An updated animal control ordinance will be presented to the Dothan City Commission, but not without controversy.

At a public presentation of the draft proposal, Dothan City Commissioner John Craig said his Animal Control Ordinance Committee had reached a consensus that the proposal was the best available option.

“We recognize there will be those who do not agree with this, because there’s been members of this committee who don’t agree with it,” said Craig, who served as the group’s chairman.

“But the consensus is while someone may not like one thing, they like the rest of it.I don’t know that the City Commission will agree to this, but we’ve given it our best shot.”

While the several dozen members of the public in attendance weren’t allowed to make comments, some members of the committee retracted their support from the ordinance, which includes mandatory spaying and neutering for animals and licensing fees, and accused the city of deception.

“We all went in optimistic, thinking we can make this better, help the city find ways to make Dothan a better place for animals and animal lovers and ordinary citizens, but we weren't ever given the opportunity to do that,” said committee member Anna Muldoon. “We were met with hostility and contempt at every point. They're going to scapegoat us in the media when nothing we suggested is even in (the proposal).”

Muldoon and fellow committee member Debbie Trueblood said they were misled when signing their approval of the ordinance after the committee was split into two separate group meetings.

Both said they were under the impression they were signing an attendance sheet for the previous meeting.

“Today it was brought to my attention by Commissioner Craig that the document I signed was the ordinance,” Trueblood said. “After studying this document, I cannot with a clear conscience advocate it because of mandatory spaying and neutering, so I respectfully ask for my signature to be removed from the document.”

Muldoon said she would never sign the document.

“I'm not going to sign off on this ordinance, and I am not a lunatic animal rights activist either,” she said. “Mandatory spay-neuter laws have been proven to not work, and they actually increase shelter euthanasia rates.”

Craig refuted their claims.

“Two meetings were held, because we could not meet under the Sunshine Law without having everyone there, so we split into two groups,” Craig said. “(Muldoon) didn’t have to sign it to begin with.”

Not everyone on the committee agreed with Muldoon’s complaints.

“I’m satisfied,” said member Alice Thompson. “There is no way to control animal overpopulation without (mandatory spaying and neutering). We had to come up with something, and you can’t please everyone.”

Some at the meeting suggested the city is moving the issue forward too quickly for the wrong reasons.

“They have rushed this. None of it has been carefully planned out. I don’t know what the sense of urgency is, except that the city thinks it’s going to get money,” Muldoon said.

Dothan resident Priscilla Andrews helped organize a petition against the ordinance after the meeting and said she agrees with Muldoon’s assessment.

“If they would enforce the regular ordinance, this would not be happening. It appears to all be money-related, and I’m very saddened these people would do this,” Andrews said.