Bellwether is a young adult female sheep who serves as the assistant mayor of the city of Zootopia.  From her point of view, she is performing a vital function on behalf of the citizens.  However, she has also come to the realization that, to her boss (Mayor Leodore Lionheart), she is little more than "a glorified secretary".  And nothing drives that point home for her more than having been given an office space that is nothing more than a narrow, relatively dark closet containing a large water heater and shelving (probably a modified janitorial closet).  Her work space is fairly orderly, though she has little yellow Post-It notes all around her desk and on the walls around it...including the phone number for Doug, her felonious associate (and one of several rams on her henchman payroll, also including Woolter and Jesse).  There are file boxes everywhere, file cabinets taking up the space of one wall next to the water heater, and a small rolling cart with an automatic-drip coffee maker near the desk.  On her desk sits a coffee mug, given to her by Mayor Lionheart, which says "World's Greatest Dad", with "dad" scribbled out by a red marker, and the words "Assistant Mayor" written in above it...which demonstrates the rather infintessimal amount of concern and respect the mayor has for her.  Bellwether uses it as a place to store pens, markers and pencils.

Bellwether believes that Mayor Lionheart brought her onto his staff just "because he wanted the sheep vote".  All of this, including her perception of being viewed as nothing more than a glorified secretary, is probably at least mostly true, as Lionheart enjoys bullying and bossing her around.  He even has a demeaning pet name for her: "Smellwether" (she made the mistake, one day, of referring to him in jest as "Lionfart".  It ended up not being a good day for her!).  Lionheart routinely gives her mundane duties that usually amount to little more than secretarial work.  At public appearances, she is often shoved into the background.

Bellwether wants to do good things for the city and its citizens in spite of being hampered by the unfortunate realities of her working relationship with her boss, but underneath her shy, bumbling and often perky exterior boils a dangerous bitterness.  Bellwether is determined to do whatever it takes to see the Zootopia citizens who are prey mammals reign supreme over the predators, and has been working behind the scenes not only to discredit Mayor Lionheart, and implicate him in illegal activities, but to use chemical bioagents to revert the predator mammal citizens back into their more primitive and dangerous predatory habits.  This, she hopes, will convince the prey mammals that the dangerous predators need to be locked up or driven out of Zootopia forever.  Clearly Bellwether has some deep-seated emotional issues with predator mammals.  And she's worked out a very clever and dangerous scheme to achieve that goal, throwing all suspicion on Mayor Lionheart while making her look like a heroine.  And she'll gladly manipulate any other mammal along the way in order to achieve her goals, including Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde and the entire Zootopia Police Department.

Bellwether uses other sheep (rams, mostly) as her minions, including Doug, who is an accomplished chemist.  He has a secret underground laboratory hidden in an old subway rail car underneath Zootopia.

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Full Name: Dawn Bellwether

Species: Sheep

Design Inspiration/Influences: Maria Bamford, Tina Fey

Appearance: Short stature, with white wool fur and gray eyes.  Wears a white floral print dress, a dark gray/green sport jacket, and large tortoiseshell eyeglasses.  Her clothing, however, varies from day to day (as you might expect), and she augments her clothing with coordinated jewelry (she has a preference for bracelets and necklaces).

Personality: Perky, timid, meek, self-effacing, fidgety, clumsy and paranoid.  Also bitter, selfish, calculating and extremely prejudiced (against predators).  Voice occassionally cracks when she speaks (especially when she's nervous or paranoid).  She also speaks with a "vocal fry" affectation.

Favorite Quotes: "Oh muttonchops..."  /  "Oh, I'm more of a glorified secretary."