Liidlii Kue/Fort Simpson - When Kele Antoine let his dog Cooper in from his morning walk on Nov. 27 he immediately noticed something wasn't right.

Kele Antoine with his dog Cooper that had spray paint applied to his back, the tips of his ears and the top of his head by an unknown assailant.

Cooper's normally cream-coloured fur was covered in a variety of different colours of spray-paint. Red oxide paint had been applied to the top of Cooper's head and ears along with patches of blue and orange spray paint down his back.

"I looked and I was in shock," said Antoine.

Antoine works at K&K Expediting Ltd. in Fort Simpson and every morning he lets two-yea-old outside for a run. Cooper's normal pattern is to patrol the yard and sometimes he visits the shops in the industrial area on the hill. This is the first time that anything has happened to him, said Antoine.

Antoine said he knows a local bylaw prohibits dogs from running free, but said the immediate issue is the way someone treated Cooper.

"The fact of the matter is someone was cruel to my dog," he said.

As the spray paint thawed inside, Antoine was able to wipe some of the still wet red oxide paint off of Cooper. Despite trying to wash the rest of the paint off it's stuck. Antoine said he can't cut the fur off because it's part of Cooper's winter coat protecting him from the weather.

Along with multi-coloured fur Cooper's eyes have been leaking a black discharge since the incident and look glossy, said Antoine.

"I'm worried about that because they obviously got some in his eyes," he said.

If Cooper had come back with one colour of paint in his fur, Antoine said he would chalked it up to Cooper getting in someone's way while they were working. For someone to take the time to apply three different colours of paint is a different matter, he said.

Antoine said the whole incident has left him "disgusted."

"I just can't believe someone in their right mind would do something so horrible," he said.

Living in the wilderness, local residents have been raised to respect living animals, said Antoine. Antoine contacted both the local bylaw officer and the NWT Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) about the matter.

So far he is the only one to report a case of a dog being spray-painted, said Bert Tsetso, the village's bylaw officer.

Tsetso said he would be looking into the matter.

Janet Pacey, the president of the NWT SPCA, said this is also the first reported case she's heard of in Fort Simpson.

"It's more upsetting that someone has so little respect for an animal," said Pacey.

If someone has a problem with a dog running loose they should find the animal's owner and talk to them directly, Pacey said.

"I'd like to see people communicate a lot better than they do," she said.

Pacey added that dogs should be under their owner's control at all times and shouldn't be allowed to run loose.