Katherine Heigl Swears She Was Just There for the Pets, You Guys

Katherine Heigl hasn’t walked a red carpet in two years, so when she randomly emerged at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, people took notice! That caught some eyes, and then some mouths as the (understandable) backlash immediately kicked in. The former Grey’s Anatomy star was dragged all over social media, and she’s apparently not going down without a fight.

After a barrage of headlines, Heigl issued a statement to Page Six that her presence at the Wine, Women & Shoes fundraiser event for Big Dog Ranch Rescue was all about the pups:

“Animals don’t vote. The only room they don’t like is the euthanasia room at a shelter,” the statement reads. “They are completely at the mercy of us, and they have no voice of their own.”

“This event was about animal advocacy — something that has always been deeply personal to me,” she continued. “Anyone who knows me knows that protecting animals is one of my greatest passions.”

I’m not in the business of cutting celebrities some slack, especially if they’re seemingly playing footsies with this administration. That said, Heigl does have a well-documented history of backing pet charities, and she took the fight to Instagram where she made it clear that she’d walk through publicity fire for the cause.

Here’s what she wrote to one user via Variety:

“Just curious…what do you do that really matters…do you think comments on an Instagram post matter to animals who have had humans pour gasoline on them and set them on fire? Who have had humans vote conservative or liberal but have been left to starve and suffer?” Heigl asked in response. “Seriously…I’m very curious what you truly think matters to the voiceless and innocent…actions or just instagram posturing?”

And another via JustJared:

Do you care about animals? If so donate! Time! Money! Attention! Your voice! It doesn’t matter who I am only what I do. The same goes for you! Animals might not be your thing but I bet you care deeply about something that matters! Do your part! Don’t waste your time scrolling and making comments!

This is a huge animal-loving site, so I’m genuinely curious where folks will land on this issue. You’ve got the juicy low-hanging fruit of bashing Heigl for going to Satan’s Den, which does not look great. No arguments here. On the flip side, Heigl does have a point: Helping animals should be bipartisan, and this event reportedly raised $5.5 million. That’s not chump change.

I’ll let you kids duke it out in the comments.