The two giraffe calves were allegedly taken shortly after their birth in April

Alicia Silverstone, two giraffes at a zoo. Credit :Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty; Getty

NEED TO KNOW

Alicia Silverstone and PETA offer $50,000 reward to find two missing giraffe calves from the Natural Bridge Zoo
The calves vanished amid a years-long animal-welfare investigation at the Virginia zoo
The zoo’s manager and co-owner has been jailed after refusing a court order to disclose the animals’ location

Alicia Silverstone is joining the search for two baby giraffes that have been missing from the Natural Bridge Zoo in Virginia since April amid ongoing animal-cruelty allegations.

According to a press release from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Clueless alum, 49, is offering up to $50,000 for information that could help locate the calves. The giraffes — believed to have been taken from their mothers shortly after birth — disappeared during a long-running legal battle over animal care at the facility.

“Tearing babies away from their distraught mothers is devastating for both, no matter what species they are,” Silverstone said in the release. “These missing babies need specialized care, and every day counts in finding them, so I hope someone with information about their whereabouts will come forward now.”

Stock photo of two giraffes at a zoo.Getty

The timeline of events dates back to December 2023, when the Attorney General’s Animal Law Unit seized roughly 100 animals from the zoo after finding widespread concerns, including animals kept in filth, sick animals denied veterinary care, and dozens of dead animal bodies and parts on the property — including giraffe legs, a head, skin, tails and frozen bags of feces.

In March 2024, a Virginia judge ruled that 71 of the animals would remain in the government’s custody. According to local outlet Cardinal News, the county needed to prove each animal had suffered deliberate cruelty or a level of deprivation that posed a “direct and immediate threat to the animal’s life, health or safety.”

For the 29 remaining animals, those accusations did not meet the legal threshold, allowing them to be returned to the zoo. The animals sent back included 11 lemurs, an albino Burmese python, giraffes, a pack of sheep, a pair of sacred ibises, two llamas, tamarins, a kookaburra, a gibbon, capuchins, several parrots, three ground hornbills, three cockatoos, a serval, a Poitou donkey, and a macaw.

Stock photo of a baby giraffe sitting down.Getty

Two of the four adult giraffes that remained on site during the seizure were pregnant. The attorney general’s office required the zoo to notify the state when the calves were born, but officials say that never occurred. Public records show the zoo has a history of separating baby giraffes from their mothers prematurely, having shipped out at least 14 calves in the decade before the state intervened.

Silverstone’s reward offer follows the decision by the zoo’s co-owner, Gretchen Mogensen, to serve 100 days in jail rather than comply with a court order — after being given five weeks to do so — requiring her to disclose the calves’ whereabouts. She is expected to be released in February 2026.

According to PETA, the Mogensen family’s exhibitor license has been suspended multiple times, and the zoo has accumulated years of federal Animal Welfare Act violations, including alleged incidents of animals being bludgeoned to death as a method of “euthanasia,” inadequate veterinary care, and failure to provide basic food and water.

Anyone with information about the missing calves is urged to contact the Virginia Office of the Attorney General’s Animal Law Unit at 804-786-2071.