Along with her music, Miranda Lambert is extremely passionate about animals, with the singer starting her own foundation, the MuttNation Foundation alongside mother, Beverly in 2009.
Lambert’s parents were both private investigators, and the Texas native revealed that it was her mom’s career that helped lead to the foundation’s formation.
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“We’ve been able to help with natural disasters and help shelters renovate, we kind of have our hand in everything,” Lambert explained. “That’s why we wanted to start it, because we wanted control of where the money that we raised could go to. My mom used to be a private investigator, so she vets it pretty hard, wherever we give money to.”
Beverly is extremely involved in MuttNation and handles several initiatives on her own, growing from the foundation’s director to working on the organization’s social aspects.
“She’s very involved — pretty much every decision we make has to go through her,” Lambert said.
MuttNation aims to promote the adoption of shelter pets, spay and neuter, and spread awareness about why these things are so important. Lambert explained that she wanted to use her platform to promote something she was passionate about, which led her to create the foundation.
“When you finally get to place in your career where people are paying attention, you have to decide what you want to use your platform for,” the singer explained. “I just knew right away it was gonna be dogs — I’ve grown up with dogs my whole life and strays and people just dumping them off — I grew up in the country.”
“We’ve done so much but I also feel like we’re just getting started,” she added. “There’s so much work ahead of us.”
The 35-year-old shared that she wants to become even more involved in the foundation’s work.
“I’m as hands-on as I could possibly be,” she said, noting her work on renovations, taking charge of a shelter in Oklahoma and helping during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. “I want to be more hands-on.”
To celebrate the charity’s 10-year anniversary this year, MuttNation donated $150,000 to animal shelters across the United States, giving grants to an animal shelter in each state.
“Music and rescue animals are the two driving forces in my life and I’m so fortunate that the success I’ve had with my music allows me to help shelter animals more than I dreamed possible,” Lambert said in a press release at the time. “MuttNation’s 10-year milestone is amazing and what we’ve been able to accomplish gets better every year. Just in this past year, alone, we helped 1,776 shelter pets find their forever homes.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Rick Diamond
