Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 14, 1994 TAG: 9403140043
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NATURAL BRIDGE LENGTH: Long
This year may be different.
In October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended Karl Mogensen's license to operate the Natural Bridge Zoological Park and fined him $10,000.
He was found in violation of 17 sections of the federal Animal Welfare Act at various times dating back at least five years. The charges include failing to provide adequate food, water and shelter for his animals.
The Agriculture Department also charged him with failing to:
Remove and dispose of animal wastes.
Keep incompatible animals separate.
Maintain proper veterinary care.
Maintain records of the acquisition, disposition and identification of animals.
Mogensen has paid $6,500 of his fine, a department spokeswoman said. The remainder was suspended.
Mogensen has not contacted the agency to request an inspection, which is required before he can get his license back. Until then, he is not allowed to exhibit or sell animals covered by the federal law.
Mogensen supplements his zoo business by breeding and selling exotic species, such as African antelopes and wildcats. He is under investigation for selling or transporting a caracal lynx - an African cat - and a camel in violation of his suspension, a department official said Friday.
Animal welfare groups and local and state officials have heard complaints from visitors about conditions at the roadside zoo for some time.
"I saw the young female elephant outside on an unseasonably hot day with no available water and inadequate shade," one visitor wrote to the state veterinarian in May 1992.
In September, a visitor from North Carolina saw an elephant chained by its hind leg inside a building. The walls were smeared with feces and the floor was covered in what appeared to be urine, the visitor wrote to the Humane Society of the United States.
Yearly inspection reports by Agriculture Department agents document a pattern of similar conditions at the zoo. The reports show that the zoo corrected some violations from year to year, but that new ones were added each time.
In 1990, seven previous items had been corrected and 77 new ones listed, including:
Broken and loose boards, protruding nails and fence wire, rusted and exposed metal edges, large holes and open spaces along the perimeter fence.
No water in the shed housing two species of African wildcats, with temperatures above 80 degrees.
Pigeon and rodent feces in the tiger and monkey dens, on salt blocks and feeding areas for other animals.
Broken glass within reach of the primates.
Excessive accumulation of feces in the bear, tiger and cougar dens, and hoof stock areas.
Old, rotting, uneaten chicken parts in the serval pen.
Trash heaps with construction debris, some located within reach of animals. One entry reads: "Seven visable [sic] bovine carcasses were located in the junk pile at the north side of the facility near the dogs on chains. . . . The bovine carcasses were partially dismembered, some burned, in various stages of decomposition. One carcass was heavily infested with maggots."
The federal standards were enacted in 1966 to ensure the humane treatment of animals kept in captivity for exhibition, dealing and research.
At last count, almost 300 animals were at the Natural Bridge Zoo, including four camels, two mountain lions, five bears, an elephant, 19 monkeys and a tiger.
Karl Mogensen declined four requests to be interviewed at length about the zoo's problems.
In a brief phone conversation in mid-February, he said, "We're having a little problem with our federal government," and accused the Agriculture Department inspector of lacking expertise in exotic animal management.
Asked if he thought the charges against him were accurate, Mogensen replied: "This is for things we felt were totally irrelevant to the welfare of the animals."
Mary Gieb, an Agriculture Department animal-care specialist for the region that covers Virginia, said the agency inspects zoos once a year and concentrates on problem facilities. Agents inspected the Natural Bridge Zoo 10 times in four years - between January 1989 and January 1993 - according to department records.
"This is not representative of our average zoo," said Miava Binkley, a department veterinarian who supervises Virginia and previously conducted inspections at the zoo. It took the Agriculture Department several years to suspend Mogensen's license because of a backlog of cases and limited legal staff, she said.
Other complaints about the zoo have been received by the Rockbridge County SPCA, said Ellen Arthur, the legal adviser and a board member of the local chapter. Every summer, the SPCA has heard from visitors about conditions at the zoo, but couldn't do much, Arthur said.
"It's been a thorn in our side for years and years," she said.
Delbert Moore, the county's animal control officer, also has heard stories from visitors, as has David H. Burnette, an enforcement officer with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
"I get complaints on them every year, how they're treated, the conditions," Moore said. "It's a big mess."
Burnette said he's "inundated with complaints about the zoo" during tourist season, but added that many are unfounded. Tourists "view the zoo as if they're watching the Discovery Channel on television," Burnette said.
He has found problems on occasion - the elephant lacking shade and water, a sickly tiger that had to be put to sleep - and said that he works with Mogensen until the problem is fixed.
Mogensen's neighbors and acquaintances have grown accustomed to hearing about escaped camels, fallow deer, monkeys and other exotic animals.
There have also been problems with animal carcasses being improperly dumped, manure piles creating a nuisance, and unpaid county business license fees.
Most folks have at least one story to tell about the zoo.
Nancy Young has quite a few.
Like the time a friend, over for a church circle, was startled to see a camel looking in the bathroom window at her.
Or the time Young grabbed her 2-year old son and ran away from an escaped chimpanzee.
And the time her husband mowed over a huge rattlesnake that, they learned later, had gotten loose from the zoo.
And, a couple years ago, when an eland - an African antelope that can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds - got loose.
"He was coming right at me. If I hadn't moved out of the way, he'd have run right over me," Allen said.
The Youngs had lived in Natural Bridge for a short time when the zoo moved next door 20 years ago. "Us and a lot of other neighbors had a petition going," Nancy Young recalled. They didn't want it, she said, but they couldn't stop it.
She remembers Karl Mogensen's assuring her that a buffer would be built between her home and the zoo and promising that the zoo would be cleaned daily.
The zoo's perimeter fence is about five feet from her property line, and about 15 feet from her house. The camel pen was built about 25 feet from her house. In the summer, Young said, the zoo smells so bad she can't open her windows.
Other incidents over the years include:
Frances and Lee Moore twice have had escaped monkeys hanging around their home, a quarter-mile from the zoo. They said Mogensen captured the first one right away.
"The other one was too smart for him," Frances Moore said. "He must have recognized that truck or something because he saw that thing coming and he just hit the ground and was gone." That monkey was captured after a few days, she said.
A male and two pregnant female elands got out in the spring of 1992, Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Warden Bill Parker said. One of the females was shot at close range while grazing along the highway and left to die, he said.
A former part-time employee, Anne Georgiades, said that while she worked there, a mother camel rolled over one of her newborn camels and killed it. The other baby camel was put in a yard with an elephant. It slipped and fell, the elephant picked it up and killed it, Georgiades said.
Mogensen also has had trouble disposing of animal carcasses. He gets dead cows, sheep and horses from neighboring farms, and an occasional road-killed animal from the highway department, to feed his carnivores.
Last year, a group of neighbors living near other property that Mogensen owns, separate from the zoo, went to the Board of Supervisors with complaints of dead animals and manure causing a nuisance. They said the dumping area stinks, and attracts flies, buzzards and rats.
Under Virginia law, Mogensen is allowed to bury carcasses on his property, but they must be covered to prevent rodents and flies from spreading disease, said John Tucker, a sanitarian with the Lexington-Rockbridge County Health Department.
"You remind the man and he does what he's supposed to do. And he backslides and you have to remind him again," Tucker said. "It's a case of getting him to do it."
The Health Department gets a couple of complaints a year about dead animals, usually from the neighbors. Tucker said the department also responded to a complaint not long ago about a spoiled carcass of a full grown camel in a public trash bin.
"We saw it and told him to take care of it," Tucker said. "It needed some heavy equipment."
Maynard Reynolds, a Rockbridge County supervisor whose district includes the zoo, said he hears little about the zoo other than an occasional complaint from neighbors about smells and carcasses.
County Administrator Don Austin agreed. "Nothing jumps out at me," he said.
Mogensen is up to date on his 1993 property tax payments, according to county records, but he's behind on his business license fees. Commissioner of Revenue Patricia Self said he owes yearly fees since 1988 for retail sales and for service. She has called him and sent registered letters, but received no reply, she said.
Self said she is preparing to turn the case over to the county attorney.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has no information about whether Mogensen has begun to correct the violations at the zoo. The consent order gives him eight months, until July 1, to raise the perimeter fence to 8 feet. It now measures 4 to 7 feet - a violation that dates back several years.
Two animal health certificates filed with the state's veterinary office indicate he transported animals after his license was suspended on Nov. 1.
On Nov. 2, he delivered a 7-year-old male camel to Indiana, according to one certificate.
On Dec. 22, a caracal kitten, 7n weeks old, was flown from the zoo to Jim Anderson in Florida. Anderson said he paid $1,200 for the cat.
Binkley of the Agriculture Department said she wasn't aware of the transfers. "That disturbs me." Any violations of Mogensen's suspension could cost him the remaining $3,500 of his original fine, she said.
Binkley said the matter has been turned over to an investigator.
Veterinarians at the Blue Ridge Animal Clinic in Lexington have responded to medical emergencies at the zoo for about nine years.
Allen Strecker, one of the veterinarians, said the animals the clinic sees "are usually in pretty good shape."
Some problems in the past include a Siberian tiger with malignant tumors, that years later was destroyed due to age and severe arthritis; a llama that was was bitten by a dog in the lip; an elephant that was bitten in the ear by another elephant; and an emu - a large Australian bird - that bruised its neck and later died.
Michael Hepner, another vet at the clinic, said these injuries and illnesses are similar to what cattle or sheep farmers might experience.
In the last couple of months, Hepner has been working with Mogensen on a schedule of routine visits and emergency medical care, a plan that is required by the Agriculture Department. Under the agreement, he'll be making monthly visits to the zoo to check for general conditions and health of the animals, he said.
The zoo and Mogensen's home are on about 14 acres on U.S. 11 in Natural Bridge - just down the road from the geologic formation touted as one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
Rudy Lahoud is general manager of Natural Bridge of Virginia Inc., a private corporation that owns the land where the limestone bridge sits.
The bridge, a wax museum and the hotel draw roughly 300,000 tourists every year. Lahoud said the business he runs is separate from the zoo, and the two don't have a joint marketing strategy to promote tourism in the area. Yet, the two are mutually beneficial, he said.
"I've got them in my literature, they've got me in their literature," Lahoud said.
He predicted that publicity about the suspension of the zoo's USDA license would not have a negative impact on his business.
"And I hope Mr. Mogensen will overcome the problems."
Like Lahoud, some people in this community consider the zoo an added attraction for tourists, who boost the local economy.
Others say that, after so many complaints over the years about conditions at the zoo, the department's action was inevitable.
A billboard off the Interstate 81 exit for Natural Bridge announces that the zoo is a couple miles away. In the corner, below the paintings of two Asiatic bears, someone has spray painted: "Set them free."
by CNB