Florida SB 58: Hospitals’ Community Benefit Reporting

Bill Text

58 
Animal Cremation 
2025-09-19T04:38:06Z 
Creating “Sevilla’s Law”; requiring a provider of companion animal cremation services to provide certain individuals and entities with a written description of the services the provider offers; requiring certain providers to include a certification with the returned animal’s cremation remains; providing that certain acts are unlawful; providing civil penalties for initial and subsequent offenses, etc. 
Original Filed Version 
2026 
S 
2026-07-01T00:00:00Z 
GB 
General Bill 
__ 

 Florida Senate - 2026 SB 58 

 By Senator Harrell 

 31-00190-26 202658__ 
 1 A bill to be entitled 
 2 An act relating to animal cremation; creating s. 
 3 501.961, F.S.; providing a short title; defining 
 4 terms; requiring a provider of companion animal 
 5 cremation services to provide certain individuals and 
 6 entities with a written description of the services 
 7 the provider offers; specifying requirements for such 
 8 written descriptions of services; requiring certain 
 9 persons or entities that make referrals to providers 
 10 or accept deceased companion animals for cremation 
 11 through a provider to make a copy of the provider’s 
 12 written description of services available to owners or 
 13 their representatives; providing construction; 
 14 requiring certain providers to include a certification 
 15 with the returned animal’s cremation remains; 
 16 specifying requirements for the certification; 
 17 providing that certain acts are unlawful; providing 
 18 civil penalties for initial and subsequent offenses; 
 19 providing circumstances under which a person commits 
 20 an unfair or deceptive act or practice or an unfair 
 21 method of competition in violation of certain 
 22 provisions; providing for a private right of action; 
 23 providing powers of the Department of Agriculture and 
 24 Consumer Services; requiring that certain fines 
 25 collected by the department be paid into the General 
 26 Inspection Trust Fund; authorizing the department to 
 27 adopt rules; providing an effective date. 
 28 
 29 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 
 30 
 31 Section 1. Section 501.961, Florida Statutes, is created to 
 32 read: 
 33 501.961 Animal cremation.— 
 34 (1) SHORT TITLE.—This section may be cited as “Sevilla’s 
 35 Law.” 
 36 (2) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the term: 
 37 (a) “Commingling of significant amounts of cremation 
 38 remains from different companion animals” means the commingling 
 39 of remains such that specific cremation remains cannot be 
 40 attributed to a particular animal or the cremation remains 
 41 attributed to one companion animal contain more than 1 percent 
 42 by weight of cremation remains from one or more other companion 
 43 animals. The term does not include the presence of, in the 
 44 cremation remains of a companion animal, the remains of any 
 45 creature that was on or contained within the body of that animal 
 46 at the time of cremation, including parasites, insects, food, or 
 47 creatures eaten by that companion animal. 
 48 (b) “Communal cremation” means a cremation process in which 
 49 companion animals are cremated together without effective 
 50 partitions or separation during the cremation process such that 
 51 the commingling of significant amounts of cremation remains from 
 52 different companion animals is likely or certain to occur. 
 53 (c) “Companion animal” or “animal” means a deceased animal 
 54 that had a companion relationship or a pet relationship with its 
 55 owner at the time of the animal’s death. 
 56 (d) “Cremation remains” means the material remaining after 
 57 the cremation of an animal, which may include ashes, skeletal 
 58 remains, and other residue resulting from the incineration 
 59 process, and which may be pulverized or otherwise processed by 
 60 the provider of cremation services. 
 61 (e) “Department” means the Department of Agriculture and 
 62 Consumer Services. 
 63 (f) “Individually partitioned cremation” means a cremation 
 64 process in which the commingling of significant amounts of 
 65 cremation remains from different companion animals is unlikely 
 66 to occur and: 
 67 1. Only one companion animal at a time is cremated in the 
 68 incinerator; or 
 69 2. More than one companion animal is cremated in the 
 70 incinerator at the same time, but each of the animals is 
 71 completely separated from the others by partitions during the 
 72 cremation process. 
 73 (g) “On a regular basis” means that the person or business 
 74 entity referring animal owners or bringing business to a 
 75 provider: 
 76 1. Has an ongoing contractual or agency relationship with 
 77 the provider relating to the cremation of companion animals; 
 78 2. Regularly receives compensation or consideration from 
 79 the provider or animal owners relating to the cremation of 
 80 companion animals by the provider; or 
 81 3. Refers or brings to the provider the business of m