Judge allows Rockbridge County to move 4 giraffes from Natural Bridge Zoo

The four giraffes that Rockbridge County seized from the Natural Bridge Zoo last December may finally be moved from the roadside attraction, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Rockbridge County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Russell gave authorities permission to move the four giraffes — Jeffrey, Little Girl, Valentine and Wrinkles — away from the zoo. They and 96 other animals were seized in a December 2023 law enforcement raid, but due to transportation concerns for the largest of the seized animals, the giraffes have remained in place. That will change at 9 a.m. Thursday, said Michelle Welch, senior assistant attorney general and director of Virginia’s Animal Law Unit .

It was the final installment in a series of post-trial hearings in the county’s animal neglect and abuse case against former Natural Bridge Zoo owners Karl and Debbie Mogensen,

Other developments in the case came out in court Wednesday, such as the Mogensens’ intention to appeal the case to the Court of Appeals of Virginia. Their attorneys, Erin Harrigan and Aaron Cook, said that motion was filed immediately after the hearing.

A jury ruled in March that 71 of those 100 animals , including the giraffes, were to remain in government custody, and last month Russell ordered the zoo’s former owners to pay the county $198,635.52 in cost of care while legal proceedings played out. Natural Bridge Zoo’s staff has continued to care for the four giraffes under county supervision, court discussion revealed in testimony and post-trial hearings.

Giraffe pregnancies cause case complications

Somewhere along the line, the two females became pregnant . Due to the long gestation period of giraffes, it’s unclear whether it happened before or after the raid. Little Girl and Valentine continue to carry viable pregnancies, and much of Wednesday’s hearing focused on whether it was safe to move the two mothers-to-be.

Court documents said the giraffes are due in the first quarter of 2025.

The Mogensens’ attorneys argued to keep the giraffes on-site, noting that the county has registered no complaints about the animals’ care since they were seized late last year and citing the risks associated with moving a pregnant giraffe. They proposed a solution in which Natural Bridge Zoo’s new owners — JIG Ventures, a group led by Karl Mogensen’s daughter, Gretchen Mogensen — would continue caring for the giraffes until they gave birth and experts deemed it safe to move both the mothers and babies. They also raised concerns over ownership of the giraffe fetuses.

“We’re not here to discuss lofty issues about when life begins or anything like that,” Russell said from the bench.

Welch argued for moving the giraffes, saying that a jury had awarded custody of the animals to the government and that the risks of leaving the pregnant giraffes in the facility from which they had been seized were a greater risk to their health than the process of moving them. She noted the long timeline from seizure to present day and the delays that dragged the process out over 10 months.

“If we don’t take these animals today, we are going to be back in this court again and again,” Welch said.

Russell acknowledged both sides’ arguments.

“I share the respondents’ and their experts’ concerns,” the judge said, “but I’m going to let the county proceed in moving them. … The safety and welfare of these animals is on their new owner.”

Welch did not disclose where the giraffes are to be moved, other than telling the court that the animals will have “a life that they deserve with adequate facilities for them to birth their babies and live the rest of their days.”

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