Miami-Dade County has a breed specific ordinance than bans residents from owning and housing a pit bull dog within the County’s domain. The Plaintiff owned a pit bull that he stated was a trained service dog. The County refuted the Plaintiff’s claim regarding the dog. The County then informed the Plaintiff that, in accordance with the County statute, should he continue to maintain the dog within his County residence that the County would seize and euthanize the dog. The Plaintiff then sued the County for his right to maintain the dog within his Homestead, Florida residence. In the interim, until the case completed, the Plaintiff temporarily rehomed his dog with a caretaker.
The Plaintiff’s attorney contacted CPT to assist with the case. CPT began by informing the attorney of key facts necessary in determining the definition of a service dog per the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). After listening to CPT’s presentation, the Plaintiff’s attorney agreed with CPT that the ADA was likely prepotent to the County legislation.
The ADA requires two primary criteria to classify a dog as a service animal. First, the recipient must have a legitimate disability as defined by the ADA, which means that the recipient must have a physical or psychological disease or condition that substantially affects “major life activities” or major organ systems. Second, the dog must perform a behavior “related to” the disability, meaning that the behavior must mitigate the limitations and/or effects posed by the disability.
After speaking with CPT, the Plaintiff’s attorney met with the County attorney, whereby they agreed that the ADA superseded the County legislation. They also agreed that the Plaintiff was by definition disabled. The Plaintiff had significant upper extremity, mobility, and balance limitations as the result of a severe motorcycle accident and for many years suffered from periodic respiratory attacks that required the immediate intervention of corticosteroid medication via a prescription inhaler. Thus, the only major issue still in contention was whether the dog was legitimately a service dog as defined by the ADA.
The Plaintiff’s attorney and County attorney then agreed to enter mediation. As part of the terms of the mediation, both parties agreed to jointly hire CPT to evaluate the dog and to author a report stating whether the dog was in fact by definition a service dog. Furthermore, both parties agreed to abide by the conclusions registered in CPT’s report, provided that the report was logical, unbiased, and supported by evidence.
CPT then flew to Miami to evaluate the dog. Although by the text of the ADA the dog needed only to perform a behavior related to the disability, CPT also tested whether the dog would be safe if provided public access. Therefore, CPT administered the American Kennel (AKC) Club Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Test, the Assistance Dogs International (ADI) Public Access Test, and the standard CPT Adult Dog Evaluation. CPT also asked that the dog perform the specified assistance behavior, locating and retrieving an inhaler upon command, both at home and in a public environment (a crowded shopping mall). To avert potential bias, CPT performed all the preceding evaluations in the presence of the attorneys.
The dog performed admirably both at home and in public, whereby CPT authored a detailed report that concluded that the dog was a service animal as defined by the ADA. Consequently, the Plaintiff was allowed to maintain his pit bull service dog within his Miami-Dade County residence. Furthermore, the County agreed to author a formal exception to the breed restrictive ordinance, so that in the future persons relocating to the County would not need to commence a law suit if their pit bull dog is a valid service dog.