Florida handed a wildlife operator a license to take your family's money after 31 animals froze to death in a dark warehouse two minutes from his front door.
And the state says he didn't break a single law.
That's not a bug in the system. That's the system.
What Happened Before the Doors Even Opened
Sloth World Orlando has been marketing itself as a first-of-its-kind, conservation-focused destination on International Drive – the same tourist corridor that draws millions of American families to Orlando every year.
The pitch was simple: come see sloths in a "cage-free rainforest."
Here's what the company didn't put in its marketing materials.
Between December 2024 and February 2025 – while the attraction was still being built – 31 sloths died under the company's care in a warehouse nearby.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigators documented what happened in an August 2025 incident report.
The warehouse had no running water and no electricity when the first animals arrived.
Space heaters ran off extension cords from a neighboring building.
https://twitter.com/RepMaxwellFrost/status/2047378044201959563?s=20
The fuse tripped.
The sloths spent at least one night in a Florida winter warehouse that dropped to 46 degrees with no heat source.
Twenty-one died.
FWC concluded the cause was "cold stun" – what happens when tropical animals from a rainforest canopy are left to freeze overnight.
A second shipment arrived from Peru in February 2025.
Two were dead on arrival.
The remaining eight were "emaciated and in very poor health," according to the FWC report.
They all died too.
The State Knew – and Did Nothing That Matters
Here's the part that should make every Florida parent furious.
FWC investigators learned about all 31 deaths during a routine, unannounced inspection in August 2025 – nine months after the first animals died.
They issued no formal violations.
Their only formal action was a verbal warning about cage sizes.
Then they renewed the facility's license.
Why? Because under current Florida law, Sloth World had zero legal obligation to report those deaths when they happened.
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Florida requires exotic animal exhibitors to keep records of births and deaths – and to hand those records over at annual license renewal.
But there is no requirement to report mass deaths as they occur.
No hotline. No emergency notification. No public disclosure.
A company can watch dozens of imported wild animals die in a cold warehouse, stay completely silent, and hand the paperwork to FWC nine months later at renewal time.
License approved. Doors open. Your family buys the tickets.
The Owner's Response – and Why It Doesn't Settle Anything
The current owner – who took over the operation after the deaths – disputes the FWC account entirely.
He told Fox 35 the deaths were caused by "a foreign virus" and called the cold-stun explanation "entirely false."
He noted that FWC recently inspected his facility, "found absolutely no wrongdoings," and renewed his license in full.
That's technically accurate – and it's exactly the problem.
An operator can offer a completely different account than state investigators, walk away with a valid license, and families searching online have no way to know any of this happened.
Sam Trull, executive director of The Sloth Institute – an organization that rehabilitates sloths rescued from the tourism trade – reviewed Sloth World's operation and was unsparing: "They are pretending it's conservation," she said. "They're trying to really greenwash what they're doing."
The attraction's own marketing promises millions invested in animal care and a conservation-first mission.
The FWC incident report describes animals dying in a cold utility space while that marketing was going out to families planning their Orlando vacations.
Florida Had This Rule – Then Got Rid of It
This is where it gets worse.
Florida's FWC once required exotic animal facilities to report deaths and maintain detailed public records under Rule 68A-6.0071.
The state repealed it in September 2019.
The reporting requirement that would have forced Sloth World to disclose 31 deaths in real time was sitting in Florida law – and regulators chose to eliminate it.
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Six years later, families planning a trip to International Drive have no way to know they're handing money to an operator whose animals died by the dozens before the attraction opened.
That's not a gray area.
That's a government failure with a paper trail.
Florida's FWC and the state legislature need to answer a simple question: why was the one rule that would have protected consumers the rule that got repealed?
Restoring the mortality reporting requirement isn't a new idea.
It's the rule Florida already had – and chose to walk away from.
Sources:
- Jessica Mekles, "Shocking discovery in Florida warehouse leaves officials searching for what went wrong," Fox News, April 23, 2026.
- Tristan Baurick, "At 'Sloth World' in Florida, Wild Sloths Have Died by the Dozens," Inside Climate News, April 16, 2026.
- Florida Administrative Code, Rule 68A-6.0071, "Record Keeping and Reporting Requirements," repealed September 30, 2019.
