By ANN BLOOM For the Wallowa County Chieftain – Oregon

ENTERPRISE — At about 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 30, Donna and Adam Roberge were awakened by the sound of their dog, Dakota, vomiting.

Dakota, a 4-year-old pit bull-German shepherd mix — “a sweet dog,” Donna said — then had a seizure, jerking and frothing at the mouth.

The Roberges had had Dakota from the time the dog was a puppy. But from that moment on Oct. 30, Dakota was never the same sweet dog.

Their family pet “looked at me and didn’t recognize me,” said Adam. The dog then started to lunge at the couple’s daughters, Savannah, 11, and Celina, 14, trying to bite them. The parents made their daughters stay in their bedroom, door closed, for their own protection.

This went on for two hours, an 80-pound dog loose in the house, parents barricaded inside their bedrooms, their daughters barricaded in theirs.

The incident included fruitless attempts to get law enforcement to respond; eventually, the family’s veterinarian had to sneak into the house through a bedroom window to euthanize the aggressive and ailing dog.

A few weeks later, the veterinarian, Dr. Kala Grover, testified before the Enterprise City Council that the incident showed the need for Wallowa County to have an animal-control officer. The incident also highlighted a continuing discussion about how to control aggressive dogs in the county — and whether local governments can afford a dog-control officer.

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