Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect discussion at Tuesday's Orange County Commission meeting.
Orange County commissioners agreed Tuesday to explore how the county could potentially stop another business like the failed Sloth World attraction from coming to the area.
The now-canceled attraction, previously planned for International Drive, was tied to the deaths of at least 57 sloths.
RELATED: Florida regulators stood by as dozens of sloths died, new records reveal
Regulating exotic wildlife encounters
Commissioners agreed Tuesday to have staff move forward with researching the county’s authority to restrict the commercial use of exotic wildlife. Other jurisdictions across the country have put such restrictions in place, often specifically for circuses and other traveling exhibitions, said District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson, who requested Tuesday’s discussion.
“Obviously, different circumstances here,” Wilson said. “Still animal cruelty, but in a stationary business; that still requires regulatory oversight.”
Some jurisdictions have restricted how much physical contact members of the public can have with certain species of animals on exhibit, Wilson said. That’s a particularly relevant consideration for sloths, a uniquely sensitive species highly prone to stress.
“Sloths are the ultimate introverts,” leading sloth expert Rebecca Cliffe, of the Sloth Conservation Foundation, said in an April interview. “They don't have a fight-or-flight response. So when they get stressed, all they do is sit there and hope that it stops. But they internalize all that stress, and it's really, really bad for them.”
Right now, Orange County has no exotic wildlife zoning regulations in place, meaning it does not specifically prohibit or allow for the commercial use of exotic animals.
Ideally, any future ordinance would preserve “existing exemptions for accredited zoos, licensed wildlife rehabilitation organizations, veterinary facilities, educational institutions, and qualified conservation organizations,” according to a press release from Wilson’s office.
Asked to weigh in on the press release, Cliffe and The Sloth Institute’s Sam Trull agreed it would be a good step forward for the county to restrict commercial encounters with exotic wildlife. But there should be no exemptions allowing for any public-contact sloth encounters, both experts said.
“No commercial hands-on contact with sloths should be allowed, period!” Cliffe wrote in a text message.
Sloth World background
For Orange County, the goal would be to develop “some really clear indicators, for anybody that's thinking about opening a business like Sloth World, that this isn't the place to do that,” Wilson said in an interview ahead of Tuesday’s discussion.
Although the planned Sloth World exhibit was ultimately canceled following public outcry, a storefront secured on Orlando’s International Drive was outfitted with signage and visual branding for the business, like a smiling sloth face caricature. Wilson was there in May, along with leading sloth experts, local and state lawmakers, for a press conference held to call for stronger exotic animal protections.
Although Sloth World never opened to the public, some people bought tickets for the attraction.
“On the consumer side, this wasn't malice,” Wilson said. “These are people who love the animals. And I think there's an assurance they feel like they get when it's something here in Orlando: that it's coming with qualified [animal] caretakers, right?”
“Because we've had those experiences. We are so fortunate to have experts that work in places like SeaWorld and [Disney’s] Animal Kingdom, and those are the [entities] that would be exempted from this type of update.”
The Sloth World storefront sits within Orlando city limits. But a nearby warehouse where dozens of sloths were kept — and died — is in unincorporated Orange County.
The warehouse had been housing live animals, despite only being permitted to store vehicles.
Under current permitting regulations, county code enforcement and building safety staff were unable to gain entry, Wilson said at a May press conference outside Sloth World’s storefront.
Now, Wilson hopes the county can change the permitting framework to have more “enforcement teeth.”
“If we can't get to a prohibition, then we need to figure out how to get in there [to the warehouse], and get more access to making sure that the use that has been applied for is what they're saying it is,” Wilson said.
Multi-layered efforts to protect sloths
Efforts to ramp up protections for sloths and other exotic animals are ongoing at multiple levels: state, local and federal.
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, and U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Orlando, have been working with leading sloth experts based in Costa Rica to develop recommendations for how to better protect sloths.
So far, one chief recommendation is to impose a ban on importing all wild-caught sloths to the United States. Most live sloth shipments to the U.S. come through the Port of Miami, according to research published by The Sloth Institute.
Florida’s temporary, 60-day ban on sloth importations expired last month.
RELATED: Experts recommend import ban, new FWC rules after Sloth World's animal deaths
New state permitting requirements for sloths now require applicants to obtain a one-time Wildlife Importation Permit, instead of a “blanket import permit” authorizing continuous wildlife imports throughout the year. Applicants’ wildlife facilities and transport caging are subject to inspection by FWC as required by state law, according to the permit application.
Eskamani said the permitting change will activate “a proactive inspection” for those importing sloths — before they arrive in Florida.
Eskamani and others continue to develop policy recommendations, with the hope of presenting them to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at the agency’s December meeting. That meeting is scheduled for Dec. 9 and 10 in St. Augustine.
