Sloth adopted by care home

A Hungerford based care home has announced it will be adopting a baby sloth into its care home for residents to care for and raise.

Station House Care Home hopes the sloth will become a popular pet and stroking, feeding and bathing sessions will contribute to the home’s commitment to creating meaningful life experiences for the residents.

Pet As Therapy sessions have been popular in care homes for a number of years, with dogs, cats and even horses coming into residential environments - but the extremely slow moving Sloth, native to Central and South American rainforests - is the first of its kind to be adopted by a care home.

Manager of the home, April Olof said: “Sloths usually spend their lives hanging about in trees and are extremely cute and comforting animals. We hope our Sloth will be keen to relax in the home with our residents and create a more exotic feel.

“The sloths are also extremely slow moving so all our residents can pet it and care for it. It hope he will be a popular addition to the home.”

The sloth will be transported to the West Berkshire home in the next few weeks after a three month period spent in quarantine. Until its own high tree rainforest canopy style living space has been built in the home’s living room space the sloth will be sleeping in the bedrooms of residents keen to help the mammal settle in.

A competition to name the sloth has been launched at Station House, with popular names in the running including Sid, Sidney and Stephan.