Mr. Magoo, the Duluth Zoo’s celebrated mongoose, has received a full pardon from Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall
Shortly after the animal was donated to the zoo by a merchant seaman last November, it was threatened with deportation to India for violation of a 1909 law that bars mongooses. Magoo’s deportation at that time was stayed until May 1 by Secretary Udall on behest of visitors to the zoo, where Magoo had become a popular attraction or something of a cause celebre.
Mr. Magoo’s deportation stay was extended indefinitely today in a letter from Secretary Udall to Daniel H. Janzen, Director of Interior’s Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife.
In the letter Secretary Udall said, “Acting on the authority that permits importation of proscribed mammals, including mongooses for zoological, education, medical and scientific purposes, I recommend that Mr. Magoo be granted non-political asylum in the United States.”
The Interior Secretary said that some feelings had run high in Mr. Magoo’s favor, but he explained that the potential dangers of an established mongoose population in the United States “warrant fully the concern of wildlife biologists.”
“The mongoose is a rapid breeder with no natural enemies in this country and could be a major danger to the poultry industry, ground-living wildlife, and birds, if by any event, even accidental, they were allowed to become established in this country,” he said.
“However under the specific circumstances surrounding Mr. Magoo, and the fact that there is obviously no danger of further mongoose population increases from his bachelor existence, we have concluded that Mr. Magoo can stay but the rest of his species will have to stay out,” the Secretary said.
