Canberra, Australia – A pigeon that Australia has declared to be a biosafety risk received an extension after a U.S. poultry organization declared its leg identification strip to be false.
The band suggested that the bird found in a Melbourne yard on December 26 was a carrier pigeon that had left Oregon, 8,000 miles away, two months earlier.
Based on that, Australian officials said on Thursday that they considered the bird to be a disease risk and planned to kill it.
But Deone Roberts, sports development manager for American Racing Pigeon Union, based in Oklahoma, said on Friday that the band was fake.
The band number belongs to a blue bar pigeon in the United States and is not the bird pictured in Australia, she said.
“The bird band in Australia is counterfeit and cannot be traced,” said Roberts. “Definitely has a home in Australia and not in the United States”
“Someone needs to look at that band and then understand that the bird is not from the United States. They don’t have to kill you, ”she added.
The Australian Department of Agriculture, responsible for biosafety, agreed that the pigeon nicknamed Joe, in honor of President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, was wearing a “fraudulent copy” leg band.
“After an investigation, the department concluded that Joe the Pigeon is very likely to be Australian and has no risk of biosafety,” the agency said in a statement.
The department said it would take no action.
Australian acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack had previously said there would be no mercy if the pigeon was from the United States.
“If Joe came in a way that did not meet our strict biosafety measures, unlucky Joe, or fly home or face the consequences,” said McCormack.
Martin Foley, health minister for the state of Victoria, where Joe is living, asked the federal government to spare the bird, even if it posed a risk of illness.
“I would recommend Commonwealth quarantine officials to show a little compassion,” said Foley.
Andy Meddick, a Victorian legislator for the Animal Justice Party, asked for a “pigeon pardon for Joe”.
“If the federal government allows Joe to live, I am happy to seek assurances that he does not pose a risk of escape,” said Meddick.
Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird, who found the emaciated bird in his backyard, was surprised by the change in nationality, but pleased that the bird he called Joe would not be destroyed.
“I thought it was just a nice story and now you want to put that pigeon aside and I thought it wasn’t working, you can’t do that, there must be other options,” Celli-Bird said of the euthanasia threat.
Celli-Bird had contacted the American Racing Pigeon Union to find the bird’s owner based on the leg band number. The bands have a number and a symbol, but Celli-Bird does not remember the symbol and said he can no longer catch the bird, as he has recovered from his initial weakness.
The bird with the genuine leg band had disappeared from a 350-mile run in Oregon on October 29, said Crooked River Challenge owner Lucas Cramer.
This bird did not have a running record that would make it valuable enough to steal your identity, he said.
“That bird did not finish the racing series, did not earn money and therefore has no value,” said Cramer.
The falsification of bird bands “is happening more and more,” said Roberts. “People who enter the hobby unknowingly buy it.”
The pigeon race has resurfaced in popularity and some birds have become very valuable. A Chinese pigeon racing fan lowered a record price of $ 1.9 million in November for a pigeon raised in Belgium.
Cramer said it is possible for a pigeon to cross the Pacific on a ship from Oregon to Australia.
“In reality, it can potentially happen, but this is not the same pigeon. It is not even a carrier pigeon,” said Cramer.
The bird spends every day in the yard, sometimes with a native dove on the pergola.
“I may have to change him to Aussie Joe, but he is the same pigeon,” said Celli-Bird.
Lars Scott, a caregiver for Pigeon Rescue Melbourne, a bird welfare group, said that pigeons with American leg restrictions are not uncommon in the city. Several Melbourne breeders bought them online and used them for their own records, Scott said.
Australian quarantine authorities are notoriously strict. In 2015, the government threatened to euthanize two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, after they were smuggled into the country by the Hollywood star Johnny Depp and his now ex-wife Amber Heard.
Faced with 50 hours to leave Australia, the dogs managed to get out in a chartered jet.