Stop Hunting in Thompson Park — Protect Our Children, Our Community, and Our Wildlife

Thompson Park is one of the most cherished spaces in our community — a place where families walk, children play, runners train, and neighbors gather. But right now, hunting is taking place inside the park, creating serious risks for the people who use it every day and for the wildlife that calls it home.

Within one mile of Thompson Park sit five schools, as well as Brookdale Community College. This is one of the most heavily used pedestrian areas in the entire region. The idea of hunting — with firearms or projectiles — occurring so close to schools, walkways, playgrounds, parking lots, and running paths poses an undeniable and avoidable safety risk.

Warning signs about hunting days are inconsistent, minimal, and not posted at every access point. Many people enter the park with absolutely no idea that hunting is underway. As someone who regularly uses the park, I once looked up during a run to see a hunter in a tree stand aiming his gun in my direction, mistaking me for a deer. No one visiting a public park should ever face that kind of danger.

Beyond human safety, the impact on wildlife is equally heartbreaking. Due to constant development, Thompson Park has become one of the few remaining places where deer can live, raise their young, and simply exist without harm. When hunting begins, these animals — with nowhere else to go — flee into surrounding neighborhoods and onto nearby roads in panic. Every hunting season, we see an increase in deer being struck by cars, putting both drivers and wildlife at risk. This is not just tragic — it is preventable.

Hunting inside a community park is unnecessary, unsafe, and incompatible with how residents use this space. There are more responsible, humane, non-lethal wildlife-management options available — options that protect our children, our community, and our ecosystem.

We urge local officials to immediately halt deer hunting in Thompson Park and adopt safer, community-supported alternatives.

If you believe parks should be safe for families AND for the animals who share them with us, please sign and share this petition. Your voice matters — and together, we can protect Thompson Park.