Katherine Heigl Sues Dog Rescue Group For Spreading Nasty Rumors About Her Animal Care Organization

The Grey’s Anatomy actress has sued an animal rescue organization for defaming her animal welfare foundation. Katherine Heigl has a history with the Rogue Rescue group. Check out the deets!

Written by Shreya Patnaik , Entertainment Journalist

Published on Mar 06, 2025 | 03:58 PM GMT | 6.2K

Katherine Heigl (PC: Getty)

Katherine Heigl has sued a rogue rescue group for allegedly spreading false and defaming rumors about her animal welfare organization. The Grey’s Anatomy actress runs the Jason Heigl Foundation —named after her late brother —along with her mother, Nancy.

Reportedly, the foundation is dedicated to supporting animal rescue efforts and saving animals from kill shelters. However, their recent tie-up with The Pitty Committee, a Santa Monica-based dog rescue group, has caused some hiccups in their business.

The lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, states that the Heigls' organization signed a deal with TPC, which binds the 27 Dresses actress to pay $5,000 per month to help them carry out dog rescues.

She met her end of the bargain to help puppies of her and Nancy’s choosing. However, the rescue group allegedly mismanaged her donations. The documents claimed that when the actress questioned the group about the alleged missing funds, they reacted squirrely.

When their contract ended in December 2023, Katherine decided not to renew it to protect her organization. However, a year later, the rescue group’s exec, Alyssa Deetman, took to social media to claim that the actress owed TPC money.

She also accused Katherine of putting the rescue dogs in small holding and held her responsible for the deaths of 2 puppies. In the suit, the actress called out Deetman’s alleged lies, saying she did it just out of spite.

The Suits actress claimed that Deetman had promised to sing praises for her and her organization if she renewed her deal with TPC. “I am so proud of the work [the foundation] does. I respect you, and I respect [Katherine] and I know the work you guys do," says Deetman’s email to Nancy.

Hence, the Heigl mother-daughter duo sued the company on defamation charges. They claimed that these false rumors and comments have hurt their reputation and affected their organization’s continued effort to rescue animals from death row.