Florida is one of the few states that attaches a specific criminal penalty to this, and an unusual one.
A second-degree misdemeanour plus 30 hours of community service. The community service requirement is the distinctive part — it is mandatory language rather than a sentencing option.
What it actually covers, and what it does not
“Knowingly and willfully.” The offence requires intent. Someone who genuinely believed their animal qualified is in a different position from someone who bought a vest to get a dog into a restaurant.
“As using a service animal.” This is about the public accommodation context governed by § 413.08 — a business, a shop, a restaurant.
It is not about ESA paperwork in housing. This is the single most common error published about Florida assistance animal law. Section 760.27 governs emotional support animals in housing and contains no penalty provision at all for fraudulent documentation. Different animal, different setting, different statute.
So: “faking an ESA letter for my landlord is a crime in Florida” does not follow from § 413.08(9). The honest answer is that the housing statute has no equivalent offence.
Why the distinction matters beyond pedantry
Service animal — trained to do work or perform tasks, limited by § 413.08(1)(d) to a dog or miniature horse, and entitled to accompany its handler in areas of a public accommodation the public may normally occupy.
Emotional support animal — no training requirement, defined by the therapeutic effect of its presence, and governed by a housing statute that gives no public access rights whatsoever.
An ESA is not a service animal under Florida law, and § 413.08(6)(b) says so expressly.
If a dog held out as a service animal bites someone
The criminal question and the civil one are separate, and the civil answer does not change. Section 767.04 makes the owner liable from the first bite whatever the animal was presented as — and § 413.08(3)(d) separately makes a handler liable for damage caused by a service animal. Access rights are not immunity.