Orange County commissioners will discuss Tuesday whether the county could potentially take action to prevent a business like Sloth World from coming to the area. The now-canceled attraction previously planned for Orlando has been linked to at least 57 animal deaths.
RELATED: Florida regulators stood by as dozens of sloths died, new records reveal
The discussion was requested by District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson, who hopes the board will ultimately direct staff to draft a county ordinance prohibiting commercial public-contact encounters with wild and exotic animals, as well as new commercial wildlife exhibition facilities.
Such an 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.
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 Monday.
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.
Sloth World never opened to the public, but some people bought tickets for the attraction. By and large, those people were likely acting with good intentions, Wilson said.
“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 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.
“Right now, under our current permitting regulations, [county code enforcement and building safety staff] were unable to gain entry,” Wilson said at the May press conference outside of Sloth World’s storefront.
On Monday, Wilson reiterated her interest in changing that permitting framework to allow the county to exercise 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.
Efforts to ramp up protections for sloths and other exotic animals are ongoing at multiple levels: state, local and federal.
Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani and Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost have been working closely 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.
