YELLOWKNIFE - It may have been a cunning canine chewing away, bit by bit, at the outdoor dog park fence for months to make an escape, but it was more likely vandals who cut a hole in the chain link fence of the city park with wire cutters.

Either way, Janet Pacey, president of the NWT SPCA, is dumbfounded.

Brad Heath, with huskies Lochie and Sky, play in the dog park behind the Yellowknife Curling Club. Vandals cut a large hole in the fence of the park with wire cutters sometime last week. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

"Who would do that?" she asked. "What a bunch of jerks."

Last week, a volunteer who checks the park weekly discovered a large hole in the park fence behind the Yellowknife Curling Club.

Pacey was alerted to the vandalism the evening of March 25.

"It's more of a doorway than a hole," said Brad Heath, who regularly visits the park.

Heath described the hole as being about seven feet high and three or four feet wide.

"They cut three sides, so they could pull the chain linking back, so they could get their mountain bikes in there to ride around the dog park."

Monday morning, Pacey said the city had been made aware of the damage.

There is no lock on the park doors, which operate on simple latches.

"I just think it was someone who was bored," said Dawn Collins, who visits the park as the owner of a dogwalking business.

"It's the first major vandalism I've seen," said Heath, although over his many visits, he has seen minor damages.

The football field-sized park is used year round and is an integral place for dogs and dog owners, said Pacey.

"The whole point of a fenced-in dog park is that it is the only place where animals that are known to be flippant are safe in town," said Pacey.

"It's the only place where dogs can run without a leash."

"The dog park is a great facility," said Heath.

"I bring my huskies there three or four times a week to burn off energy. The dogs are safe there. They don't get into mischief."

The dog park was established after a September 2004 motion from council to create a space for dogs to run off leash.