Thirty-one sloths, taken from the rainforests of Guyana and Peru, died in an Orlando warehouse with no power, no running water, and extension cords running temporary heaters from a neighboring building. The facility’s name: Sloth World.

Between December 2024 and February 2025, 21 two-toed sloths shipped from Guyana succumbed to “cold stun” after those heaters failed, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) incident report released this week. A separate shipment of 10 sloths from Peru fared no better — two arrived dead, the rest died of what inspectors called “poor health issues” after appearing emaciated.

The warehouse was the staging ground for Sloth World, a planned $49-a-ticket tourist attraction marketing itself as the world’s only “slotharium.” Its website promises guests will step into “a rainforest-inspired indoor habitat where more than 40 sloths live on their terms.”

Despite the deaths, FWC issued no fines or citations. Inspectors who visited in August 2025 found cages that did not meet welfare regulations but gave only a verbal warning for a “captive wildlife discrepancy.”

The regulatory gap is stark. The building is permitted for vehicle storage, not animals. Orange County issued a “stop work” order on Thursday after an inspector found nobody present and noted unauthorized modifications. Four attempts to reach someone with access failed.

Sloth World denied the cold-stun account in a statement to central Florida’s Fox 35, claiming it was “managing a difficult situation regarding a foreign virus” and that FWC had “fully renewed” its license.

The deaths have drawn scrutiny from Congressman Maxwell Frost and condemnation from conservation groups. The Sloth Institute’s analysis of government data showed that 1,141 sloths were imported to the US between 2011 and 2021, 97% from Guyana alone. Rebecca Cliffe, founder of the Sloth Conservation Foundation (SloCo), said: “Conservation cannot be retrofitted on to models that rely on wildlife removal. There is no justification in 2026 for acquiring wild sloths for exhibition.”

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