ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The owner of Sloth World Orlando confirmed to FOX 35 on Friday afternoon that he plans to file for bankruptcy protection, and that he will no longer move forward with plans to open his “slotharium.”<\/p>\n
“It’s been rough on everybody. We expect to go under the bankruptcy immediately as with our sloth population in full control by AZA and no plans to open, we have no other options,” Sloth World Orlando owner Ben Agresta said to FOX 35’s Marie Edinger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier Friday, 13 sloths were transferred<\/a> from a warehouse on International Drive to the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens. The zoo’s CEO confirmed to FOX 35 that those 13 sloths, including one that was pregnant, were previously associated with Sloth World Orlando.<\/p>\n Photos: First look at sloths at the Central Florida Zoo <\/p>\n The zoo said the sloths would be placed in quarantine for at least 30 days, where they will be evaluated by the zoo’s staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The sloths are currently in quarantine, where they are being assessed by the Zoo\u2019s veterinary team. They will remain in quarantine for at least 30 days, with their nutrition and overall health closely monitored by professional animal care staff and medical teams,” the zoo said in a news release.<\/p>\n The public will not be able to see the sloths at the zoo.<\/p>\n The Central Florida Zoo shared a few photos of the sloths inside their new \u2013 temporary \u2013 home.<\/p>\n Credit: Central Florida Zoo <\/p>\n Zoo will work to find long-term homes for the sloths at AZA-accredited facilities <\/p>\n The zoo said it would assume ownership of the sloths \u2013 temporarily \u2013 while it works with the Species Survival Plan Program to find a long-term placement for them with an AZA-accredited (Association of Zoos & Aquariums) facility. Some of the sloths could remain at the zoo, the release said.<\/p>\n “The sloths \u2013 both Hoffmann\u2019s two-toed sloths and Linnaeus\u2019s two-toed sloths \u2013 will become part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums\u2019 (AZA) and Species Survival Plans (SSPs) for their species, cooperative programs designed to ensure the long-term sustainability of genetically diverse animal populations in accredited zoos,” the zoo said.<\/p>\n The Source: Sloth World Owner Ben Agresta told FOX 35’s Marie Endinger by phone that he plans to file for banktupcy and that all of the sloths\u00a0<\/p>\n FOX 35 Investigates<\/a>Orlando News<\/a>Orange County News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The owner of Sloth World Orlando confirmed to FOX 35 on Friday afternoon that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47,106146,115,1335,139,141,140,628],"class_list":["post-245424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-fl","tag-fox-35-investigates","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}