Reston, Virginia
The Reston Zoo is running without a director, but the animals are breathing a sigh of relief, now that 26-year-old Meghan Mogensen has been convicted of animal cruelty. And this is a story that really pisses me off.
The conviction comes after authorities say the former director drowned an injured wallaby at the facility. According to testimony, Mogensen was one cruel bitch when it comes to putting down animals. The curator testified that animals had been euthanized in shocking ways. Some were shot, rabbits were slammed into walls and chickens were fed to pythons.
The trial focused on an injured wallaby named Parmesan that, according to the curator, was drowned in a plastic bucket by Meghan Mogensen.
Mogensen, of Silver Spring, was convicted of animal cruelty and sentenced to 30 days in jail. A judge also found her guilty of possessing animal anesthesia without a license. The zoo, which is not an accredited one, is owned by her father.
The unusual trial featured testimony about a wallaby autopsy known as a necropsy, veterinary forensics experts and fingerprint analysis as prosecutors sought to show that Mogensen cruelly killed the wallaby and then mounted an elaborate coverup.
The testimony also raised questions about the zoo’s care of its animals. Other zoos owned by Eric Mogensen have also come under scrutiny in recent years, according to media reports.
Back to the wallaby, Parmesan had injured its left eye while hopping about its pen at the end of January. Testimony revealed that zookeepers bandaged the wallaby’s eye and put the animal in a plastic crate but that Parmesan managed to bang its head again and punctured the eye, which started bleeding.
Perhaps Meghan Mogensen inherited her evil ways from her father. When she consulted with him about the wallaby’s condition, he decided to kill the wallaby over treatment by a veterinarian.
Parmesan’s little, wet body was discovered in a garbage bag.
Meghan Mogensen claimed that she euthanized the wallaby with an injection. However, autopsy reports showed otherwise. There were no needle marks found and, according to the examiner, there was blood in the lungs – a sign of drowning.
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