Country superstar, Miranda Lambert returned for a second year to the CMA Fest on behalf of her organization MuttNation March on Thursday, in an effort to raise awareness about animals living in shelters across the U.S. and waiting for their own forever home. For Lambert, it’s a cause she is extremely passionate about.
“It is awesome,” Lambert gushed to PopCulture.com after completing the event. “The MuttMarch, we’ve done this one year before. This is our second year, but this is our 10-year anniversary, so seeing all the people walking across the bridge for the dogs warms my heart.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
Lambert was eager to return to CMA Fest again, and hints that her MuttNation March will likely become an annual event.
“We did in 2016,” Lambert recalled. “We needed to take a year off to regroup, because we needed to make it a little more functional. I’m hoping that this is the second year of 25 years, because I love it, I want to grow it. I want to see ten thousand people walking across the bridge. It’s really important. It’s a cause close to my heart, MuttNation. I’m just trying to raise awareness for shelter pets. It’s the most important thing to me, is that people adopt and not shop.”
Lambert started MuttNation 10 years ago alongside her mother, Beverly, while using her blossoming celebrity platform to bring support to the incredibly personal cause.
“When you finally get to a point in your career where people are paying attention you have to decide what you want to use your platform for,” the Texas native said. “I just knew right away it was going to be dogs. I’ve grown up with dogs my whole life, strays and people just dumping them off. I grew up in the country. My mom and I started MuttNation, and it was just kind of a mom-and-pop operation, and now we’re ten years later, four million dollars later and thousands of dogs adopted.
“We’ve done so much, but I also feel like we’re just getting started,” she continued. “I feel like there’s so much more ahead of us. We’ve been able to help with natural disasters, and help shelters renovate. We kind of have our hand in everything, and that’s why I wanted to start it, because we wanted to control where the money that we raised would go.”
Lambert might have a soaring music career, but she still finds plenty of time to devote to helping animals.
“I’m as hands on as I can possibly be,” she said. “I want to be more hands on. I help do the renovations. I kind of was in charge of a shelter for awhile in Oklahoma. It was really hard work, but worth it. And with [Hurricane] Harvey, that’s my home state, I was in Houston for a week, and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but it was so rewarding.”
For more information on MuttNation, visit their website and follow them on Instagram.
Photo Credit: Instagram / @mirandalambert
