No criminal act caused the deaths of at least 57 animals linked to the failed “Sloth World” attraction previously planned for Orlando, according to a final investigative report released Wednesday by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Leading sloth experts say the agency’s finding underscores the need to address glaring gaps in the current state of animal welfare law.
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The sheriff’s office launched its investigation in May, following the news that dozens of wild sloths imported to Central Florida for the attraction had died. The animals were captured from their rainforest homes in South America, imported to the United States and brought to a warehouse on International Drive which was permitted for storing vehicles, not animals.
At least 21 animals died at that Orange County warehouse in December 2024, which was “not ready to receive the sloths,” according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission records. In speaking with Sloth World’s owners the following summer, FWC inspectors learned the warehouse “had no water and no electricity” several days before the sloths’ scheduled arrival in December — but “it was too late to cancel the shipment.”
“The space heaters tripped the fuse and shut down and it appears that at least for one night, the sloths were in the cold building without heat. There was no one present overnight to correct this,” according to FWC records released earlier this year.
The OCSO investigation found the dozens of sloth deaths were “the result of multiple contributing factors affecting the overall health and survivability of the animals – and not a criminal act.”
“No evidence was uncovered that showed intentional harm, abuse, criminal neglect, failure to provide necessary care, or any deliberate act or omission by facility personnel that contributed to the deaths of the animals, which are the standards required by Florida State Statutes,” according to the agency.
The agency’s findings are “consistent with a complex health-related event involving multiple stressors associated with the capture, transportation, acclimation, and continued care of a highly specialized species.”
Leading sloth experts based in Costa Rica who initially helped sound the alarm about “Sloth World” say OCSO’s findings underscore a glaring gap between where animal welfare regulations currently stand, and where they need to be.
“If this does not meet the threshold for suffering under the law, then we have to ask whether that threshold is set far too low,” Rebecca Cliffe of the Sloth Conservation Foundation wrote in a text message.
Cliffe and Sam Trull of the Sloth Institute have been working closely with lawmakers to develop policy recommendations that would strengthen exotic wildlife protections, particularly for sloths. “Very soon, we will have more to share on that,” Cliffe said Wednesday.
RELATED: Sloth experts, elected officials push for change to better protect animal welfare
FWC recently added a new permitting requirement for importing sloths to Florida, which took effect after a 60-day ban on sloth imports expired last month.
Before the change, sloths were included under Florida’s “blanket import permit” for certain types of wildlife intended for sale or display. The blanket permit authorizes wildlife imports throughout the duration of a year-long permit, meaning the permitholder only needs to get one import permit per year.
Now, the blanket permit no longer covers sloths. Instead, each separate sloth import event must be permitted separately. Applicants’ wildlife facilities and transport caging are subject to inspection by FWC as required by state law, according to the permit application.
Trull and Cliffe want to see sloth imports banned permanently, both statewide and nationally. Most sloths imported to the U.S. enter through the Port of Miami, according to Sloth Institute research.
Investigators with the sheriff’s office interviewed more than 20 people, including “state and national experts” with knowledge about how to care for sloths in captivity. Cliffe and Trull were not interviewed, they said.
One interviewee was Debra Dial, a husbandry expert who coordinates “Species Survival Plans” for sloths for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, according to the OCSO report. Dial advised that sloths’ unique attributes — like the fact they are not primates — result in “fewer specific regulatory requirements” for them, “compared to other captive wildlife species.”
Based on her review of some of the sloths’ necropsy reports, Dial said the medical findings appeared “consistent with husbandry issues, including environmental conditions and temperature concerns.”
In a written statement, State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando said OCSO’s findings do not amount to a failure of the investigators, but rather “of our statutes and our rules.”
Eskamani thanked the agency for its rigor in investigating the sloth deaths. “They did their job thoroughly and professionally, and under current law, I accept that the conclusion they reached. That is why we need to change the law and rules governing captive wildlife in Florida.”
The sheriff’s office has turned its findings over to the state attorney’s office.
