Florida's fish and wildlife agency has documented thedeaths of 31 slothsheld in a dark, unheated Orlando warehouse owned by Sloth World, aplanned International Drive tourist attractionthat still has no federal licence to display animals to the public.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) detailed the deaths in anAugust 2025 captive wildlife inspection report, obtained by Inside Climate News through a public records request and published on 21 April 2026.

The 31 animals arrived in two separate shipments, from Guyana in December 2024 and Peru in February 2025, and died in a warehouse that a former co-owner of the business told FWC was simply not ready to receive them.

The first shipment, 21 sloths sourced from Guyana,arrived at Miami International Airport on 18 December 2024and was transferred to a warehouse at 7547 International Drive, operated by Sloth World's related import entity, Sanctuary World Imports. A former co-owner of Sloth World told FWC investigators that the building had no running water and no electricity at the time of the animals' arrival. Space heaters were purchased and run via extension cords from a neighbouring building in an attempt to warm the space.

At some point, the fuse supplying those heaters tripped. The sloths were left in an unheated building for at least one night.According to the FWC report, the coldest recorded temperature on 22 December was 46 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 7.7 degrees Celsius), with a daily average of 56 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sloths, which are tropical mammals with a limited ability to regulate their own body temperature, cannot withstand sustained cold. All 21 animals from the Guyana shipment died. The FWC attributed their deaths to 'cold stun.'

I am appalled to hear about the 31 sloths who died under the “care” of the not yet opened Sloth World in Orlando.These sloths — naturally solitary animals — were put in the worst conditions possible. They were taken from their natural habitats to a packed warehouse that wasn’t…

The second shipment, ten sloths imported from Peru, arrived in February 2025. Two were dead on arrival. The remaining eight were,in the FWC's words, 'emaciated and in very poor health.' None survived. The FWC attributed the February deaths to 'poor health' rather than cold. By that point, 31 animals in total had died in a facility that the former co-owner had reportedly acknowledged, before the first shipment arrived, was not ready.

Dr Rebecca Cliffe, founder of the Sloth Conservation Foundation, told Inside Climate News that sloths are exceptionally vulnerable to the stresses of international transport. 'They don't have a fight or flight response,' she said. 'If they're threatened, they can't run away, they can't defend themselves. So what they do is just internalise the stress ... they sort of close their eyes, hold on and just hope that everything passes by.' Dr Cliffe added that 'there is no justification in 2026 for acquiring wild sloths for exhibition.'

Sloth World Orlando has publicly rejected the FWC's account of events. The company alleged that the 31 animals died as a result of a virus, not cold exposure or inadequate facilities. Inside Climate News reported separately, following publication of the FWC report, that a virus hadsubsequently spread through the warehousesince the August 2025 inspection, leading to further deaths beyond the original 31. Those additional deaths have not been independently verified by FWC as of the date of this article.

Source: International Business Times UK