Florida's Attorney General has launched a criminal investigation into Sloth World, an Orlando business where dozens of sloths died under circumstances that make a slow-motion train wreck look well-managed. The probe, announced Friday by Attorney General James Uthmeier, comes two weeks after an Inside Climate News investigation revealed that over 31 sloths had perished while in the company's care. The animals, delicate tree-dwellers from the rainforests of Peru and Guyana, were housed in a warehouse while Sloth World's tourist attraction was under construction - a facility that had been preselling $49 tickets and merchandise for months, promising customers an up-close encounter with sloths.

Company owner Benjamin Agresta initially called government records of the deaths “completely fiction,” then blamed a virus. Wildlife disease experts and necropsy reports obtained by Inside Climate News tell a different story: the sloths were under immense physiological distress from capture, international shipment, environmental changes, and care issues. Unlike most mammals, sloths lack a strong fight-or-flight response - they instead internalize stress, curling into a ball and closing their eyes, flooding with cortisol that can lead to organ failure. In December 2024, Sloth World received a first shipment of 21 sloths from Guyana into a warehouse that wasn't ready for them; at least one night that month, they were left alone without heat, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) incident report. Necropsies revealed swollen stomachs, ulcerated mouths, damaged spinal cords, organ failure, pneumonia, and viruses - stress likely suppressed their immune systems, allowing latent illnesses to flourish.

Neither Agresta nor former vice president Peter Bandre responded to requests for comment; the attorney general said Friday the company is filing for bankruptcy. The probe follows calls from state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Fla.) and U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.), who asked the USDA to investigate. Even Gov. Ron DeSantis called the situation “really, really weird” and said FWC would have to “rectify whatever was the matter.” FWC, which had previously told Inside Climate News that Sloth World didn't violate any state regulations, now says its investigators are working with the owner to relinquish the company's permits. PETA has also requested a criminal investigation into Agresta, Bandre, Sloth World, and its related business Sanctuary World Imports for apparent aggravated cruelty to animals, citing a Florida statute that makes such neglect a third-degree felony.

Import records show Sloth World imported more than 60 wild sloths; as of late April, the company held just 13. The Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens accepted those survivors, and earlier this week announced one named Bandit had died, showing signs of severe lethargy, dehydration, nutritional imbalances, and gastrointestinal complications. Eskamani, dissatisfied with FWC's response, is working across the aisle on future policy to strengthen oversight, including ensuring all deaths under permits are reported and made public, and pausing permit renewal until investigations are complete. As Cydnee Bence, counsel at PETA, put it: “This reveals a pretty big hole in the way we regulate animals.” Indeed, when the system moves slower than a sloth, someone has to pick up the pace.