump to caring about the habitat the animals live in... So I wanted to do something that would force a dialogue about what's going on here - and it's working.

    When pressed about whether there might be a better way to highlight the destruction of the rainforest instead of being eaten by a snake he said:

    No. There's not. Only because my dream is to protect habitat. And in order to do that you have to get people's attention. Nothing else that I could have done would have gotten more attention than this.

    He did not reveal how far he got inside the snake, but said it was still alive: "Trust me, I'm much worse off. She beat the shit out of me. I'm still recovering months later."

    You can read Paul Rosolie's interview with Entertainment Weekly here (requires a subscription).

    Eaten Alive will be shown on 7 December at 10pm on the Discovery Channel. It will be shown on Discovery Channel UK on the 12 December.