‘Not a selfie prop’: Animal advocates protest sloth attraction in Broward
Weeks after news broke of more than 50 sloths dying at an Orlando attraction, activists joined for a small but tense protest Wednesday night over a proposed sloth encounter in a Broward County strip mall.
About a dozen animal advocates gathered outside Margate City Hall before a commission meeting to speak out against Larry Wallach and his business plan while holding signs reading “56 Dead Sloths for Orlando’s Sloth World” and “No to Larry Wallach’s Wildlife Adventures.” Wallach, who has a lengthy and somewhat controversial history of working with animals, has proposed to open his sloth business at 1615 N. State Road 7.
Wallach “does not love these animals,” Margate resident Ron Roberts said during the meeting. “He dupes people into believing he cares about them, so he can continue using them to support himself financially. One of the people he has duped is a Margate city commissioner.”
When Margate Commissioner Tommy Ruzzano showed up for the meeting, with a giant sloth stuffed animal. He brought a mini sloth stuffed animal to place in front of him on the dais, too. Ruzzano told protesters to “just relax” and called them a “bunch of hypocrites” outside City Hall.
“I love the sloths. I would go to his store,” Ruzzano told the small crowd. “.I love animals probably more than any of you here.”
Ruzzano went back-and-forth with several of the activists, including John Di Leonardo of Humane Long Island. Di Leonardo had flown in hours earlier from New York for the sole purpose of warning commissioners and the public about the accusations of Wallach’s animal mistreatment, he said.
People should learn from Sloth World in Orlando, where dozens of these animals died for entertainment, Di Leonardo said, adding sloths are “not a selfie prop.” The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on May 13 suspended most sloth imports to the state for 60 days after the saga made national headlines.
“Now, a month later, we want to bring a sloth encounter to Margate?” Di Leonardo said. “That’s very, very serious.”
Di Leonardo claims Wallach lost his USDA permit, has been cited for more than 60 violations of the Animal Welfare Act and has been accused of animals dying under his care in New York and elsewhere. He fled to Florida after being run out of New York, Di Leonardo said.
Earlier this year, Wallach was issued a summons for violating an Oyster Bay, New York, dangerous animal ordinance after federal, state and local law enforcement found two sloths and a kangaroo in his car outside a coffee shop, according to the New York Post. The Post has repeatedly reported on Wallach from him being cited for allegedly keeping a sloth and wallaby in unsafe conditions to allegedly bringing a sloth to a Brooklyn tattoo parlor without a permit.
Wallach’s Class C Exhibitor License, issued by the USDA under the Animal Welfare Act, was canceled in June 2024, an inspection report shows. But Wallach told the Miami Herald he simply didn’t renew it. He’s in the process of getting his license again for the planned brick and mortar, he said.
“Why should I sit and get in a pissing match with somebody who really doesn’t know about animals?” Wallach, who didn’t attend Wednesday’s meeting, said of Di Leonardo.
All the accusationsare “completely n ot real,” Wallach said. He was never forced to close down his sloth encounter business in New York and has never been charged or convicted of animal abuse.
Wallach said he’s dedicated his life to rescuing animals. Everyone claims he works in wildlife encounters for money, but he does it because he loves it, he said. For instance, he helped rescue the famous tiger, Ming of Harlem, from an apartment and gave him a great home out of his own pocket. Wallach has done tens of thousands of sloth encounters, and “everybody loved it.”
Wallach’s sloths will be “happy, healthy, living in a big space with 82 degree temperatures, 78% humidity with a beautiful area for them to all play together” at this store, he said. They eat brown rice, butternut squash, sweet potato, hard-boiled eggs, lots of carrots and occasionally a piece of a sweet treat. Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa, reads his sloths a bedtime story every night, Wallach said.
Wallach and his sloths are nothing like Orlando’s Sloth World, he said.
But Hallandale Beach Vice Mayor Michele Lazarow said during the protest the concept is exploitative regardless of the conditions of the proposed store or who the owner is.
“This is absolutely abhorrent,” Lazarow said, “whether it’s in Margate or anywhere else.”
