Oviedo Mall fundraiser helps Sanford zoo care for rescued sloths

Oviedo Mall is using a busy community event to help pay for an unexpected animal-care crisis in Sanford, where the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens is housing 13 rescued sloths that arrived dehydrated, underweight and in need of weeks of quarantine.

The mall is collecting donations in person and online during The Great Geek Gathering and beyond, with money directed toward the zoo’s added costs for feeding, housing, testing and staffing. Zoo officials said the extra expense is already climbing into “well into several thousand dollars,” and that figure does not include the longer recovery timeline the animals may face.

The 13 sloths are a mix of Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths and Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths. The zoo said they will stay in quarantine for at least 30 days while veterinary staff evaluate nutrition, overall health and the best next step for each animal. Some may remain at the Sanford zoo, while others could eventually move to other Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited facilities through Species Survival Plans.

Richard E. Glover, the zoo’s chief executive, said the team brought decades of sloth-care experience to the rescue and treated the transfer as both a practical intervention and a conservation opportunity. The zoo, which has held continuous AZA accreditation since 1986, also received a special fecal microbiota transplant shipment from the Los Angeles Zoo as part of treatment.

The animals’ arrival followed a grim backstory. A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report cited by multiple outlets said 31 sloths died between December 2024 and February 2025. Central Florida Public Media reported that the animals had been imported from South America and moved to a warehouse on International Drive before the planned attraction never opened. On April 29, the zoo announced that Bandit died after arriving in critical condition, and on May 3 it said another rescued sloth, Habanero, died after battling severe medical complications.

For zoo staff, the rescue has not been a single intake but an active medical emergency. WFTV reported that quarantine requires strict disinfection procedures and pulls workers away from other animals, adding pressure to an already crowded operation. Bobby Fokidis, a Rollins College biology professor, said sloths are especially vulnerable to transport stress, which helps explain why the recovery could be slow.

That is why the mall effort matters now. In the zoo’s words, the message is simple: “come for the fun, stay for the cause, and do something that matters.” At Oviedo Mall, a public event has become a direct pipeline to care for animals in Sanford, linking shoppers, donors and the zoo in a Seminole County response to a costly rescue that is still unfolding.