A British news site has published a sealed search warrant affidavit related to the Natural Bridge Zoo animal abuse case that sheds some light on how an out-of-state activist for animal owners and an out-of-state animal handler discussed a plan to help spirit away two baby giraffes for more than a year.
The affidavit published says that the animal handler was a double-crossing federal informant who worked with the animal owner activist to develop a “plan of action” to move the baby giraffes as soon as they were born. Cardinal has not been able to independently verify the details of the report by The Independent, a former print newspaper in London that now publishes only online and is considered a rival to The Guardian, another British news organization with global reach.
The Independent did not say where the giraffes went or how the newspaper obtained the court document, which was filed in Tennessee. However, The Independent reported that the case is part of a federal investigation, as well as the state investigation in Virginia. This has been hinted at before, but the Independent report provides the first confirmation.
While The Independent identified the players, Cardinal is not because the affidavit implies that they committed crimes but neither has been charged, although the affidavit says the activist is under federal investigation.
Neither the activist nor the activist’s attorney in a previous case responded to an inquiry from Cardinal News.
Here is the sequence of events that the Independent story — and the affidavit filed by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigator — describes, and how it matches up with previously known dates.
In 2022, an animal handler approached federal agents in Texas about becoming a confidential informant, promising information “on individuals who were illegally transferring primates throughout the United States.” In September 2023, the animal handler officially became an informant for the Fish and Wildlife Service, the affidavit says.
Based on separate court testimony in Rockbridge County, the investigation of the Natural Bridge Zoo was already underway by then; this federal informant was not initially connected to that. In December 2023, Virginia authorities — led by the attorney general’s animal law unit — raided the Natural Bridge Zoo and seized its animals. The zoo’s four giraffes weren’t moved, though; they were deemed too big to transfer until the state could arrange for specialized transport and handling. Their move was then complicated by the fact that two of the female giraffes were pregnant.
The court allowed state authorities to make unannounced inspections of the giraffes until they could be moved.
That’s where the affidavit, which cites information obtained from other search warrants, provides insight into what was going on behind the scenes.
On Jan. 23, 2025, the activist texted the animal handler: “I know this is terrible timing, but do you have a place for giraffes?”
The handler replied with some personal updates and then said: “Did they have a baby giraffe? I have 3 guys available if you need them.”
The activist responded: “OK, I am waiting to hear from Karl. I don’t think they have one dropped yet but I’m hoping we can pick them up and hold them until the dust settles.” The reference to “Karl” is said to be Karl Mogensen, the patriarch of the family that has owned and operated the zoo.
On Feb. 3, 2025, the activist left the handler a voice mail that said: “Hey, um, I just spoke with the, uh, other client, out of, you know, the East Coast and, uh, we need to go ahead and get a plan in action to move the baby G’s and, uh, I need to, we need to talk!”
On April 7, an inspection team led by an investigator for the Virginia attorney general’s office arrived at the Natural Bridge Zoo for one of its regular checkups on the giraffes. They were denied entry on the grounds that zoo manager Gretchen Mogensen was not available to accompany them. The team gained access the next morning, April 8, and found that the two female giraffes no longer appeared to be pregnant. Afterbirth was present on the tail of one of the animals. In Virginia, that set off a criminal investigation into what happened to the baby giraffes.
Two days later in Tennessee, on April 10, the informant held a regular meeting with a special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agent said in the affidavit that the handler/informant showed him the Jan. 23 text messages with the activist — this was the first time that the Natural Bridge Zoo had come up in their conversations.
A week later, on April 17, the agent and the informant/handler met again, in the parking lot of a barbecue restaurant in the handler’s home state. The agent asked if the informant had any new information on the giraffes. “Have y’all not found them yet?” the handler replied, according to the affidavit. The agent asked to inspect the handler’s phone and found text messages that led the agent to believe the informant had been double-crossing him and supplying information to the activist about various investigations. That led the agent to obtain a search warrant for the handler’s phone and digital accounts. Those revealed prior conversations between the handler and the activist about a plan to sneak the baby giraffes out of Natural Bridge Zoo as soon as they were born.
At a court hearing in Rockbridge County in July 2025, the attorney general’s office announced that a criminal investigation into the whereabouts of the baby giraffes was underway. There was also a legal dispute over who owned the offspring. Eventually, Circuit Court Judge Christopher Russell ruled that the offspring were property of Rockbridge County, the legal entity prosecuting the case, although the attorney general’s office is handling the work in the county’s name. Last fall, Natural Bridge Zoo manager Gretchen Mogensen chose to spend 100 days in jail rather than reveal the whereabouts of the baby giraffes. A court filing on her behalf even questioned whether there were baby giraffes, calling them “non-existent.”
In June of this year, Attorney General Jay Jones — who took over the case after defeating Jason Miyares in the November 2025 election — announced that the baby giraffes had been recovered safely and had been sent to the Georgia Safari Conservation Park. He did not say how or where the giraffes were found.
There’s now a gag order on all the parties involved in the Natural Bridge Zoo case; five people connected with the zoo are scheduled for three separate trials in February and March 2027. Inquiries to other agencies, such as the Fish and Wildlife Service, produced responses that they can’t comment, either, because of ongoing investigations.
The bottom line: We still don’t know where the baby giraffes went, but this affidavit does allege some of the planning to move them.
