The mystery of the missing newborn giraffes that fascinates (and questions) America. Also on the field is Alicia Silverstone

Everyone is looking for them. The Virginia authorities, the police, the private investigators hired by animal rights associations. But no one finds them. What happened to them due giraffe neonate came into the world eight months ago in a “roadside zoo” in the Natural Bridge State Park area? They have literally disappeared – according to the latest version of the zoo’s managers they never even existed – and a mystery is being built around them that increasingly fascinates and questions America. Especially since the actress also entered the field last November Alicia Silverstonethree-time winner of the MTV Awards, who he announced he wanted to support Peta (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, one of the main American and international animal rights organizations) in the battle to find and make the two puppies safe, offering a reward of 50 thousand dollars to those who will provide useful information for recovery.

Even the owner of the structure, Gretchen Mogensendid her best to shine a spotlight on the case: the 42-year-old woman, daughter of the man who founded the zoo in 1972, decided to get arrested rather than reveal the whereabouts of the giraffes. A gesture that did not go unnoticed and which made her a symbol of the battle against the supposed prevarications of the government and the excess of zeal that would not allow citizens to exercise free private initiative. But the structure ended up in the crosshairs of the investigators not for the two small giraffes but for a general accusation of mistreatment of the animals hosted, which according to theAnimal Rights Unit of the Attorney General of Virginiawho is a Republican, Jason S. Miyareswere not looked after adequately, both in terms of space and nutrition. The story of the two missing puppies is only the tail end of a judicial dispute that began in 2023 and which saw the light also thanks to some animal rights activists who infiltrated and hired themselves as keepers of the animals and whose testimonies have been put on record.

Now Mogensen’s lawyers argue that there is no evidence that these two births actually occurred. However, the veterinarians who carried out consultancy on behalf of the Prosecutor are convinced of this. Which following the investigations into the alleged mistreatment had ordered the seizure of many zoo animals – one hundred out of the 500 registered in total, almost all of exotic species requiring care and suitable environments – due to the conditions of detention considered unsuitable. Many of them had been relocated elsewhere, but the four giraffe specimens at Natural Bridge Zoo – the male Jeffrey and the females Wrinkles, Little Girl e Valentine – they had remained on site due to the difficulty of immediately finding alternative accommodation suitable for them. Seized for justice reasons but entrusted to the owners themselves, as often happens in similar cases, who in fact find themselves with the double role of suspects and judicial custodians. A short circuit that occurs frequently and not only in the USA.

It is precisely during this interval that the two females became pregnant. But when the new home for the giraffes was finally found and the authorities showed up to take custody of the three animals and the two cubs, there was no trace of them. The veterinarians found that the uterus of the two mothers showed signs of a possible birth, including traces of placenta, but this thesis is contested by the facility’s lawyers who argue that the right protocols were not respected. The only certain fact in any case is that the two animals cannot be found.

The story also puts the spotlight on themselves «roadside zoo», small structures often family-run that intercept visitors crossing the major American communication arteries, often near other places of interest. In this case the Natural Bridge National State Parka natural area that takes its name from a rock arch created over the millennia by the flow of the waters of Cedar Creek, venerated by the native populations and immediately adopted as a symbol by the first settlers, and which was also owned by Thomas Jeffersonone of the founding fathers of the United States, of which he was the third president.

They are quite widespread and popular in the USA. But there is a huge difference with the more structured zoos, those that work in collaboration with universities and scientific institutions on research programs and which also have the support of the States in the conservation of species at risk of extinction. A “mission” that in reality is also claimed by the structures that are in fact only tourist attractions, which in their communication activities focus heavily on the risks of some animals disappearing in the wild to justify keeping them in cages in environments that are not theirs.

They often offer too interactions with visitorsethologically wrong activities which however in many cases are also recorded in larger structures. After all, a part of the public goes there precisely for that. In the case of the Natural Bridge Zoo, one of the most favorable reviews on Tripadvisor, among many very negative ones which well before these events highlighted the restricted spaces in which the animals were housed, underlines among the reasons for appreciation the fact of being able to ride on the back of an elephant. Because these structures, although often unqualified, regularly host exotic animals, including large ones or big cats such as tigers and lions. Sometimes it’s about specimens discarded from circuses or other zoos in other cases they are the result of buying and selling puppies born from other “host” animals.

The suspicion of animal rights activists and the authorities is that the two giraffes this very fate could have happenedunless they are already dead. According to the Washington Postwho returned to the matter with a long and detailed report, the zoo would have sold over the years at least 14 baby giraffes aged 2 months or older in the last decadeending up in family-run zoos in Ohio and North Carolina and to an exotic animal breeder and broker in Texas.

The owners of the Natural Bridge Zoo, as mentioned, now deny that the two newborns were ever there and last December 6th they filed a lawsuit on this federal lawsuit against the state attorney generalon which the animal rights unit that managed the investigation depends. But on the other hand it is pointed out that until the last few days the existence of the two giraffes was never denied and that in fact in a post on social media the same structure had claimed the two pregnancies as an indication of the animals’ good health.

It is to be believed that the spotlight on the matter will remain on for a long time. Especially now that the zoo owners seem to have decided to focus on media coveragetrying to accredit themselves as victims of the power that wants absolute control over private activity (in a video published on their Facebook page they also contest the methods with which the seized giraffes were transported). A thesis that in today’s populist America also gathers consensus in comments on social media.

On the opposite front, in addition to the Attorney General of Virginia, there are many citizens who are sensitive to animal rights issues, there are animal rights associations, who do not intend to let go, and, indeed, some well-known faces. “Ripping children away from their distraught mothers is devastating,” he commented Post Alicia Silverstonewhich he was the protagonist of The Girls of Beverly Hills and interpret Catwoman in Batman e Robin -. I remain hopeful that sharing this message will encourage anyone with information to come forward now.”

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December 28, 2025 (changed December 28, 2025 | 11:47)

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