Miranda Lambert has once again stepped up to help animals in need.
Miranda Lambert‘s privately-funded no-kill animal shelter, Redemption Ranch, opened over the weekend in her hometown of Tishomingo, Oklahoma.
Lambert’s MuttNation Foundation took over the five-acre animal shelter and renovated it after a local animal advocate named Ray Lokey pushed for change. He says the shelter was previously accepting as many as 100 dogs at a time and putting them to death by gassing them in a wooden kennel that sat right next to living animals.
“Instead of being a prison for dogs, you need to keep the dogs limited,” he tells Tulsa World.
Lambert and her MuttNation Foundation took over Tishomingo’s government-run shelter, renting the property from the city and, with the help of Pedigree, completely renovating it.
Now called Redemption Ranch, the shelter is a no-kill facility, complete with larger kennels, new fencing, an Airstream office, an intensive care unit and lots of pink (Lambert’s favorite color) on the walls. With a 50-dog capacity, Redemption Ranch is one of almost 50 shelters across the country that Pedigree has helped renovate.
MuttNation Foundation Director of Operation Gina Gardner says Lambert’s passion for the cause has been the driving force of the project.
“I just know that she loves animals,” Gardner states. “I worked with her for several months and I’ve been elbow to elbow with her on dog rescues, on spay-and-neuter clinics, out here working on the ranch.
“It’s the real deal. She cares about the plight of homeless animals. It’s her cause.”
“Nothing brings me more joy than seeing a person adopt a shelter dog,” Miranda Lambert told Rolling Stone Country earlier this month. “The looks on both of their faces — the dog and the person — when you see that match happen, it just brings me so much joy.”
Lambert, who has seven rescue dogs and five rescue cats of her own (not to mention horses, mini-horses, pot-bellied pigs and chickens), founded the MuttNation Foundation in 2009 as a way to raise money for treatment, housing and adoption of homeless dogs all over the world.
The foundation has raised more than $1.5 million since its inception and also helps with spay and neuter efforts, medical treatments, education and legislative campaigns.
“What I like about it is that my mom and I have control. It’s a very small board. It’s five girls and we know where every dime goes,” the singer says of MuttNation.
This marks the third business Lambert has started in her adopted hometown of Tishomingo – she also owns a clothing and gift store called Pink Pistol, as well as a bed and breakfast she opened this past summer, called the Ladysmith.
