“It Takes Balls” Campaign Targeting Southern California in 2026
Grant Applications Now Open HERE

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In celebration of World Spay Day today, Feb. 24, country music icon Miranda Lambert’s MuttNation Foundation has announced a three-year partnership for its spay & neuter program, “It Takes Balls,” with the Doris Day Animal Foundation. The 2026 “It Takes Balls” campaign will focus specifically on Southern California. The initiative, which kicked off in 2023, raises awareness for the importance of spay & neuter and has provided over 125 grants thus far to qualifying low-cost programs throughout Tennessee and Texas. 

“We’re so excited and honored to be partnering with the Doris Day Animal Foundation and are grateful for their amazing commitment to spay & neuter,” said Lambert. “Everyone knows that Doris Day holds an unparalleled place in film and music – but do they also know she started Spay Day USA in 1995 (now World Spay Day)? When I found out, I knew this was a perfect partnership and I want everyone to know about her enduring passion for animals.” 

“We couldn’t be more pleased to partner with Miranda Lambert and MuttNation Foundation on such an important initiative,” said Doris Day Animal Foundation CEO Bob Bashara. “Establishing Spay Day USA over 30 years ago and seeing it evolve into today’s World Spay Day was one of Doris Day’s proudest achievements in her pioneering animal welfare advocacy. As DDAF carries on Doris’ legacy, we are grateful that Miranda and MuttNation share our passion and dedication to make this a better world for the animals, and together we can make a meaningful difference in reducing the homeless pet population and euthanasia rates.”

Despite the great work being done by most animal shelters, they are not equipped to handle the annual number of incoming animals. In 2025, 5.8 million animals entered shelters and 597,000 were euthanized, often due to lack of space. One of the most impactful ways to reduce those numbers is through spay & neuter. 

MuttNation is inviting low cost spay & neuter programs in Southern California to complete and submit a grant application HERE to help fight this ongoing issue.

About MuttNation Foundation
Founded by Miranda Lambert and her mom, Bev, in 2009, MuttNation is a donation-supported 501c(3) nonprofit organization that has raised over $13 million to date in support of its mission to promote the adoption of shelter pets, advance spay & neuter and educate the public about the benefits of these actions. MuttNation provides financial support and works with transport partners to assist with recovery and relocate animals during times of natural disaster. MuttNation Fueled by Miranda Lambert, a pet line of toys and supplies that benefits the Foundation, is available exclusively at Tractor Supply Company stores throughout the U.S. To learn more, visit MuttNation.com.
 
About Miranda Lambert
Critically acclaimed groundbreaker/songwriter/superstar Miranda Lambert has defined her multifaceted career as an artist, entertainer, entrepreneur, advocate and businesswoman with an unflinching quest for excellence, honesty and conviction. GRAMMY-nominated single “A Song To Sing” with Chris Stapleton arrived recently as the biggest streaming debut of her career, with Rolling Stone praising its “dreamy disco groove and lovestruck devotion.” Her 10th solo studio album, the GRAMMY-nominated Postcards from Texas, available everywhere now via Republic Records, continued her unbroken streak of 10 consecutive Top 10s on the Top Country Albums chart. The most-awarded artist in Academy of Country Music history, including their top honor for Entertainer of the Year, she has also won three GRAMMYs and 14 Country Music Association Awards. A TIME100 honoree and perennial best-of-the-year list maker at the New York Times, TIME, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Stereogum, People and more, NPR has called her “the most riveting country star of her generation.”
 
A multi-dimensional superstar, she’s earned seven No. 1 solo albums, 10 No. 1 hit radio singles, more than 80 prestigious awards and countless RIAA certifications; conquered Las Vegas with her twice-extended Velvet Rodeo residency; blurred genres with Leon Bridges, the B-52s, Loretta Lynn, Enrique Iglesias, Sheryl Crow and Elle King; and delivered her LGBTQ+ inclusive anthem “Y’all Means All” for Netflix’s “Queer Eye.” Lambert has taken those standards to become a label co-founder, teaming with longtime collaborator Jon Randall to launch their own imprint, Big Loud Texas, in partnership with Big Loud Records. She is also a New York Times bestselling author and the first female restaurateur on Lower Broadway with her Tex-Mex cantina Casa Rosa, while also expanding her creative reach with her Wanda June Home collection as well as Idyllwind, her western clothing, accessories and footwear brand at Boot Barn.
 
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About Doris Day
Doris Day (1922 – 2019) is remembered as one of the world’s most beloved and most honored performers, as well as one of the most dedicated, hard-working and recognized public servants and advocates of animal welfare. 
 
Starting out as a big band singer, most famously with Les Brown and His Band of Renown, Doris Day’s 1945 timeless hit recording, “Sentimental Journey,” propelled her to stardom and the attention of Hollywood’s film industry, where she would reign as a leading film icon and top recording artist for the next two decades. Over the next 20 years, she would star in 39 films, including such popular favorites as “Calamity Jane,” “Love Me or Leave Me,” Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” and her famous first pairing with Rock Hudson, “Pillow Talk.” Although it has been almost 60 years since her last film, she still holds the record for Top Female Box Office Star and remains in the Top 10 Box Office Stars of All Time.
 
At the same time, she continued her thriving music career, releasing more than 700 songs, including “It’s Magic,” “Secret Love,” and her signature, “Que Sera, Sera,” along with a series of albums—all as relevant today as when they were first introduced. At age 89, Day’s final 2011 album of previously unreleased material, My Heart, made the US Billboard Chart and hit Top 10 in the UK. Her unique silky voice and sublime phrasing continue to be widely lauded by fans and critics alike, and she is considered one of the premier interpreters of The American Songbook.
 
In 1968, Day segued to television, starring in her hit, “The Doris Day Show,” airing on CBS for five years, as well as TV Specials and a lifestyle/animal-related series, “Doris Day’s Best Friends,” in 1985-86.
 
Doris Day is the recipient of over 100 honors, including several Golden Globes, the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement, GRAMMY Award for Lifetime Achievement, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Career Achievement Award and the highest civilian honor—the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Universal Studios Hollywood inducted “Doris Day Drive” as part of the studio’s 100^th anniversary in 2012, and her hometown of Cincinnati honored her with “Doris Day Way” in its bustling downtown arts and entertainment district in 2017.
 
A lifelong animal lover and pioneering animal welfare advocate, Doris Day leveraged her celebrity to focus on humanitarian efforts, devoting the second part of her life to her heart’s passion and life’s calling: helping animals through her charities, Doris Day Animal Foundation (founded in 1978) and Doris Day Animal League (a lobbying organization founded in 1987, later merging with the Humane Society of the United States).
 
Day passed away in 2019 at the age of 97, after spending the last 40 years of her life in Carmel, Calif., overseeing her charities, caring for her “four-leggers” and reading and responding to the hundreds of pieces of fan mail and project offers she continued to receive each month.
 
For more information on Doris Day, please visit dorisday.com. 
 
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