| Zoo Name: | Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica |
| Date Opened: | 1997 |
| Location: | Limón Province, Costa Rica |
| Coordinates: | 9.7996°N -82.9151°W |
| Website: | slothsanctuary.com |
The Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica (Spanish; Castilian: Santuario de Perezosos de Costa Rica) is a privately owned animal rescue center located near the city of Cahuita. The Sanctuary is dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, research, and release of injured or orphaned sloths.[1] Tours of the Sanctuary are offered to the public.
After the 1991 Limon earthquake ended their birding tourism business, Judy Avey-Arroyo and her husband Luis Arroyo built a hotel on their property.[2] [1] In 1992, three girls brought the Arroyos an orphaned baby three-toed sloth. At the time, very little was known about sloth biology. By observing what the wild sloths on their property ate, the couple were able to hand-rear the sloth, named Buttercup, who lived in the Sanctuary until her death in 2019.[1] [2] [3] In 1997, the Sanctuary was officially recognized as a rescue center, becoming Costa Rica's first sloth-only facility.[1]
The lives of the Sanctuary's sloth residents were documented in the 2013 Animal Planet television series, Meet the Sloths.[4] In 2016, two former employees accused the Sanctuary of animal mistreatment, which Avey-Arroyo denied.[5] [6]