Controversy W/ Mogensen Zoos

Eric Mogensen owns three zoos in the United States. The zoos he owns are the Gulf Breeze Zoo (Gulf Breeze, FL), the Natural Bridge Zoo (Virginia), and the Reston Zoo (Reston, VA). All of these zoos have seen their share of controversy with the largest of that controversy at the Reston location that I have visited. Not only did I visit that zoo, but I gave the zoo a great review as well. That most recent review was earned back in November after the zoo had so many close animal exhibits for my kids. It was a really cool experience. It was reviewed twice and got high marks both times. The zoo led me to believe that these owners who owned the other two zoos were fantastic and I was anxious to visit their other two zoos. I have been making plans to visit both of the other zoos owned by this family. However, those trips will not be happening and I will no longer visit the Reston Zoo!

I won't visit Mogensen zoos because I have now heard of the controversy surrounding the family and their zoos. Eric's daughter, Meghan Mogensen was charged in 2012 for animal cruelty and possession of a controlled substance. Mogensen was arrested and the zoo remained open the entire time. In fact, I had not even heard about this incident nor did my family until Feburary of this year! This lady drowned a wallaby and the zoo remained open. The Reston Zoo where this happened was also written up for violations related to animal health in 2011 and 2012. You'd think that it was just one bad family member that was too young running the zoo doing this, but then you dig deeper and it gets worse.

First, the response to her doing this at the Reston Zoo was to move her to the Gulf Breeze Zoo after she was released from prison. WHAT?!?!? She drowns a wallaby and then she is moved to your zoo in Florida. Why is she allowed near animals ever again?!?! This is absolutely mind boggling. Now that I know this, I will not be visiting the Gulf Breeze Zoo anytime soon. That is a shame because it looks like a great place to go. I guess I will have to check out some other new place next time we are up in Northwest Florida. For the Mogensen family though it gets worse....

In fact, upon further investigation I uncovered that this family has been the subject of complaints from the Humane Society since 1990. The subject of complaints since I was three years old! That is absolutely insane.

Karl Mogensen owns the Natural Bridge Zoo in Virginia. This zoo looks awesome despite being owned by George's dad Karl. However, this zoo is named by PETA as America's Worst Zoo for its poor treatment of animals and particularly elephants. They have responded to some criticism here, but it is easy to see why they get it. In fact, back in 2004 two bears escaped this zoo through an unlocked gate and had to be euthanized when they got into the community. The owner Karl had his zoo license suspended in 2007 and a hearty fine for investigations relating how the zoo treated animals. Mogensen also had his license suspended for a brief time in 1993. Twice having your license suspended is not a good sign for how you treat animals.

I could go on and on about alleged violations and abuse. However, I will stop here. I will not be visiting any of these zoos in the future and I recommend that you take the same actions. While our ratings are based solely on what we see at the zoos while we are there, we want to go to places we can go with and feel good about ourselves. These zoos would make us feel dirty if we attended them again. It is not a shock that these zoos lost AZA accreditation and don't seem to be getting it back anytime soon. Just say no to the Natural Bridge Zoo, the Gulf Breeze Zoo, and the Reston Zoo. We will find better options for you here on ZooZooReview.

-Noland

Reston Zoo (Update)

Happy New Year From ZooZooReview!

Hope everyone has had a great start to the new year. Our first post this 2015 year is on a zoo we visited for the 2nd time late in 2014, the Reston Zoo.

Reston Zoo

Reston, Virginia

Date of Visit: November 2014

The Reston Zoo was just as fantastic this time as it was the last time we visited. The animals changed slightly, but it was likely due to the season and the experience was similar. If anything I would say the wagon safari was not quite as good, but the animal exhibits were better. There was a balance to this zoo. It is a small zoo which stops it from being 5 star, but it is one we love seeing. With little kids, it is a fantastic thing to experience.

Price Of Admission: The Reston Zoo has an annual zoo membership of $50 for adults and $40 for kids. If you live in Fairfax or Loudoun counties, this could be a great option for you. Reciprocal benefits will be given for Gulf Breeze Zoo in Gulf Breeze, Florida, and Virginia Safari Park in Natural Bridge, Virginia. Likewise membership to those establishments gets you into the Reston Zoo for free. You also get a 10% discount on many items the zoo offers with a membership.

However, if you are just going for one day and plan on visiting just the Reston Zoo, Prices are as follows.

Adult 12.95

Senior 11.95

Child 9.95

Child under 2 Free

2014 Zoo Hours: 9am-5pm most days

What changed from last time: No more sloths, wildebeests, and the baby pigs got older. Also the safari did not come as close to all the animals. However, now they have an Anden Condor (the bird with the largest wingspan in the world). They also have porcupines, kangaroos, a yak, really cool looking deer, and several new snakes. This is in addition to all the other animals that the zoo had before.

Pictures

The Petting Zoo was a highlight for Jr. feeding the animals.

Alpacas were in the petting zoo too.

These goats were hungry.

Fennec Fox

Camel

My boy loves owls.

Don't know if you can tell, but this is him saying owl while looking at the owl.

Andean Condor

Tortoises

Not a reindeer, but sure did look like it on the wagon ride.

There were still zebras on the safari.

I love this shot of the ostrich because you can see its feet really well and how they look so much like dinosaur feet. These birds get really close to the wagon and you can touch them.

Lemurs

This is actually not a buffalo, but a Yak!

We left this zoo at a 4.5 out of 5 elephants rating.

This zoo was perfect for its size, but due to it being a smaller zoo that you finish in less than 3 hours, it was not a 5 star zoo. It did surpass our expectations a great deal the 1st time we went and was still fantastic on our second visit. It is our favorite zoo to visit when we re visiting family in the Northern Virginia area, but we will visit a new zoo next time we are here so we can review a different zoo. That being said, this is not the last time we will visit the Reston Zoo and we recommend you check it out.

-Noland

Reston Zoo

Reston Zoo
Reston, Virginia
Date of Visit: Summer 2012

The Reston Zoo in Reston, Virginia is an absolute joy. It was far more than anything we were expecting and a great place to see animals in the Northern Virginia area without dealing with more traffic towards DC. You would not expect to see many of the things you could see there.

Price Of Admission: The Reston Zoo has an annual zoo membership of $50 for adults and $40 for kids. If you live in Fairfax or Loudoun counties, this could be a great option for you. Reciprocal benefits will be given for Gulf Breeze Zoo in Gulf Breeze, Florida, and Virginia Safari Park in Natural Bridge, Virginia. Likewise membership to those establishments gets you into the Reston Zoo for free. You also get a 10% discount on many items the zoo offers with a membership.
However, if you are just going for one day and plan on visiting just the Reston Zoo, Prices are as follows.
Adult 12.95
Senior 11.95
Child 9.95
Child under 2 Free

2014 Zoo Hours: 9am-5pm most days

Highlights: The wagon ride is certainly the best part of this zoo. You ride on a wagon and get to have close animal encounters. You can touch cattle including the huge Anclote Cattle and a few other animals. You also get to drive by wildebeest, ostriches and zebras on this ride. Sometimes you can touch the wildebeest on the ride. It is a great aspect to this park. The sloths, lemurs, and prairie dogs were awesome as well. Finally, the petting zoo part was really cool and seeing the baby pigs was fantastic.

Disappointments: Considering this zoo was far more than we expected, I would not say we were disappointed at all. We thought it was simply going to be a petting zoo with farm animals and we got to see a sloth, prairie dogs, wildebeest, zebras, and more.

Pictures

 2 Toed Sloth

Anclote Cattle

Wildebeest

Zebra

Baby Pigs

Goats

Ostrich

Ostrich Running

Prairie Dogs

Ram

Ring Tailed Lemur

We gave this zoo a 4.5 out of 5 elephants.
It was pretty close to the perfect zoo. It is a really strong zoo and surpassed our expectations. The zoo isn't to the level of the best zoos we have been to, but it is quite good. We would certainly love to go back to the Reston Zoo. I would rather go here than to the National Zoo or Sea World to give you an idea of how great it was. Jenna and I both loved it and loved all the features that it offered. There was a surprisingly large number of animals that you could interact and see up close. We highly recommend checking out the Reston Zoo.

- Noland