John Hamilton 

What is your assessment of the state of companion (dogs/cats) animals in our community?

Bloomington has an amazing collection of nonprofits and volunteers committed to animal
welfare in the city, but they can always use more support. As mayor, I will welcome learning
about how the city could be a better partner with the community, by ensuring that pets that are
adopted are going to permanent homes, for example. A necessary component of this is making
sure people that adopt are prepared to properly train, vaccinate, and care for all the needs of
that animal.

Pets play an important role in many homes and as mayor I'll support city policies that make our
parks and public spaces pet friendly. I understand there is strong public support for the
construction of a dog park at the new Switchyard park when it is created, and embrace that, as
well as policies to make downtown more pedestrian and pet friendly.

What detriments do you feel still face our companion animals in our community?

I think our community has a substantial population that approaches adoption as a temporary
measure. Every year, many animals are abandoned in the summer when their owner no longer
feels prepared to care for them. This causes strain on our shelters and organizations striving to
protect animals. We especially need to support nonprofits that provide low cost or free spay/
neuter operations to make sure that the dog and cat population stay low enough to ensure likely
adoption. We do not want to have to turn away unfortunate animals from our shelter because
we fear they are not adoptable or be forced to euthanize them due to lack of space. 

The debate over how to handle the city's deer population is important to many citizens. I believe
there are two separate problems in the deer debate: what to do with the deer in the city, and
what to do with deer at Griffy Lake. As mayor, I will follow available science to protect Griffy
nature preserve for the long-run, so that families can enjoy it for generations to come as we do
today. In the city, neighborhoods may vary in their reasonable approaches and the City Council
is the best venue to evaluate and accommodate those differences. I look forward to working
with the Council in that process. 

Based on my experience leading the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, I
know that government action can greatly impact environmental protection. As mayor, I will do
everything I can to protect the natural beauty of our city. 

I will look forward to considering plans and possibilities for the shelter and adoption center. At
this point in time, I can't forecast any specific changes, but certainly welcome proposals to
improve our effectiveness and humaneness in our operations. 

In this regard, and in all answers above, really, I would look forward to learning best practices in
other communities - are they doing things better than we are? How can we improve, and learn
from what they are doing? I believe reviewing the most creative and innovative communities
around the country and what they are doing in this regard is an excellent step.