Breed Restrictions at Your Evacuation Destination: Three Different Lists, Three Different Owners

Whether your dog’s breed is a problem at your evacuation destination depends on three separate rules, and a yes on one does not carry over to the other two. The destination city may have an ordinance. The property may have its own pet clause. An insurer may have an underwriting rule that the property is repeating. Before you drive, call the animal-control office for the city you would stay in, then the property, and write down both answers with the date.

No single list of breeds spans the three, and their categories do not line up. Below: the shape of each rule, one city ordinance (Denver’s) worked through to show what a city can require of a visitor, and a way to clear a destination on a quiet afternoon rather than at a counter at midnight.

Three lists, three owners, three consequences

The list	Who writes it	What it is written about	What happens if you are on it
A municipal or county ordinance	A city council or county board, published in that jurisdiction’s own code	Presence of the animal inside a boundary line. Denver’s version is written around physical appearance rather than pedigree	Set by that jurisdiction. Denver publishes a warning, a follow-up verification, and then a possible court appearance, fine, or removal of the animal
A property’s own pet clause	The property, or a brand that then hands the question back to the property	Whether that specific building or site will house the animal	A booking that does not exist, or one that fails at the desk
An insurer’s underwriting rule	An insurance carrier, in filed underwriting or rating rules and sometimes in the policy form	The property owner’s coverage, not your animal	The property declines, often without telling you why

Only the first is about where your animal may physically be. The second is about a contract you are trying to enter. The third is not about you at all, which is why a property can decline a dog for reasons that have nothing to do with the city or the animal’s behavior.

The order of your calls matters. A property can only answer for itself. The city is the only authority for the city, and the property cannot waive an ordinance on your behalf.

What a city ordinance can require: Denver

Denver publishes the whole process on its own site. As of September 29, 2026, this section rests on the City and County of Denver’s Breed-Restricted Permits page and its Denver Pit Bull Fact Sheet dated January 1, 2021. It says nothing about any other city, in either direction. Check Denver’s page for anything current before you rely on it.

The rule and its date. Denver voters voted on November 3, 2020 to repeal the city’s pit bull ban, per the fact sheet. Under Denver Ordinance Sec. 8-67, the restricted breeds (American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier and Staffordshire Bull Terrier) are prohibited unless they have been issued a provisional Breed-Restricted Permit. The ordinance was amended January 1, 2021.

The category is drawn by appearance. Denver’s page defines pit bull-type dogs as “any dog displaying a majority of physical traits of any one or more of the specific breeds mentioned above,” or any dog whose physical characteristics substantially conform to American Kennel Club or United Kennel Club standards. In the assessment, three certified breed evaluators look at the dog’s physical characteristics and compare them to the AKC and UKC breed standards, and all three must agree. The page adds “There is no evaluation of behavior or temperament during the assessment.” An owner who disputes the classification may file a written petition for a hearing no later than 7 days after the assessment.

An owner who has never thought of their dog as a restricted breed is inside or outside this definition based on a stranger’s reading of the dog’s physical characteristics. That is why “my dog is a mix” is not an answer.

It reaches visitors, and it reaches boarding. Denver’s page asks the traveler’s question directly: an owner from another city who wants to bring a pit bull in for a visit. The answer is yes. All suspected pit bull dogs must have a breed evaluation at Denver Animal Protection (DAP), and if the dog is determined to be restricted-breed, a permit is required “for the dog to be within Denver City and County limits at any time.” The page also says “There is no exception for owned dogs that will be placed at any boarding or day care facility.” A restricted-breed dog cannot be brought into Denver until a Breed-Restricted Permit has been issued.

The clearance route has hours and is in person. Denver offers no appointments. Breed evaluations are walk-in, between 1 and 3 p.m. daily at Denver Animal Shelter. Asked whether an out-of-town owner can buy the permit online or by phone in advance, the page says no: DAP has to evaluate the dog in person before you can purchase the permit. An owner who gets the dog evaluated by DAP before moving may buy the permit at the same time.

The application asks for two people. The permit application asks for the names and addresses of two people who may be contacted in an emergency involving the dog. Those contacts must be able to care for or control the dog when you are not available, and the page says that person has to come get the dog if it escapes or is in an altercation.

What happens without a permit, per Denver. You receive a warning and a mandatory request to bring the animal in for an assessment. DAP performs a follow-up verification within 10 days of the warning. If you have not brought the dog in and applied for a permit, you may face a court appearance or a fine, or DAP may remove the animal from the home.

One more limit applies to a household rather than a dog: Denver’s page says the maximum number of pit bulls any owner or keeper may have living in their home is two.

Fees apply at each step. Denver’s page lists the assessment fee, permit fee, annual renewal and city license fee; read the current amounts there.

Why a state statute does not pre-clear a city

Looking up the state does not work, and two statutes side by side show why.

Section 767.14 of the 2025 Florida Statutes, “Additional local restrictions authorized,” lets local governments and public housing authorities adopt certain ordinances or policies about attacks on persons or domestic animals, “provided that no such regulation is specific to breed, weight, or size.” Colorado’s C.R.S. 18-9-204.5(5)(a) says a municipality may adopt rules for the control of dangerous dogs but such a rule “shall not regulate dangerous dogs in a manner that is specific to breed.” Denver nonetheless publishes and administers a breed-restricted permit under Sec. 8-67.

How the Colorado text and Denver’s permit fit together is a legal question this article does not try to answer. The practical lesson holds either way: a statute is not a lookup table for what happens at a city limit on a given night. The destination’s own current code and animal-control office are where this question gets answered. A state summary can be accurate about the state and still be the wrong document for your destination.

Surveys go stale

Search the words most owners search and you may land on a law-school database. The Animal Legal and Historical Center at Michigan State University College of Law is a serious resource, but its page on Denver’s old ordinance (Sec. 8-55, adopted 1989, a prohibition on pit bulls) is stamped as last checked in May 2012 and kept for archival and example purposes. Denver’s current rule is a permit under Sec. 8-67, amended January 1, 2021.

The Center’s state-level survey by Rebecca F. Wisch (2022) is more useful for one reason. It separates “states that prohibit breed-specific legislation (BSL) in all animal regulation” from “states that prohibit BSL in dangerous/vicious dog laws,” and notes that a further distinction applies within the dangerous-dog category. Use it to learn that “the state bans breed laws” can mean at least three different things, then get your destination’s own rule. State lists are not reproduced here because a legislative survey ages between sessions.

The property’s clause is not the city’s rule

The second list is the one you can actually negotiate with, and it works differently for each kind of destination.

Hotels. Our page on what the hotel chains actually publish about pets covers the hotel half of this question and the booking call. Where a hotel brand has a breed answer, it sits with the individual property rather than on the brand page.

Campgrounds and RV parks. KOA’s pet policy page says to call ahead and check the campground’s specific pet policies: “Others don’t accept particular breeds that insurance providers have identified as having a history of aggression.” That is the second list deferring to the third. The page names no breed and draws a separate behavior line: dogs of any breed that are hostile or aggressive will be asked to leave the campground, along with their owners. It also says service dogs are welcomed at all KOA Kampgrounds, with leash and aggressive-behavior rules applying.

Short-term rentals. On a platform, the pet answer is not a platform answer. Airbnb’s page on finding pet-friendly places says to find a listing’s pet policy in its House rules section. “Even if a listing says pets are allowed, always contact the host to confirm.” Airbnb’s animal safety policy prohibits animals known to have previously attacked a person or another animal, even a dog that has bitten someone and is properly secured and disclosed. It also says “Animals not permitted by applicable laws are prohibited in all circumstances,” which is where the city’s ordinance comes back in. Airbnb’s animal safety, pet-friendly search, home-guest ground rules and accessibility help pages do not mention breed. If a listing has a breed rule, it would sit in the host’s own house rules.

A relative’s house. There is no desk and there are two rules you cannot see: whatever their lease, homeowners association or condominium declaration says about animals, and whatever their insurer’s underwriting rules say. Neither is theirs to waive on the phone. Ask early enough that a no is survivable.

Where insurance enters, and where it stops

Breed rules in insurance live in filed underwriting and rating rules and in policy forms. Our renters and homeowners insurance page for pet owners quotes three states’ own insurance regulators and statutes on it. It claims no count of states, because the number moves by legislative session and bulletin.

At a destination the useful move is narrower. When a property says it cannot take your dog, ask which of the three lists the answer comes from. If it is the insurer’s, the property is describing a constraint on its own coverage and usually no one there can move it. If it is the city’s, no one at the property can move it either. If it is the property’s own rule, that is the only one of the three where the person you are talking to may have authority. A call does not guarantee a yes. It tells you who you are asking, so you do not spend an hour negotiating with someone who was never able to say yes.

Service animals run on a different document

If your dog is a service animal under the ADA, the governing text is not the ordinance and not the pet policy.

The Department of Justice’s service-animal FAQ (issued July 20, 2015, last updated February 28, 2020) asks whether a municipal breed ban applies to service animals and answers no: “Municipalities that prohibit specific breeds of dogs must make an exception for a service animal of a prohibited breed” unless the dog poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others. Local jurisdictions decide that case by case on the animal’s actual behavior or history, and may not exclude a service animal because of fears or generalizations about how an animal or breed might behave. The FAQ also says breed restrictions differ significantly between jurisdictions and that some have none, and that the ADA does not restrict the dog breeds that can be service animals.

The regulations say the same. 28 CFR 35.136(a), for state and local government, requires a public entity to modify its policies, practices or procedures to permit the use of a service animal by an individual with a disability. 28 CFR 36.302(c)(1) sets the parallel duty for public accommodations. The removal grounds those two sections list are narrow: the animal is out of control and its handler does not take effective action, or the animal is not housebroken. A breed ordinance is neither of those; the direct-threat test in the FAQ above is the separate route, and it turns on the individual animal’s behavior or history.

Three qualifications apply.

• DOJ states that its guidance documents have no legally binding effect. That is about the FAQ, not the rule: 28 CFR 35.136 and 36.302 went through rulemaking and are printed in the Code of Federal Regulations.
• The definition is narrow. 28 CFR 35.104 and 36.104 define a service animal as a dog individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability. Other species are not service animals for these purposes, and the crime-deterrent effect of an animal’s presence and the provision of emotional support, comfort or companionship do not count as work or tasks. An emotional support animal is outside the definition, and housing is covered separately, under the Fair Housing Act.
• Denver’s breed-restricted permitting page does not mention service animals, so a handler cannot resolve the question from it. Airbnb’s accessibility policy says legal requirements in some jurisdictions may expand or limit the reasonable adjustments a host must provide. Ask the jurisdiction in advance, by phone, not at a counter during an evacuation.

The breed word on your own paperwork

Our page on what a pet shelter checks at intake explains that the model rabies vaccination certificate published by the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians (Form 51) has a field for the animal’s predominant breed, and that Texas writes essentially the same list into regulation. Our page on a pet transported out of county or state reports a 2018 PLOS ONE study of 919 shelter dogs: staff at one of the two participating shelters matched at least one breed in the genetic heritage of 67.7% of dogs tested, and agreement fell to 10.4% when asked to identify more than one breed.

A breed word your veterinarian writes on your rabies certificate travels with you. A determination at a destination counter is a separate visual judgment by different people. The two can disagree, and neither is a laboratory result. Nothing here suggests altering a health document, or that paperwork settles the question. Know what your own documents say about your dog before someone at a desk reads them out to you.

What this means for an evacuation

These three points are this site’s reasoning from the facts above, not a published protocol.

• A clearance route with business hours cannot serve an evacuation. Denver’s window is 1 to 3 p.m. daily and in person, and an evacuation arrives whenever the order does. A destination with a permitting requirement either gets cleared before the season with the animal present, or stops being your destination. A disaster can also close the office that issues the clearance.
• A yes from one of the three lists is not a yes from the other two. A hotel, campground or host confirming your dog is confirming a contract. Denver’s page says the permit is required within city limits at any time, and Airbnb says animals not permitted by law are prohibited in all circumstances. Collect the property’s yes and the city’s yes separately.
• The emergency-contact requirement assumes people who are not evacuating. For an evacuee, the two people most likely to be named are back home inside the zone the family just left, possibly without power or phone. If you plan around a permitting jurisdiction, choose contacts near the destination, before the drive.

Pre-clearing a destination on a quiet afternoon

This is a one-afternoon job, done once per destination.

1. Fix the destination as a jurisdiction, not a dot on a map. A hotel address can sit in a city, another city’s enclave or unincorporated county land, and those are different codes. Get the actual municipality and county from the property’s address.
2. Find that jurisdiction’s code and search it yourself. Search for “breed,” “pit bull,” “dangerous dog,” “vicious,” and “restricted.” Note the section number and effective date so you can check them again later.
3. Call the jurisdiction’s animal-control or animal-services office and ask a visitor’s question, not a resident’s. Does a nonresident staying temporarily fall under any breed rule? Is a permit, license or registration involved? Where and when is it issued, and can it be done in advance from out of town? What are the counter’s hours, and what happens outside them? Ask even if you are confident your dog is not in anybody’s category. Where an ordinance is written like Denver’s, someone else looking at your dog decides the category. If your dog is a service animal, ask that question directly and in advance too.
4. Ask the property the three-list question. Is the breed rule its own, its brand’s or an insurer’s, and who can approve an exception? Our hotel booking-call page covers the rest of that conversation, including the count and size questions that disqualify a household faster than a breed question. For a relative’s home, ask about their lease, association rules and insurer.
5. Do the state-line paperwork in the same sitting. Our page on health certificates to cross state lines when evacuating covers what states publish. A destination that clears on breed and fails on paperwork is the same lost night. Check what your own rabies certificate says in its breed field while you are at it.
6. Write the answers down with dates and names, and pick a second destination in a different jurisdiction. One cleared destination is a single point of failure; two in different jurisdictions is a plan.

A breed permit and a city pet license are filed municipal records, and what a jurisdiction discloses from that file varies. In a permitting jurisdiction like Denver, the application carries the owner’s name, the address where the animal will be kept and two named emergency contacts and their addresses. If being locatable at the destination is itself the hazard, that is not a call to make from a checklist. Read our page on fleeing domestic violence with a pet before you file a permit or license application at a destination, and ask an advocate what your destination’s record contains.

Put the timing on the same calendar as your other pre-season work; our hurricane-season pet prep calendar lays it out by basin. If your primary destination sits in a jurisdiction you cannot clear in advance, how far to evacuate with pets and when your county has no pet-friendly shelter both work the problem of building a destination ladder instead of a single destination.

Where to go next

This page is the destination-eligibility spoke of our pet emergency playbooks hub.

The booking itself. What the hotel chains publish about pets covers counts, size rules, species and the over-cap paths, and the pet-friendly hotel evacuation checklist covers the call, the room and the departure.

The money and the coverage. Renters and homeowners insurance for pet owners answers the breed-and-underwriting question from regulators’ own documents, and what a dog bite at an evacuation shelter changes covers the ADA and insurance side once an incident has happened.

The paperwork that travels with you. Health certificates to cross state lines and what a pet shelter checks at intake cover the two documents most likely to be read aloud at a desk you have never been to.

Then make one call this week, to the animal-services office of the place you would drive to. Ask whether a visiting dog is subject to anything, and write down the answer with the date you got it. If the answer is no, you have removed a whole category of failure for the cost of a phone call. If it is yes, you have found it on an afternoon when you can still do something about it.