Katherine Heigl defended herself after facing criticism for making a rare public appearance at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.
The “Grey’s Anatomy” actress made her first red carpet appearance in two years at the Wine, Women & Shoes annual fundraiser at President Donald Trump’s Florida resort, supporting the dog rescue nonprofit Big Dog Ranch Rescue.
Some social media critics suggested that Heigl’s appearance at the Mar-a-Lago event indicated alignment with the Trump administration.
“Katherine Heigl hits first red carpet in two years, attends dog rescue event at Mar-a-Lago. She is a Trump follower and non-sane person,” one social media user wrote.
Heigl shut down the political speculation saying, “Animals don’t vote,” in a statement to JustJared.
“The only room they don’t like is the euthanasia room at a shelter,” she continued. “They are completely at the mercy of us, and they have no voice of their own.”
Heigl, who lives in a small Utah town, is a long-standing animal advocate and co-founded the Jason Heigl Foundation with her mother, Nancy Heigl, in 2008 to end animal cruelty and abuse.
“This event was about animal advocacy — something that has always been deeply personal to me,” Heigl added. “Anyone who knows me knows that protecting animals is one of my greatest passions. My mother, Nancy, and I have spent years advocating for animals through the Jason Heigl Foundation.”
She continued, “As a society, we should all come together to protect the voiceless and the innocent. This should not be a polarizing issue.”
During the event, Heigl said she attended to support Big Dog Ranch Rescue, whose mission aligns with her own, including efforts to “solve the pet overpopulation issue,” according to the Palm Beach Post.
“We hear the word ‘shelter,’ and we think these animals are safe there, and they are not,” she added. “It’s not the shelter’s fault, and it’s not the fault of the shelters’ workers. It’s that our country is overrun with puppy-mill breeders.”
The weekend event raised over $5.5 million to support Big Dog Rescue Ranch, the organization shared.
After living in Hollywood for over two decades, Heigl moved her family from Los Angeles to a small town in Summit County, Utah, so she could raise her three kids in a slower-paced environment.
“I didn’t know how to raise them in L.A.,” she previously told E! News. “So I felt like I could do it here. I could be more on top of things that scare me and I could be more on top of the kinds of friends they have and places they’re going, the kind of activities they’re involved in.”
“I could kind of decompress and let that hustle part of me go — a little bit,” she continued. “I don’t know that in any career you can ever completely stop hustling, but being able to separate it a little bit and choose those times of hustle versus just being in it constantly was really important to me.”