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Over 90 animals were seized after a search of the Natural Bridge Zoo last week.
The state Office of the Attorney General, with assistance from the Virginia State Police, searched the zoo starting early last Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday evening, law enforcement began removing animals from the zoo, a total of 95 living and 27 deceased animals, as well as a number of animal parts, computers, log books, and documents.
Authorities also searched the home of zoo owners Karl and Debbie Mogensen, located on the zoo grounds, seizing multiple drugs. On Friday, another search warrant was executed at the offices of the Blue Ridge Animal Clinic, which has been providing veterinary services for the zoo.
According to filings from the Rockbridge County Circuit Court, search warrants were obtained on the grounds of alleged cruelty to animals, and alleged violations of laws relating to care of companion animals, care of agricultural animals, and possession of controlled substances.
“We completely deny abuse or neglect of these animals,” Mario Williams, attorney for the Mogensens, told the News-Gazette this week.
When contacted last week, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office stated that its Animal Law Unit responds to requests from a local commonwealth’s attorney or law enforcement agency, but could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
Jared Moon, the commonwealth’s attorney for Rockbridge County, also said he was unable to comment on a pending investigation.
- According to the search warrants, information about zoo conditions was provided by a confidential informant, employed by the zoo for several months earlier this year.
This individual provided information about Asha, an elephant, who was reported to be living in “substandard conditions,” chained in a barn, which is not maintained. “Due to Asha being housed in shackles she is not able to freely move out of her own waste,” reads the report.
The informant also recorded a number of instances of Asha allegedly being mistreated by her handler, Mark Easley, who “Advised CI-1 [confidential informant] to ‘always jab them where the bone is close to flesh. Make it count,’ and ‘It is about authority. I’m not her friend, I’m her boss, and you gain respect through fear.’” Other officials posed as visitors to the zoo in October and November, and noted that many of the animal habitats were poorly maintained, and that some of the animals did not have sufficient water or food.
During the first visit, these officials noted that Asha was kept in a fenced area with no water in it, that the water feature in one of the Burmese Python’s enclosures was not working, and that no water was visible in the Eurasian Lynx, Dromedary camel, or the Rheas (a large flightless bird) areas.
They also said that the zebra did not have hay or food available, and that “The Fallow Deer were fighting each other as food was fed to them by visitors through a tubed system.”
However, “The most alarming issue was a deceased goat in the African Pygmy Goat exhibit. The deceased goat remained there for over an hour unnoticed by staff and by the time we left was bloated and stiff.”
On a follow-up visit in early November, many of the same issues were observed, and other habitat problems were noted.
“The Black Swans swimming area was still extremely dirty and the habitat was very small,” reads the warrant. “In another cage of Tufted Capuchins there were a lot of extension cords coming from the boxes in the habitat and the 4 monkeys were excessively scratching themselves.
“The oryx only had one water fountain available and no enrichment,” it reads. “The fallow deer were again fighting with each other over food fed to them by visitors through the tubed system. A habitat labeled Cape Barron Goose had a single small white and black goat with no food or water provided. The American Alligators pool had green water with nothing else in the exhibit.”
During this visit, an official also saw visitors taking rides on Asha, the elephant, writing, “I watched three different riders and it appeared that the marks visible on Asha’s skin during my October visit matched the riding harness and straps that she had on during elephant rides.”
Another concern was the giraffes, which they said had overgrown hooves, and were being kept in an enclosure with no enrichment, while an “overwhelming foul odor” was reported coming from their barn. However, neither the elephant nor the giraffes are included on the list of seized animals from the warrant issued Dec. 4.
In addition to seizing veterinary records related to the Natural Bridge Zoo from the Blue Ridge Animal Clinic, law enforcement also confiscated a number of medications from both the zoo grounds and the Mogensens’ home.
According to a search warrant filed Dec. 7, “During the execution of this search warrant, your affiant discovered bottles of ketamine and expired gabapentin in the Mogensens’ residence. They were not secured under lock and key or with a use log. Ketamine is a Schedule III controlled substance.” Gabapentin is a prescription anticonvulsant.
According to the warrant, “A large number of other medications were found in other areas of the property. Based on your affiant’s training and experience, these medications are commonly used to treat or sedate animals.”
It continues: “Some of these drugs were expired. Some of the bottles were not prescribed to specific animals or have handwritten labels or labels that are missing information. These observed facts justify searching and seizing these drugs to determine what they are, what animal/ patient they were prescribed to, and whether they were possessed or prescribed legally.” -A hearing concerning the seized animals has been scheduled for Dec 20 in the Lexington/ Rockbridge General District Court.
“This is how the process works with the [attorney general] and the agricultural and zoo animals,” explained Williams, the Mogensens’ attorney. “They get a search warrant, they typically bring multiple veterinarians, they assess all the animals and then they just start taking animals.
“What they do is they come and take the animals, and say, ‘Now in 10 days, for 95 animals, representing 17 species, we’re going to hold a hearing, a trial, and you’re going to have to defend against us proving that you abused or abandoned or neglected the animals,’” he said.
On Monday, Williams filed a motion in federal district court to delay the Dec 20 hearing, which he claims is in violation of due process. The motion was filed against Michelle Welch, head of the Animal Law Unit of the attorney general’s office.
“For 95 animals, you can never mount a defense in 10 days, and so they take 60 of them, or 10 of them, under abuse, abandonment or neglect. What’s coming next? The next thing that the AG’s office does is they put criminal charges on you. That’s how important this hearing is,” he said. “You can’t mount an adequate defense in 10 days, that’s a violation of a person’s due process rights related to the taking of their property.”
Property rights will be key as this case progresses.
“One of the biggest issues in this case is that on one end you have human beings, on the other you have inanimate property, be it beds, cars, whatever,” Williams explained. “Somewhere in the middle are the sentient beings of animals.
“What they’re trying to do is treat this like a de facto taking of a human being. You go to a house, you see signs of abuse, and you take the child out of the home. That’s what they’re doing, but they’re not recognizing, nor are they respecting the fact, that these agricultural and zoo animals are bought and paid-for property,” he said.
Williams estimated the total cost of the animals seized last week to be to be around a million dollars.
“It’s a governmental taking of property,” he said. “And look, we can fight all day long about whether abuse took place, but it has to be done fairly, and it has to be done with respect to the constitution.”
-On Wednesday, one of the zoo’s tigers, Zeus, was euthanized, following veterinary examination.
“The tiger was euthanized with consent of the owners to humanely end its suffering upon recommendation by the specialist veterinarian following their examination,” said Victoria LaCivita, spokesperson for the attorney general’s office.
However, in his federal court filing Monday against Welch, Williams claims the animal’s death was due to poor handling by the investigators.
“During the seizure, a white tiger, owned by the [Mogensens] was killed, with the defendant’s [Welch’s] so-called expert veterinarians, claiming that the [Mogensens’] treatment of the animal warranted said killing,” according to Williams.
“But according to the [Mogensens], the defendant’s ineptness led to the torture and killing of said white tiger,” he writes.
In the same document, Williams says that “Defendant [Welch] is trying to put the [Mogensens] out of business, and Defendant’s primary weapon to accomplish this task: violating Mr. and Ms. Mogensen’s due process rights.”
Williams believes that leadership in the Animal Law Unit of the attorney general’s office is pursuing an agenda against zoos.
“It’s a railroad job, in plain English. It’s running over somebody, using your governmental authority to run over somebody, as an individual. Because you have an ideology against what they’re doing as a professional,” he told The News-Gazette.
“And the shame of this whole situation, is that they’re pegging people who have been doing zoos since 1972, as animal abusers, as if these people don’t care about animal welfare,” he said. “It’s not true.” - Karl Mogensen founded the Natural Bridge Zoo in 1972 after moving to Virginia from upstate New York. Citations have been issued to the zoo numerous times in the intervening years, for issues ranging from inadequate veterinary care to inappropriate handling of animals.
Mogensen has had his license suspended twice — once in 1993 and once in 2008 — but it was reinstated both times following subsequent inspections.
Animal rights groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have repeatedly called for the zoo’s closure, particularly following a December 2003 incident where two bears escaped from the zoo and were killed.
“The Natural Bridge Zoo has a lengthy record of over 150 citations for federal animal welfare violations since 2000,” Moria Colley, PETA’s director of media relations, told The News-Gazette.
While Colley did not say whether PETA had any involvement in the current zoo investigation, she expressed support for the animals’ removal.
“PETA hopes that the recent seizure of animals at the Natural Bridge Zoo will bring much-needed relief to the longneglected animals held there,” she said. - While the Mogensens’ attorney has filed for more time, as of Tuesday afternoon, a civil hearing on the topic of seized/ impounded animals is scheduled in the Rockbridge General District Court for next Wednesday, Dec. 20.
