Top Photo: The Tramp is from a Phoenix shelter! Photo credit: The Walt Disney Company
It’s the stuff that movies are made from—Hollywood animal trainers find an adorable dog at a Phoenix shelter, and he becomes a star!
Last year, a down-on-his-luck mutt was taken into the animal services center in Las Cruces, New Mexico. This city and county-funded shelter work with other animal rescue organizations to help get thousands of dogs and cats adopted and placed in their forever homes. One of these organizations is HALO Animal Rescue of Phoenix. Every so often, the animal services center sends dozens of dogs—up to 50 of them at a time—to HALO. On April 26, 2018, Monte, a 2-year-old terrier mix, was part of one of those group transfers.
But it wasn’t just Monte’s sweet furry face that HALO workers and the trainers noticed.
According to the staff, Monte loves greeting people and loves giving them kisses. In fact, this cute and curious canine CRAVES human attention.
The trainers came to HALO on a scouting mission for Disney’s upcoming remake of “Lady and the Tramp.” This film will debut on the company’s new streaming service, Disney+ on Nov. 12. In addition to his friendly disposition, Monte already knew how to sit and behaved really well on a leash.
The trainers adopted him to be the next Tramp in the new “Lady and the Tramp”! In fact, all the dogs in the film are rescues, but since Monte’s from a Phoenix shelter, we’re sort of hoping he’ll steal the show. Justin Theroux will voice Monte’s lines in this live-action version. The first trailer for “Lady and the Tramp” was just released. And with filming done, Monte’s trainers adopted Hollywood’s unlikely star!
The Amazon Forest Is Burning!
Forest fires are burning so much of the Amazon rainforest that the fire could be seen from space last month.
By the end of August, about 76,000 fires were burning across the Amazon in Brazil. This is an 80 percent increase over the same time period last year. The smoke and fire have been so severe that a weather satellite owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA was able to capture photos of the damage.
Experts expect that the numbers are likely to increase as the dry season, from June to December, continues and the southern part of the Amazon Basin dries out. Most of the fires are caused by human activity.
Deforestation, when a wide area of trees is cleared by humans, is a factor in the number of fires burning in 2019. So far this year, there are more fires burning across the Amazon than at any point since 2010. However, 2019 is not the first year to see high numbers of fires in the rainforest.
According to National Geographic, 2005 and 2010 were also extremely active fire years, with numbers even higher than this year’s count by this time in the dry season. Those years’ blazes were attributed to extreme drought rather than human interference.
There are several reasons the fires this summer are so alarming, including what they mean for the animals who call the rainforest home and what they will do to the future of the ECOSYSTEM. One of the other key roles the Amazon plays is in helping to absorb carbon dioxide. In its peak condition, the rainforest is comparable to a giant air conditioner that helps cool the planet by pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
One reason the Amazon is so effective is because of the large area it covers. The Amazon rainforest covers approximately 2.12 million square acres in South America. In the last 50 years, the largest rainforest in the world has lost more than 15 percent of its forest cover.
