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ORLANDO, Fla. (WFLA) — Dozens of sloths died after many were left overnight in a cold warehouse connected to the Orlando attraction “Sloth World,” according to Florida wildlife officials.
Thirty one sloths died at the facility, which is located on International Drive, between December 2024 and February 2025, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report obtained by 8 On Your Side said.
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The person licensed to possess the animals, identified in the report as P. Bandre, told FWC officers that 21 of the tropical animals died in a “cold stun” on Dec. 22, 2024, just four days after they arrived from Guyana. Bandre said the building had no water or electricity and was not prepared to adequately care for the sloths, “but it was too late to cancel the shipment.”
“Multiple space heaters were purchased but had to be powered with an extension cord from a different building,” the FWC report said. “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.”
Data from a weather station at Orlando International Airport indicated that temperatures plunged to 46 degrees that night. Sloths, which are acclimated to the hot, humid tropics, cannot survive such conditions.
On Feb. 19, 2025, ten sloths from Peru arrived at the facility. The report said two were dead on arrival, and the eight others, described as being “emaciated and in very poor health,” later died.
The FWC report detailed the findings of an unannounced, routine inspection performed on Aug. 7, 2025. Six sloths, who arrived about a month prior to the inspection, were living at the facility at the time of the report.
The caption on a photo provided in the report said officers found “cages too small for the sloth contained individually in each one.” Bandre told FWC he “will be placing the two smaller cages within larger cages and leaving the small cage door open so that the sloths can move into the larger cage or remain in the smaller cage at their choosing.”
News of the sloth deaths, which surfaced in a report from Inside Climate News last week, prompted outcry from animal welfare advocates online. Rep. Maxwell Frost, who represents Orlando, said he is “appalled” by the situation.
“My office is looking into this tragedy, and we will coordinate with local officials to determine how to best move forward,” Frost said in a post on X.
A Sloth World news release sent to 8 On Your Side on Dec. 9, 2025, advertised a February 2026 opening date, which did not come to fruition. The release, which featured “renderings” of the attraction that appear to be AI-generated, said the building “will be home to more than 40 sloths across multiple species, including babies born on site.”
The Sloth Conservation Foundation issued a release about their concerns with the Sloth World attraction on January 21.
“When removed from the forest canopy and shipped internationally to the U.S., sloths often suffer from serious health issues related to the change in suitable diet and exposure to an artificial environment. For a lot of captured sloths, this leads to their death,” Sam Trull, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Sloth Institute, said in a statement.
In the wake of the FWC report, Sloth World’s website and social media accounts have been scrubbed of their content.
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