Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 14, 1994 TAG: 9403140053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And not just the cats and dogs, but monkeys and llamas and other exotic creatures at Karl Mogensen's zoo in Natural Bridge.
The work was fun but hard, and the whole family pitched in to keep the business going, said Eric, who also lives in Natural Bridge and deals in exotic animals.
But the younger Mogensen said he disassociated himself from his father years ago, for personal and professional reasons. He said he was not surprised to learn that his father's federal license to operate the zoo was suspended last fall for violating the Animal Welfare Act.
Although he hasn't been to the zoo in years, Eric said he remembers "things that should have been fixed over a certain period of time, but weren't."
Karl Mogensen, 55, began his livelihood working with animals in New York state. He built up his collection of exotic wildlife while working for the New York State Police Department, his son said. He opened a small zoo on the family farm near Utica, N.Y., with llamas, tigers, camels and other animals.
In an interview years later, Mogensen said he had planned to study veterinary medicine, but instead got a degree in animal husbandry from Cornell University. Records show Mogensen attended one year of undergraduate school there in 1957, taking classes in poultry management and military science, according to the registrar at Cornell.
A barn fire one winter destroyed many of the animals and wiped out the small zoo, Eric Mogensen said. The family moved in 1969 to Patrick County in Virginia, where Karl Mogensen had been offered a job as director of the now-closed Circle M Zoo, near Vesta.
Over the next two years, he built up his collection again. In the spring of 1972, he opened his own zoo at Natural Bridge with 200 animals. His first wife, four children and father helped care for the menagerie, run the gift shop, supervise the petting area, sell tickets and get the business going.
By 1976, he had more than doubled his stock, to about 500 animals. Mogensen sometimes would entertain visitors by wrestling an alligator or leading the 350-pound Siberian tiger around on a leash.
"Sometimes he took his temper out on an animal," Eric Mogensen said. He doesn't recall his father abusing the animals, but said he used excessive force in controlling them.
Eric's sister, Kristen Strecker, lived and worked at the zoo until early 1989. When she was about 10, she remembers her father hitting the male monkeys to subdue them. Some would "lay on the floor of the cage for a few days," she said.
But, Eric Mogensen said, "For a small, private zoo, his is actually run very, very well."
Still, the Natural Bridge Zoo consistently fell below the federal standards.
"He's always gotten written up for this, that and the other thing, and never cared much about it," Strecker said. "Of course, we were raised to hate the USDA. They were the bad guys."
Strecker said conditions at the zoo usually were OK during tourist season. Her father hired college students and other part-time help to keep the zoo presentable. During the winter, when the zoo was closed to the public, things tended to slide, she said.
Frank Wade worked full time at the zoo from 1982 to 1984. Most of the time, he said, he was on his own to tend the animals during the winter because Mogensen was out of town. Mogensen would leave with animals that were overstocked, and return with bison, ostriches, zebras, monkeys and other animals, he said.
Wade worked seven days a week, sometimes 10 or 12 hours a day, cleaning cages and changing food and water. He made $150 a week.
"I found it to be very exciting," Wade said. "He definitely knows his animals. He seems to be a fine, nice human being."
by CNB