This lazy stop was moving slowly.
After 18 months, Long Island authorities have finally shut down an exotic pet store and its seven sloths.
Larry Wallach charged $50 a piece for 30-minute sessions during which customers could pet, feed and spend time with the South American creatures and other exotic animals at his petting zoo, Sloth Encounters, in Hauppauge.
He removed the sign and sloths from the store last week after being threatened with contempt of court for continuing to operate. Local authorities had been trying to close the establishment, formerly a swimming pool supply store, since it opened in June 2022.
Although state law does not prohibit the possession of a sloth, the town of Islip – where Sloth Encounters is based – prohibits the possession of “wild animals” unless they found in a zoo, laboratory, approved educational institution or “carnival, circus or open-air public performance” that requires a special permit that Wallach did not have.
Wallach, 66, is a USDA-licensed animal exhibitor whom one critic called “Long Island’s Joe Exotic.” Earlier this year, he was linked to allegations of cub trafficking when a man in Florida caught with two Kodiak cubs claimed he was training the animals for Wallach, who has not been charged in the case.
“Larry is just a ‘Tiger King’ extra who didn’t make the cut,” joked John Di Leonardo, an anthropologist who runs Humane Long Island.
Sloth Encounters used cuddly, cartoonish images of sloths to attract customers and billed itself as “an educational trip,” but life inside was actually hellish for the nocturnal sloths, which are notorious for slow moving, have razor-sharp teeth and claws and prefer not to. be affected, according to court documents and a Humane Society investigation.
As part of their investigation, Humane Society investigators filmed an employee hitting a sloth with a water bottle, while Wallach was recorded grabbing the animals by the back of their necks while their arms were flailing in distress, according to footage and a USDA inspection. report.
The sloths, along with a kangaroo, capybaras and other animals, were kept in crowded and unsanitary conditions, the Humane Society alleged.
When another customer reported being bitten by a sloth in August 2022, Wallach allegedly lied to USDA investigators, the agency said in an inspection report.
In February, an inspection revealed a kangaroo, a cockatoo, two capybaras, three degus, three chinchillas, seven sugar gliders (a type of opossum) and 10 lovebirds, as well as sloths, inside the store.
It’s unclear where Wallach took the animals after the store closed, Newsday first reported.
“As long as he gets them out of town and follows the code, that’s all we have,” attorney William Wexler, who is representing the city in the case, told the Post.
Wallach has accumulated nearly 40 USDA inspection reports since July 2022 and has had several run-ins with authorities and animal welfare groups over the years.
In 2017, the Nassau County SPCA found a malnourished wallaby in its East Rockaway home; In 2020, Wallach posted a video to Facebook, reported by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, showing him using the sound of an electric prod to scare a baby tiger named Sheba, who he kept in a pen with broken boards. He also allowed Sheba to play with his husky and used his feet to pin Sheba’s head to the ground, the clip shows.
In 2023, Wallach was fined $250 for intending to sell Nile monitor lizards, which are venomous and can grow up to seven feet long.
“By not revoking Larry Wallach’s license, the USDA is complicit in this,” said Di Leonardo, who believes Wallach sent the animals formerly kept at Sloth Encounters out of state.
The USDA did not respond to questions about why Wallach’s license continues to be renewed.
Wallach vowed that Sloth Encounters would return and denied any wrongdoing.
“The animals are all fine, but they’re just not in Islip,” he told the Post. “They are absent. No one needs to know where my animals are.
He blamed his problems on animal rights activists.
“I’ve been doing this, breeding exotic animals for 40 years,” he said, adding that he previously worked as a “wildlife police officer” and at the SPCA. “They don’t even tell you. It’s like I had no life until I was in Islip with the sloths.
He said the sloths were socialized, denied keeping them in crowded conditions and said the employee who hit one of the animals “did the right thing the wrong way.”
“Of the people who have come through my doors, 99.99% are safe and happy. This is the truth,” he said. “We’ll be back soon.”
New York Post
