DULUTH RELICS ILLEGAL MONGOOSE BECAME NATIONAL CELEBRITY

BY KATHLEEN MURPHY

The cover of a book found at a library sale featured a small animal resembling a weasel in a porthole window, and included a quote by President John F. Kennedy. I posted a photo of “The Duluth Mongoose” on a few Duluth-centered Facebook pages, asking people if they remembered or had heard of Mr. Magoo, an Indian mongoose that lived at the Duluth Zoo (now Lake Superior Zoo) in the 1960s.

The large and vehement response made me feel that not only was Mr. Magoo fondly remembered, but I had somehow failed as a Duluthian by not knowing his story. One commenter called him “Duluth’s most famous celebrity.” Another informed me she had done some research on Mr. Magoo and was in the process of writing a new children’s book in his honor.

The story of Mr. Magoo goes like this: Sailors on an oceangoing vessel that came into the Port of Duluth had a tame Indian mongoose on board. The mongoose was so tame, it even enjoyed evening tea with the crew. When they docked, they contacted the Duluth Zoo and asked if someone would come pick up the mongoose, which the zoo director at the time, Lloyd Hackl, agreed to do. They named him Mr. Magoo, and the personable, tea-drinking mongoose quickly became a favorite at the zoo.

Within a short time, however, a federal customs agent heard about the mongoose. It was ordered seized, and Hackl was told it would be euthanized. Mongoose are prolific breeders and therefore banned in the United States in order to protect the native wildlife. The Duluth Herald ran a headline that read: “Mongoose Seized as Undesirable.”

Duluthians, however, already saw the mongoose as one of their own, and acted accordingly. The mayor got involved, as did the city attorney. Duluthians encouraged each other to write to their congressperson, as well as anyone in the federal government who could possibly help, such as the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Petitions were circulated requesting authorities to make an exception, as Mr. Magoo was under lock and key, as well as a lone male with no chance of reproducing.

The grassroots campaign worked. On Dec. 8, 1962, Stewart L. Udall, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, issued an authorization for the Duluth Zoo to temporarily keep the mongoose. Four months later, he was granted full permanent asylum. Rumor has it that President Kennedy himself issued the pardon, and when he visited Duluth in September of 1963, he declared the story of Duluth’s fight to save Mr. Magoo as a “classic example of government by the people.”

Mr. Magoo lived out his life at the Duluth Zoo, dying of old age in January 1968. Before his death, Jack Denton Scott wrote the book “The Duluth Mongoose.” It was sold at the zoo with Mr. Magoo’s “signature,” a stamp of his pawprints. A children’s book written by Herb and Mary Montgomery and illustrated by Marilue Johnson was published a few years later. Both books and Mr. Magoo can be seen on display in zoo’s main building.

Mr. Magoo was such big news at the time that the mayor of Duluth in 1965, George D. Johnson, appeared on the national game show “To Tell the Truth,” with the story of the mongoose as the central plot. The show featured celebrity panelists who are told a true story about a person, then are presented with three people to question and make their best guess as to which