Zoo director drowns wallaby in bucket of water
Stock photo: PA
A zoo director has been found guilty of animal cruelty after reportedly drowning a wallaby in a plastic bucket.
Meghan Mogensen, the director of Reston Zoo in Northern Virginia, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $1,000 for a cruelty charge.
She was also found guilty of being in possession of a euthanasia drug she did not have permits to have.
The news came to light when zoo worker Ashley Rood found the wallaby, called Parmesan, who had been killed because he was injured.
She had already become increasingly uncomfortable with the procedures she had witnessed at work, and told a Fairfax County courtroom on Friday that animals were being euthanised in shocking ways: some were shot, rabbits were slammed into walls and chickens were fed to pythons.
Upon finding Parmesan, she told wtvr.com: "I ripped open the bag and I saw him and that solidified it for me. I knew what had happened."
According to the Washington Post, Rood then resigned and called the police. She recalled telling Morgensen, whose dad owns the zoo: "I think you and your father are sick and sadistic people, and I don't want to be part of this anymore.
"It's one thing to euthanise an animal, but it's another thing to drown it."
Morgensen, 26, denies the charge.
According to the Washington Post, police said Mogensen told them she euthanised the animal by giving it a lethal injection.
Meghan Mogensen's attorney, Caleb Kershner, contended that his client, who didn't testify during the trial, had humanely euthanised the wallaby using a lethal injection and was "acting out of compassion for an animal in pain".
Rood testified that Parmesan had injured his left eye while hopping about his pen at the end of January. Zookeepers bandaged the wallaby's eye and put the animal in a plastic crate but Parmesan banged his head again and punctured the eye, which started bleeding.
Rood said she was left "dumbfounded" by the decision to euthanise the wallaby, as she believed it could be treated.
Rood said she then found Parmesan's open crate next to a bucket that had water in it, and immediately suspected Parmesan had been drowned.
She testified that she jumped into a Dumpster and ripped open a rubbish bag that contained the "soaking wet" wallaby, which was when she confronted Mogensen.
Fairfax County animal control officer Jennifer Milburn testified that Mogensen indicated to her that she had humanely euthanised Parmesan by injecting the animal in the neck with a euthanasia drug.
But Milburn and the examiner who performed the necropsy found no evidence of a needle stick. The necropsy also found no sign of the euthanasia drug in the wallaby's system and found blood in the animal's lungs, which the examiner testified is consistent with drowning.
Mogensen's attorney now plans to appeal the sentence.
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