In Costa Rica, the world's slowest moving mammal, the sloth, is facing the daily threats of urbanization. Dangers such as electrical wires and deforestation have really hurt the local sloth population. In order to save the sloth, a sanctuary was opened up 20 years ago, simply known as the Sloth Sanctuary. Judy Avery Arroyo is the founder for this sanctuary and started it out of an act of love and concern for this odd looking and quirky animal with the sweet smile.

Volunteers at the Sloth Sanctuary tend to work round the clock to rescue, research and rehabilitate the three-toed creatures. Sadly it can be a very busy place since there are many cases of electrocutions and the sloths are brought there to recover. There are also many fractures when they fall from trees and break their limbs. The sanctuary volunteers treat the broken bones and then lovingly send them back to the jungle.

Founder Judy Avery Arroyo explains how the center was originally started. "Neighbor girls across the street brought Buttercup over to us and Buttercup was a tiny baby three-fingered sloth and there was no place to take her in those days and so we just decided to do the best we could for her. And she survived, she thrived and two years later another one came and six months later another one, and it just continued to snowball and today we're one of the only rescue centers in the world that rescues sloths."

Dr. Marcelo Espinoza is the sanctuary's veterinarian. He emphasizes that the refuge's mission is only to rehabilitate the sloth and then return it to its natural home. However many of the sanctuary's mammals are unable to be released into the wild due to permanent damage such as finger amputation, severe electrocutions and other serious trauma. Currently there are Six known species of sloths that exist across the continent but the World Wildlife Fund says several species face are now facing extinction.