Miranda Lambert's Cause for the Paws To Be Held This Weekend

This has been a big year for Miranda Lambert; she won three awards at the 2010 Academy of Country Music Awards, got engaged, and she's now hosting the third annual Cause for the Paws event. The event will be held at the Villa de Felicita in Tyler, Texas, on Saturday, May 15. Money raised benefits the Humane Society of East Texas, which has become a no-kill shelter for abandoned, neglected and abused animals thanks to funds raised from Lambert's past events.

 

Lambert’s mother, Bev, started Cause for the Paws three years ago in her honor. They have since raised almost $300,000 dollars.

 

“What sparked [the event] was I’ve always loved animals. In "The House That Built Me" [video], there’s some of my real home footage, and I’m holding 18 puppies and kissing them,” remarked Lambert. “So I went to the shelter [where] I used to volunteer, and I got Delilah, my white dog, the first one I got who went on the road with me. I just saw how overloaded they were. She was in a cage inside the building, not even outside because they had nowhere to put her. It sparked something, and I was like, ‘We need to help raise money!’ And they went from euthanizing 8,000 dogs three years ago to [euthanizing] eight [this past year] – and they only did [those eight] because of disease or old age. They have pretty much become a no-kill shelter just because of the resources that Cause for the Paws has brought to them.”

 

Now a resident of the state of Oklahoma, Lambert wanted to see a change made there as well.

 

“We did [a benefit] called Hearts and Tails in Tishomingo, where I bought my farm in Oklahoma,” said Lambert. “And they didn’t have a shelter at all, and I was just awful. And that’s why I have six dogs, because I found them on the side of the road in Oklahoma and there’s nowhere to take them…It was just pens and tarps at the sewer plant, it was just terrible.”

 

Lambert wanted to make sure the money raised actually went to the shelters in those cities, so she started the Mutt Nation Foundation. “That Sarah McLachlan commercial, I hate it,” she said. “You know, the one where you have to turn it, and you start bawling. But sometimes giving money to a commercial that you see, I’m scared, ‘Is the money gonna go to a nice shelter? Or is it gonna go to someone’s pocket?’ I get paranoid, and some people feel that way. So I just thought, well I wanna visit myself and see where the money goes. So hopefully, eventually every month or so on the road, I’ll get to stop at a shelter when we’re playing in that city and visit and see what they need or see what sending them before did. I just want to be hands on.”

 

In reference to the previous statement about McLachlan, Lambert wanted to clear things up. “I want to say one more thing – when I said I hated the Sarah McLachlan commercial, I love Sarah McLachlan! I just hate her for singing that song with the sad poor animals. It just makes me wanna die. That’s all. I’m gonna tour with her, [and] I don’t want her to start hating me!”