How to Certify Your Emotional Support Animal in Florida

Florida defines “public accommodation” as “a common carrier, airplane, motor vehicle, railroad train, motor bus, streetcar, boat, or other public conveyance or mode of transportation; hotel; lodging place; place of public accommodation, amusement, or resort; and other places to which the general public is invited, subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law and applicable alike to all persons.”

If you have a service dog, you cannot be asked about your disability or asked to provide documentation. However, establishments can ask whether your animal is a service animal required for your disability and about the work the animal has been trained to perform.

If you have an ESA, the FDA Food Code and Florida Health Department rules prohibit access to bars and restaurants. Service dogs, however, are allowed in these establishments.

Florida typically defers to federal law for public transportation. Traveling with a service animal on trains or in on-demand transportation such as taxicabs, limos, or ridesharing services (ie. Uber or Lyft) is covered by the ADA. When it comes to air travel, Florida abides by the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA).

No documentation is required to have a service animal in public. However, Florida law requires service animals to be under the control of their handlers and secured with a harness, leash, or tether. The only exceptions to this rule are if the handler is unable to use a harness, leash, or tether or if the use of such items would hinder the animal’s ability to aid its owner. In this case, handlers must be able to control their animal through “voice control, signals, or other effective means.”

Employers are not allowed to discriminate against an individual with a disability when it comes to employment unless it is shown that the particular disability hinders the work involved with the job. This would extend to the allowance of service dogs, so unless the service dog poses a threat or interference to the business, employers must allow handlers to have their service dogs in the workplace.

Florida defers to the ADA in this case. Under the ADA, any practitioners with offices open to the public must obey the law with regard to public accommodations. This includes pharmacies, hospitals, and the county health department. However, service animals are not permitted in operating rooms or other sterile environments (this same rule is applicable to humans).

Any person or business that denies a person with a service animal or a trainer with a service animal in training access to a public accommodation is guilty of a second degree misdemeanor under Florida law.

Florida follows the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), which defines a service animal as a dog (regardless of breed or size) trained to do work or perform tasks to assist a qualified individual with a disability and may include psychiatric service dogs. Miniature horses are excluded from this definition.

Airlines can require a passenger to provide a U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) form attesting to the animal’s health, behavior, and training and a U.S. DOT form attesting that the animal can either not relieve itself or can relieve itself in a sanitary manner (if the animal will be on a flight that is 8 or more hours).

The ACAA does not address service animals in training, so airlines are not required to carry them as they do not meet the requirements of an ACAA-defined service animal. However, airlines can make their own individual policies.