Actress and author Alicia Silverstone has joined with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to offer a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the location of two baby giraffes missing from the Natural Bridge Zoo.
The ownership of the giraffes has been a matter of legal dispute, although a Rockbridge County judge ruled in September that they belong to the state. He gave Gretchen Mogensen, the manager of the privately owned Natural Bridge Zoo, until Oct. 29 to reveal their whereabouts or face 100 days in jail on a contempt of court charge. She chose to report to jail.
A grand jury impaneled in Rockbridge County is currently conducting a criminal investigation into the fate of the baby giraffes, along with allegations of animal abuse at the zoo.
The legal saga involving the roadside zoo began in December 2023 when the office of Attorney General Jason Miyares initiated a raid that seized 96 animals from the roadside zoo in Rockbridge County and laid legal claim to four adult giraffes that were deemed too tall to move.
After a trial in March 2024, a Rockbridge County jury ruled that the state was right to seize 71 of the animals and ordered the remaining 29 returned to the zoo.
Among the 71 animals that the jury ruled were now state property were the four giraffes that remained at the zoo. The details of how and when to move animals that are up to 18 feet tall and weigh up to a ton (or more, in the case of the lone male giraffe) set off more court proceedings — and out-of-court conflict. One giraffe was moved in October 2024, but subsequent court testimony showed it was hard for the state to find people qualified to move the remaining giraffes because of threats from the Mogensens. In July 2025, Rockbridge County Circuit Judge Christopher Russell found former zoo owner Karl Mogensen and his daughter, Gretchen, who now runs the facility, guilty of impeding attempts to move the animals and sentenced both to suspended jail time, along with a fine.
Three giraffes remained at the zoo through the winter. By then, two of the females were pregnant and were estimated to be due in spring 2025. The attorney general’s office ordered the Mogensens to notify them if the giraffes gave birth and conducted unannounced inspections of the giraffes in October 2024, December 2024 and February 2025. When the attorney general’s inspection team arrived in April 2025, it was temporarily turned away because Gretchen Mogensen informed them by text that she was unavailable. When the inspection team finally gained admittance the next day, they determined that the two giraffes were no longer pregnant — and found what appeared to be afterbirth on one of the giraffes’ tails. Since then, Mogensen hasn’t revealed what happened to the giraffe calves. The three remaining adult giraffes were eventually moved in May, but one died en route to a new facility in Georgia.
The events of that April 2025 surprise inspection led to two contempt of court charges against Mogensen. In September, Russell fined her $1,000 for one and gave her the choice of revealing the whereabouts of the giraffes or going to jail for the other.
In years past, Karl Mogensen has described the zoo as a breeding operation, and state documents show that in the 10 years prior to the 2023 raid, the zoo had sold 14 baby giraffes — some as young as 2 weeks old, none older than 2 months. It’s unclear what the value of a baby giraffe is, but the Mogensens have asserted in court documents that the four adults were together worth $1 million.
By now, the giraffes would be about 8 months old.
“Tearing babies away from their distraught mothers is devastating for both, no matter what species they are,” Silverstone said in a statement. “These missing babies need specialized care, and every day counts in finding them, so I hope someone with information about their whereabouts will come forward now.”
She made her acting debut in “The Wonder Years” in 1992 and most recently appeared in the crime drama thriller “Reptile” with Benicio del Toro and Justin Timberlake and the television series “Irish Blood.” She is a well-known animal rights activist who has appeared in multiple ads for PETA over the years. She is also the author of several vegan cookbooks.
Anyone with information about the giraffes should contact the attorney general’s Animal Law Unit at 804-786-2071.