Overview
- Virginia’s Office of the Attorney General located the two giraffe calves that went missing from Natural Bridge Zoo in 2025 and moved them to a professional facility for medical and behavioral care.
- Officials have withheld details about how and where the calves were found to protect an active criminal probe, and prosecutors say charges against the zoo’s co-owners and staff remain pending.
- The case grew from a 2023 animal-law unit investigation that led to a search warrant showing animals without adequate food or water and 28 dead animals on site.
- Authorities seized roughly 95–100 animals from the zoo during that raid, and state officials say the zoo failed to report the giraffe births as a court had ordered.
- The recovery ends a year-long public search that included reward appeals, and it leaves open questions about prosecutions, the long-term care of seized animals, and oversight of roadside zoos.