Sloth Encounters Of LI Must Stop Pet Sales Or Pay Fines, Court Says

HAUPPAUGE, NY — Sloth Encounters of Hauppauge was ordered to temporarily close or owner Larry Wallach would have to pay $250 a day, the Suffolk County Supreme Court decided Monday, documents show.

SlothEncounters.com and the business's landlord, 777 Chris's Way, LLC, were found guilty of civil contempt of court, the court ruled.

The business was ordered to stop operating as a "petting zoo" in a Suffolk County Supreme Court decision in March, 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, at 551 Veterans Memorial Highway.

Hearings were conducted on June 22 and June 26 to determine whether Sloth Encounters violated the Suffolk County Supreme Court's March 30 order to "immediately cease any operations" that violate the Town of Islip Code.

Wallach ran the store as a petting zoo under the "pretense that it is a pet store," the court stated in its decision, which violated Islip Town Code.

"This conclusion is well supported by Wallach's own testimony," the court stated. "Further, the Town and its residents are clearly prejudiced by an individual or entity that chooses to operate a
business in violation of the Town Code."

The Supreme Court's March 30 order remains in effect, and defendants will be fined, payable to the town, for each day Sloth Encounters continues to "operate as a pet store or petting zoo," Supreme Court Justice Joseph A. Santorelli ruled.

The defendants could only reopen Sloth Encounters at the location until granted the necessary approvals by the Town of Islip, the court ruled.

Sloth Encounters' website lists the store as "temporarily closed" while it updates its permit. It plans to reopen "VERY SOON," the site reads.

"But not to WORRY! Because we are still doing our HOME VISITS!!! and GROUP GATHERINGS!! We will be in all state parks this summer as well as many fairs and public locations all over LONG ISLAND!"

The shop promises a discount to group gatherings.

Wallach hopes to reopen Sloth Encounters within two or three weeks, as he says the business submitted all its paperwork.

"I’m not going nowhere," Wallach told Patch. "I’ll just get the last permit they said we never applied for, and we applied for. That’s all I can do. We’re busy doing home visits. We’re out the door already doing homes. We’re everywhere. It’s fine. It is what is."

Wallach said home visits are "absolutely not" a violation of the court order, adding the judge told him as such.

Wallach said he wants to get to the end of the saga with the Town of Islip.

"I’m sure the town will give me the permit for the pet shop, and we’ll be done," he said. "That’s it. Whatever it is. Hopefully a couple of weeks."

The store owner said if it takes the Town of Islip more than a few weeks, he would reopen, pay his fines, go to an appellate judge and bring a lawsuit against the township.

"I don’t want to do that," Wallach said. "I just want to open and do what I’m doing. That’s all."

Wallach testified he sold snakes, lizards, hamsters, chinchillas, mice, rats, pet supplies, leashes, dog food, cat food and "anything to do with a legitimate pet shop." He also said he sold sloths, kangaroos and tortoises, court documents show. The Sloth Encounters website previously advertised the sale of snakes, lizards, birds, turtles, frogs, sloths, kangaroos and capybaras.

Fire Marshall Daniel Petrarca, called as a witness by the Town of Islip, testified that sloths are considered "wild animals" by the township because they are not native to North America.

Pet sloths and kangaroos are legal in New York.

"Under New York State law, the animals we have are not wild," Wallach said. "They’re exotic pets. That’s it. For that alone, I’m really happy. Like, really happy."

Wallach opened a petting zoo in June 2022, the court said, and the only animals in the store were sloths. Wallach said people would pay $50 to interact with sloths in a room that was "like a rain forest," documents show.

Wallach had a USDA permit and Suffolk County Department of Health permit to operate a petting zoo hanging on the wall, Petrarca said.

Wallach said he has held a USDA "exhibiting license for over 30 years and is licensed in other states," records show.

Petrarca on July 22, 2022, issued violation notices for uncovered electrical panels, lack of carbon monoxide alarms, lack of portable fire extinguishers and the change of use of the building. He also added a violation for possession of wild animals against the Islip Town Code on Aug. 1, 2022, after a discussion with his supervisor.

All fire code violations were corrected by Petrarca's visit on Aug. 29, 2022, but the sloths were still present, so appearance tickets were issued, documents show.

The business filed an application for a change of use from a pool supply store to a petting zoo, Daniel Burgos, a planner in the Town of Islip Zoning Department, told the court. Burgos said the submission was incomplete, and a petting zoo is not a permitted use where Sloth Encounters was located. Either a change of use or a use variance would be required to operate a petting zoo at the address, Burgos said.

In September 2022, Wallach was told he could no longer operate a petting zoo at the address, the court stated.

"He claims that he shut down his business for over three months," the court wrote. "During that period, he continued to house the animals at that location and would take them out to be exhibited elsewhere."

The business advertised at-home sloth visits. Meanwhile, Wallach used All in One Drafting to help him obtain the needed permits from the Town of Islip.

Wallach reopened Sloth Encounters in December 2022 as a pet store and filed paperwork with the Town of Islip to operate as one.

Petrarca was assigned to return for another inspection on April 6 — after the Suffolk County Supreme Court's March 30 order — when he saw two kangaroos, chinchillas, a porcupine, a parrot, tarantulas, scorpions, turtles, lizards, and snakes, records show. He testified the shop had the "appearance" of a pet store. He issued tickets to Wallach and Sloth Encounters for violating the town code's sale of wild animals policy.

Wallach testified customers looking to buy a lizard or rodent as a pet get to hold and interact with them before sales. He said he would refuse to sell an animal to a customer if he felt they don't live in a place that "animal fits," according to court documents. Wallach would ask customers for a $50 deposit before making the decision, as he does a class with each prospective client where they can interact with "any animal" in the store.

Wallach removed scorpions and tarantulas from the store "at some point" because they were banned under the Islip Town Code, documents say.

"It is [Wallach's] belief that it is legal to sell sloths and kangaroos in the State of New York and that he is in compliance with the Town Code," the court stated.

Criminal contempt charges against the defendants were denied by the court.

"Sloth Encounters legal woes continue as a Supreme Court judge has ruled the illegal business is guilty of contempt and ordered that the business must close, this time instituting a daily fine for disobedience," said John Di Leonardo, executive director of Humane Long Island and an anthrozoologist. "This legal loss is just the latest in a plague of federal, state, county, and local violations the illegal business has received since it began subjecting vulnerable baby sloths, baby kangaroos, and other animals to grabbing hands, noisy crowds, and ramshackle cages inside a store zoned for pool supplies in Hauppauge. A condition of Larry Wallach's federal exhibitor license is that he must abide by local laws so Humane Long Island is urging the USDA to take action by revoking Larry Wallach's license and retiring the suffering animals to reputable facilities where they can live a more natural life."

Wallach is facing criminal charges the Town of Islip filed in April for allegedly selling wild animals and from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation for allegedly possessing and offering for sale three Nile monitor lizards. Nile monitor lizards are illegal in New York.

Wallach said he has a distributor who sets up his reptiles, and after the DEC told him he can't have Nile monitor lizards, Wallach said he arranged for them to be picked up a day or two later.

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