Florida Opens Criminal Probe Into Sloth World After Dozens of Animal Deaths

The Florida Attorney General’s office announced a criminal investigation into the deaths of dozens of sloths at a now-shuttered Orlando business, a development that signals a new level of animal-welfare accountability in the commercial wildlife trade. In a letter released Friday, Attorney General James Uthmeier confirmed his office is assisting the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida in a probe into Sloth World. The news comes two weeks after an Inside Climate News investigation revealed that more than 31 sloths under the company’s care had died. The highly sensitive, tree-dwelling animals from the rainforests of Peru and Guyana were kept in a warehouse while Sloth World’s tourist attraction facility was under construction. The company’s now defunct website had promised customers an up-close viewing encounter with sloths for $49, and had been preselling tickets and merchandise for months. The facility’s owner, Benjamin Agresta, initially called government records documenting the deaths “completely fiction,” and later blamed the deaths on a virus. Wildlife disease experts and necropsy reports obtained by Inside Climate News indicate that the sloths were under immense physiological distress induced by their capture from the wild, international shipment, environmental changes and problems with their care. Unlike most mammals, sloths lack a