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Many died due to conditions at a warehouse they'd been shipped to, while others arrived dead, authorities say.
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The mammals were planned to be showcased at a permanent, public exhibit at Sloth World in Orlando, set to open this spring.
Many of the sloths died due to conditions at a Florida warehouse where they had been shipped, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) report released on Friday. Others arrived in Florida already dead or appeared in ill health and later died, the report states.
The owner of Sloth World has denied allegations in the report and said there was "so much false and inaccurate information out there right now".
"The truth is, we lost sloths that had a virus of which showed barely any symptoms and was undetectable even after necropsy," Ben Agresta, the owner of Sloth World, told Fox-35 in Orlando.
The BBC has contacted Sloth World, along with its listed owner and representatives.
Sloth World is advertised as Orlando's only "slotharium", with a rainforest-inspired habitat "designed exclusively with sloth wellbeing in mind", according to its website.
The report from the FWC, obtained by the BBC on Friday, outlines two instances of the mammals dying ahead of the attraction's planned opening.
In December 2024, 21 sloths shipped from Guyana died due to cold conditions at a warehouse in Florida they had been shipped to, according to the FWC report.
Then, in February 2025, two of 10 sloths travelling from Peru arrived dead. The remaining eight "appeared emaciated" and later succumbed to "poor health issues", the report states.
When FWC investigators were alerted and began investigating, Peter Bandre, who is listed online as the attraction's vice-president, told them that the warehouse where the sloths had died was not properly set to receive the animals.
Bandre told investigators: "It was too late to cancel the shipment."
He attributed their deaths to a
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