LOS ANGELES — Ron Jeremy has assumed the role of sex rights advocate — for animals.
A long-time animal rights supporter, the so-called “king of porn” has sided with PETA and vocally eschewed certain sexual experiments on rodents and other fuzzy friends.
Both PETA and Jeremy have targeted the National Institute of Health (NIH) for funding such experiments with taxpayer money.
Jeremy wrote in a letter to NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, "When people across the country are struggling to meet rising healthcare costs, why is the NIH putting up millions of dollars to fund hard-ons for rodents? I consider myself to be a bit of an expert on sex — I've got more than 1,700 movies to prove it — and I know how important it is to have and enjoy it. But I don't know a single person who's ok with cutting up live animals' genitals for any reason."
In the letter, he highlights a Johns Hopkins study in which researchers removed the skin on rats’ genitals before electrically stimulating them and measuring their ability to sustain an erection. In another experiment at the University of Michigan and the University of Western Ontario, rats were injected with a chemical to block their sexual pleasure.
“I once had a rat named Fetus, whom I adopted from the comedian Howie Mandel and I know firsthand what great personalities and high intelligence these animals have. They absolutely don't deserve this fate,” he added.
PETA has found a friend in Jeremy before — he once modeled in towel only to advocate for spaying and neutering cats and dogs.
