Fear not, Graham, it’s not as bad as you might think. The Sloth Orphanage does a lot of rehabilitation and release of sloths into the wild, and are also maintaining a 300 acre rainforest sanctuary.
Unfortunately there are a lot of sloths that come in badly injured and can’t be released into the wild due to the injuries that they’ve sustained, and sadly a lot of babies are brought in as well, because their mothers have been killed or because they’ve been snatched for the tourist trade (“Have your photo taken with the cute baby sloth!) or the pet trade. Normally the ones in pyjamas are ones who have had skin conditions – particularly common in babies that have been removed from their mothers too soon.
I think videos focussing on the cuter, less sad aspects of their work brings in more hits and more donations than the more sensible “And this is how we train a sloth to be a sloth” approach.
