Save the … dogs?

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Forget the wolves attacking cattle ranches near Yellowstone; in sleepy Gloucester, Va., four domestic dogs will soon be “destroyed” for devouring a prize-winning miniature horse.

The dogs, referred to in the Virginia DAILY PRESS story as “the marauders,” broke down a gate and attacked a 30-inch tall, $10,000 horse named Butterbean. A local animal warden said pet owners just don’t understand that when dogs run in packs they may behave instinctively, like wild animals. Under Virginia law, he said, livestock owners have the right to shoot attacking dogs.

Butterbean’s owners didn’t take an eye for an eye, but animal control officers formed a search party and tracked the dogs to a neighbor, who they said agreed to surrender his pets. Apparently in Virginia, the value of an animal’s life is measured in dollars.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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