Local Zoo Owners Charged with Violating Animal Welfare Act

Update (3:12 p.m. EDT)

PETA Foundation Deputy Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet has since released a statement in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s complaint against Reston Zoo and its owners, Eric and Meghan Mogensen:

It should come as no surprise that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) needed 18 pages to document the abuses perpetuated at all three roadside zoos operated by Eric Mogensen and his daughter Meghan — who’s already racked up a conviction for cruelty to animals for drowning a wallaby named Parmesan in a bucket of water and then dumping his body in the trash. Meghan and her father then falsified a report claiming that they had humanely euthanized him, as part of a pattern of cruelty and deceit that they’ve only continued at Reston Zoo. The USDA found that the facility was denying animals basic care to treat and prevent painful lameness, parasites, mastitis, stillbirths, and eye and skin disease. Zoo staff had also left animals outdoors in subfreezing temperatures and fatally failed to offer veterinary care to animals, including a camel suffering from hair loss and severe stiffness, observed by USDA officials to be in physical pain. The way to protect animals from roadside zoos is clear—steer families elsewhere.

Our Original Post

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has filed a complaint against Eric Mogensen, owner and operator of three local zoos, including the Reston Zoo, charging he and his daughter, Meghan, with multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

The NFW Daily News was the first to report this story, and that report states the USDA complaint spans all three zoos owned and operated by the Mongesens.

Among the charges against the Reston Zoo in specific are euthanizing an animal by drowning and mishandling of a spider monkey that resulted in its hypothermia-induced death.

To read the full USDA complaint, click here.

Here’s a list of the Mongesens alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act, according to the NSW Daily News report:

• Failure to establish an adequate program of veterinary care. Used expired medications to treat and vaccinate animals and identified and employed gunshot as a means of euthanasia (without adequate training and documentation).
• Repeated failure to handle animals as carefully as possible to prevent harm to the animals and the public. An attendant was not present when the public, including children, had contact with camels, goats and llamas, resulting in a child being bitten by a camel, and a short-tail opossum escaped from an enclosure that was not covered and was found dead the next day.
• Repeated failure to safely handle and house primates. There was not sufficient distance and/or barriers to restrict the public from having contact with squirrel monkeys, tamarins, and/or marmosets.
• Repeated failure to maintain animal enclosures. An enclosure housing golden-headed lion tamarins had protruding nails, an enclosure housing a Patagonian cavy had buried wire mesh with sharp ends that protruded into the enclosure, a door in an enclosure housing tigers had rusted, jagged, and sharp edges, and an enclosure housing raccoons had very rusted and corroded wire as well as wood that was splintered and warped.
• Failure to separate incompatible animals. Rabbits were housed in incompatible groups, resulting in newborn rabbits “being eaten, chewed upon, or otherwise injured by the other rabbits in the enclosure,” and causing the newborns to die or be euthanized due to their injuries.
• Failure to provide shelter from sunlight or inclement weather to goats and sheep.
• Failure to ensure that food was clean and wholesome when food for marmosets was prepared at a sink that was dirty and had dead insects and mouse droppings around the sink’s perimeter.
• Failure to provide adequate ventilation in facilities used to house tigers at night.
• Failure to clean food receptacles for lions and tigers.
• Failure to maintain records of acquisition and disposition for a white rhinoceros, a short-tailed possum, goats and a Virginia opossum.

Members of the Reston community have already responded to the most recent allegations against the Reston Zoo, as this is not the first time the zoo has been at the center of controversy.

One group known as Unite Against Reston Zoo formed three years ago when Meghan Mongesen was found not guilty of “inhumanely drowning an injured wallaby who injuries were not life threatening,” as stated by the group’s Facebook page. The illegal euthenization of the wallaby was viewed by the group as a mere cost-cutting measure.

So when the most recent allegations against the Mongesens began to surface, the group once again spoke up in hopes of ending the alleged mistreatment of animals in the community.

“The saddest part about all of this? The year that the Reston Zoo was in the news about the wallbaby being drowned (2012), instead of receiving medical attention, was the zoos best fiscal year and the highest attendance they had had in years. The negative publicity drove attendance and put money in the pockets of the Mogensens,” the group warned, again using its Facebook page to spread the message.

According to the Daily News report, the Mongesens will have a chance to respond to these allegations at a hearing, although the date for the hearing has not yet been set as of time of publication. If punished, the Mongesens could face penalties ranging from fines to a suspension or even revocation of their licenses.