Sloth Encounters owner Larry Wallach ordered to halt pet sales or pay $250 fine per day

A Suffolk County Supreme Court judge has ordered the Hauppauge-based Sloth Encounters to halt pet sales after finding owner Larry Wallach guilty of violating court orders from March.

In a decision handed down Tuesday, Judge Joseph Santorelli granted a motion filed by the Town of Islip to hold Wallach in civil contempt of court and ordered the federally licensed animal exhibitor to “immediately cease and desist” from operating as a pet store or petting zoo until necessary approvals have been obtained from the town, or pay a fine of $250 per day.

“It is the opinion of this Court that the location continues to be operated as a petting zoo under the pretense that it is a pet store. This conclusion is well supported by Wallach's own testimony,” Santorelli wrote in Tuesday’s decision.

The Town of Islip filed a motion for contempt against Wallach in April after inspections found the store continued to allegedly harbor wild animals in defiance of an order from Santorelli in March, when the judge issued a preliminary injunction and said Sloth Encounters must “immediately cease” operations that violate town code. 

Wallach opened his Veterans Memorial Highway business in June 2022, charging $50 an hour to hold, feed and pet sloths, according to his website.

Wallach at a June hearing on contempt charges acknowledged the business at first operated like a petting zoo, which he said he was unaware would be illegal under town code.

Following September court orders to shut down, Wallach also said at the hearing he continued to make home visits with his sloths until he said he reopened as a pet store in late December, selling pet supplies, sloths and other exotic animals. 

Santorelli initially reserved judgment on the contempt motion after the hearings.

At the June hearings, a town fire marshal testified that the certificate of occupancy for Sloth Encounters is specifically designated for a pool supply store. He issued notices of violation to Wallach in July 2022 for uncovered electrical panels, lack of carbon monoxide alarms, lack of portable fire extinguishers and the change of use of the building. 

According to court documents, after consulting with his supervisor, the fire marshal later issued another violation for possession of wild animals, which is against town code. 

When the fire marshal returned in August, the fire code violations had been addressed but the premises otherwise remained unchanged, prompting the town to issue Wallach appearance tickets. 

The same fire marshal at a follow-up inspection in April found that Wallach possessed cages with two baby kangaroos, chinchillas, a baby porcupine, a parrot, tarantulas, scorpions, turtles, lizards and snakes, court documents show. Tarantulas and scorpions are explicitly prohibited in Islip Town code, and Wallach has since removed them from his store. 

Wallach was also selling pet supplies at the time and appeared to be operating as a pet store, the fire marshal testified. 

The fire marshal said during the cross examination that the definition of a wild animal under town code is left for interpretation by himself and his supervisors. 

A town planner testified at the hearings that applications for change of use of the building were incomplete. A follow-up application for change of tenant has not yet been accepted by the town Building Division.

Wallach’s attorney, John Zollo, has said previously that the pet store operation is “consistent and legal” under Islip Town code. Zollo on Wednesday said Wallach is “reviewing his options" following Tuesday's ruling. 

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

John Di Leonardo, executive director of Humane Long Island and a critic of Sloth Encounters, called the ruling "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."

Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter said she appreciates and respects Santorelli’s “decision on this precedent-setting case.”

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com@brianne_ledda

Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.