Goat Yoga OK; Sloth Yoga Not So Much: Animal Activists Protest

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MADEIRA BEACH, FL — Outraged over a Pinellas County animal attraction offering yoga classes with sloths, nearly 29,000 people from around the world have signed an online petitioncondemning the sloth encounters.

The controversy arose when Alligator Attraction and Wildlife Learning Center in John's Pass at Madeira Beach advertised the availability of yoga classes with the two sloths at the animal park. The classes, which cost $40 for a 45-minute session, proved a huge success, selling out within minutes. Yoga enthusiasts scrambled for a chance to chill out with the world's most chill animal.

Alligator Attraction has been offering encounters with the attraction's two sloths, Sid and Sylvia, since they were rescued in July. A portion of the proceeds from the encounters go to the conservation and preservation of wild sloths in Costa Rica.

Sid and Sylvia are a type of sloth known as a Hoffman's two-toed sloth. According to National Geographic, the Hoffman's two-toed sloth is one of the world's slowest mammals—so sedentary that algae grows on its furry coat.

Sloths live in the treetops of tropical forests in Central and South America, spending much of their time snoozing.

They aren't endangered. But they are losing their habitat due to deforestation and are frequently found on rural roads where they're vulnerable to predators. This has resulted in an increase in the captive sloth population.

"Two-toed sloths are slightly larger than their three-toed relatives," noted National Geographic."They are able to survive in captivity, while three-toed sloths are not."

While animal rights groups don't have a problem with the now-common use of miniature goats in goat yoga classes, they say they object to the use of sloths being "exploited" in exercise classes. Unlike goat yoga, where the little goats unknowingly provide participants with massages by trampling across their backs, the sloths in the sloth yoga classes simply hang around on parallel bars while attendees perform their mountain, bridge and tree yoga poses nearby.

"During the class, which requires no prior knowledge of yoga or wildlife, participants and an instructor move through yoga poses while a rescued sloth is stuck in the corner for their viewing pleasure," said the Sloth Conservation Foundation in its online petition titled This Tourist Attraction is Using These Poor Sloths to Make a Buck.

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Screenshot from Care2 Petitions

"Participants are encouraged to touch the sloths, feed them and get close enough to shove phones in their faces and take 'slothies' (sloth selfies)," said the foundation, which has also targeted Wild Florida in Kenansville, which offers sloth yoga as well.

The foundation has the backing of international wildlife conservation groups like World Animal Protection.

"Our research shows that when sloths are taken out of their natural habitat to be handled by tourists, it damages their health and mental well-being," said biologist Neil D'Cruze, head of policy at World Animal Protection.

"The effects on sloths are particularly severe. These docile, delicate animals sleep up to 20 hours a day in the wild, and the stress caused by repeated handling by hyperactive tourists can be very damaging," said D'Cruze.

While the sloth may appear unfazed by contact with people, even reaching out for hugs, D'Cruze said they're really clinging to the person's body as if it were a tree trunk.

"You combine that with the fact that they look like they're smiling, and people project onto them the fact that they want a hug. And that's a killer combination. Literally," said D'Cruze, noting that his organization's research said the human contact causes a rise in blood pressure and heart rate that could result in premature death.

Kathy Stearns, director of Dade City's Wild Things, couldn't disagree more.

"We're highly regulated by the government, which checks to make sure everything is done properly," she said. "If there was a problem, they'd let us know."

Florida requires zoos, circuses, alligator farms and other animal attractions to be permitted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Florida Department of State has an extensive list of rules for captive critters covering caging requirements, mobile exhibits, even how often an elephant can give rides to children. The public contact portion of the rules permits contact with captive wildlife provided it's closely monitored and the animal and people don't present a threat to one another.

Stearns said her sloths at Dade City's Wild Things enjoy the attention from people.

"It provides enrichment for them. They like interacting with people," she said. "The problem is people like to put human emotions on animals. We're not all the same. Sloths have very sharp claws and big teeth. If they don't like something, you would know it."

Stearns said she's baffled by the uproar over sloth yoga.

"I saw all the petitions and I don't have a clue why these people are being attacked for offering sloth yoga," she said. "Big Cat Habitat in Sarasota offers yoga with tigers. People do yoga in front of the tiger habitat while the tigers just sit there watching. How's that different?"

Nevertheless, she said she can relate to the pressure Alligator Attraction is experiencing. In 2016, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a lawsuit against Dade City's Wild Things for offering swimming encounters with tiger cubs.

PETA contended "that prematurely separating tiger cubs from their mothers, forcing cubs to swim with paying members of the public, and failing to provide tigers with adequate housing and care violate the Endangered Species Act's prohibition on harming or harassing protected wildlife."

The lawsuit is ongoing so Stearns couldn't comment on it specifically. However, she continues to offer swimming encounters with tiger cubs as well sloths, bears, otters and alligators.

"Sloths can't move fast on land, but they're great swimmers," she said. "They love the water."

Rather than focusing on human-animal encounters, Stearns said animal groups would do better to highlight what animal attractions are doing to preserve animal species.

Well-respected, accredited zoos, including The Florida Aquarium, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, ZooTampa and Busch Gardens, now offer animal encounters. Both ZooTampa and The Florida Aquarium even host yoga classes in front of animal habitats.

More importantly, Stearns said the work they do helps guarantee the survival of wildlife like sloths that are losing their natural habitats.

Stearns said Wild Things' female sloth, Lola, was near death when she was rescued.

"She wouldn't eat," Stearns said. "I hand fed Lola for six to eight months, putting drops in her mouth every 15 minutes around the clock. It's a shame that these groups don't acknowledge those efforts."

Faced with the ongoing attacks from animal activists, Alligator Attraction has canceled any future sloth yoga classes.

"The harassment my loving and caring staff has endured over this story is unbelievable and outrageous," said Sonny Flynn, general manager of Alligator Attraction, in a statement. "I do not particularly care for bullies and have no further comments."