Sloth World reportedly won't open following dozens of animal deaths

ORLANDO, Fla. - A planned International Drive attraction called Sloth World will not open following dozens of animal deaths, conservation groups said late Friday, as its 13 remaining sloths were placed in the care of animal experts at Central Florida Zoo & Biological Gardens.

The 13 sloths arrived Friday and are in quarantine at the Sanford zoo, said Richard E. Glover, CEO of the zoo. Sloth World owner Ben Agresta reached out to zoo officials early in the week, Glover said.

In a joint statement, the Sloth Conservation Foundation and the Sloth Institute, two international conservation groups that had been critical of the attraction, said Sloth World would be closing permanently. It had been announced in December as a guided, walk-through tour with an emphasis on conservation and education. It was initially scheduled to begin public tours in February, and reportedly has sold many advance VIP tickets at $49 each.

Agresta did not respond to interview requests from the Orlando Sentinel on Friday.

The animals at the zoo will remain in quarantine for 30 days and will not be available to the public, Glover said. "They approached us … and we said, ‘Yes, we'd be happy to take them.' We had to go through everything internally to make sure we had the quarantine space, and everything planned, staffing-wise."

News reports last week established that at least 31 sloths have died since late 2024 in a converted warehouse operated by Sloth World about a mile from the planned public venue. The conservation groups said Friday that another 24 sloths obtained by Sloth World are unaccounted for.

On Friday, Sloth World's website switched to a bare-bones look with the message "Pardon our dust! We're working on something amazing - Check back soon!" The site previously touted future plans for Sloth World, described conservation efforts and sold tickets and sloth-related merchandise.

Also on Friday, Orange County said a county building inspector had sought access to the Sloth World warehouse Thursday because it does not have a required permit to hold animals, but was unable to gain entrance despite four separate attempts.

The county said the warehouse had also been modified with low-visibility mesh at the exterior entryways without a building permit. The county posted a stop-work order on the building, which is shown in the inspector's photographs with plywood animal cages stacked in the back, even though the last use permit described for the building allowed only vehicle storage.

Sloths are difficult to keep in captivity in part because they cannot regulate their body temperatures well, have very specific diets and get stressed easily.

"They don't have a fight or flight response. If they're threatened, they can't run away, they can't defend themselves," Rebecca Cliffe, executive director of the Sloth Conservation Foundation, told the Sentinel Tuesday. "So what they do is just internalize the stress … they sort of close their eyes, hold on and just hope that everything passes by."

Most sloth species are not considered endangered, though their populations are dwindling in their native Central and South American countries. Deforestation and urbanization are contributors.

After agreeing to take the animal donation from Agresta, the Central Florida Zoo contacted the Association of Zoos and Aquariums "so that we could start working with them on what long-term placement was like," Glover said.

One of the AZA's missions is its Species Survival Plans, which employ accredited zoos to support long-term sustainability and reproduction. The 13 sloths taken from Sloth World are Hoffmann's two-toed sloths and Linnaeus' two-toed sloths.

"Most of them will go somewhere else to be able to be part of the breeding population at other institutions … but we will be able to probably keep a few," Glover said.

"We don't know exactly what condition they're coming in at, so we're assessing that right now," he continued. "We're also going in with our eyes open, realizing some of them may be far enough along with issues that we may be able to make things a little easier for them, but we still may not be able to save them.

"We've cared for sloths at this zoo for decades, so our team has a lot of experience with them," Glover said. Noting the expense of the endeavor, he requested donations at the zoo's website, centralfloridazoo.org, from people who "would like to be part of this."

In December, Agresta described to the Sentinel his plans for Sloth World as a home for guided walk-through tours among sloths living in a re-created rainforest setting. He said he expected to have at least 40 sloths in the building.

But by that time, inspectors for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had collected details about the deaths of 31 sloths imported from Guyana and Peru via Miami International Airport in late 2024 and early 2025.

The first 21 were taken to the warehouse, which had neither electricity nor water. Space heaters were added, but a tripped fuse kept the animals in the cold for at least one night. Later, 10 more sloths were delivered, but two were dead on arrival, and the others died due to health issues, an incident report said.

FWC detailed the warehouse conditions in a report of an August 2025 inspection disclosed by Inside Climate News. Some information in the state report was provided by Peter Bandre, who - at the time - was Sloth World's vice president and a business partner of Agresta. Bandre has since left Sloth World.

U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., criticized Sloth World on social media after reports of the dead sloths first broke and sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture asking for an investigation into the planned attraction. Inside Climate News reported the facility lacked a required USDA permit to display animals to the public.

"I felt horrible…I was disgusted," Frost said in a Friday interview with the Sentinel. "Because at the end of the day, like many other issues, it's the want of money over the welfare of people or animals."

Frost said he was happy to hear Sloth World would not be opening but will continue to push for an investigation.

"This can happen again because of the loopholes within our system and because of the lack of coordination between state and federal officials," he said. "So there's still work to be done here."

---

(Sentinel reporters Stephen Hudak and Silas Morgan contributed to this article.)

---

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published April 25, 2026 at 4:29 PM.