Sloth Encounters Shut Down, All Animals Removed

HAUPPAUGE, NY — Sloth Encounters has removed all sloths and other animals from its Hauppauge store following a Suffolk County Supreme Court order that shut down the business, the Town of Islip confirmed.

All animals were removed as of Monday, March 25, following an inspection, a Town of Islip spokesperson told Patch. The animals were not seized by the town, the spokeswoman said.

The Sloth Encounters website is listed as under construction while the overhead sign was removed from the storefront, said John Di Leonardo, an anthrozoologist and executive director of Humane Long Island. Di Leonardo said the sign's removal signals the "beginning of the end" for Sloth Encounters, a business owned by Larry Wallach where people could pay $50 to pet, feed and hold sloths.

Di Leonardo said the Sloth Encounters shutdown is "nearly two years and several court orders overdue." He said the sloths, capybaras, a kangaroo and other animals remain in Wallach's custody.

"Humane Long Island urges the Honorable Judge Santorelli to fine Wallach and his landlord the nearly half a million dollars they owe the town for violating court orders and is urging the USDA to finally save these sloths by confiscating them and placing them in reputable sanctuary homes," Di Leonardo said.

Wallach did not respond to Patch's request for comment.

William Wexler, an attorney representing Islip, said the town is returning on April 18 to ensure the animals do not return to the store and Wallach is "still in compliance," Newsday reported.

Steven Politi, Wallach's attorney, told Newsday that Sloth Encounters will "be back." Politi said the goal is to bring the business into compliance with Town of Islip code.

In February, the Town of Islip requested the Suffolk County Supreme Court hold Wallach, owner of Sloth Encounters of Hauppauge, in criminal contempt, according to court documents filed by the town.

The township said Wallach "should be jailed," claiming he violated a court order "a number of times," a town spokeswoman previously told Patch. Wallach violated a court order barring him from operating Sloth Encounters as a "pet store or petting zoo" unless he obtained the necessary approvals from the Town of Islip, the town claimed.

The town also requested the court grant it the authority to seize animals in Sloth Encounters.

Sloth Encounters was found guilty of civil contempt of court, the Suffolk County Supreme Court decided on July 11, 2023, documents show. The business was ordered to temporarily close or Wallach would have to pay $250 a day, according to filings.

The business was ordered to stop operating as a "petting zoo" in a Suffolk County Supreme Court decision in March 2023, records show, but the business was found to continue violating Islip Town Code, the court ruled. The Town of Islip is the sole plaintiff against the business.

The Humane Society of the United States conducted an undercover investigation into Sloth Encounters in January, accusing the business of abusing animals.

An investigator with the society said they captured footage of sloths kept in crowded conditions, sloths fighting with one another, a staff member hitting a sloth, and Wallach allegedly grabbing a sloth's head and neck.

The Humane Society of the United States uploaded the video footage its investigator said they took inside Sloth Encounters to YouTube and social media.

Wallach, in January, said the "only thing that is true" about the Humane Society of the United States' investigation is that the two male sloths wanted to have a fight.

"The fact is the place is clean, the sloths have plenty of room," Wallach previously said. "And are very well taken care of."

The investigator said a staff member sprayed and then hit two sloths with a spray bottle "more than 20 times," causing one sloth to fall from a branch onto the floor. The sloth narrowly missed falling on a customer who was holding another sloth, the society said.

Wallach previously told Patch he fired the staff member and said he has never been charged with animal cruelty.

Sloth Encounters was converted from a former pool supplies store and houses seven sloths, according to The Humane Society.

Wallach also offered the society's investigator close encounters with a solitary kangaroo and two capybaras, as well as a solitary cockatoo that was "desperate for attention," the society stated.

In 2022, dueling petitions have been created around Sloth Encounters, with one advocating for the business and the other pushing for its shutdown.