CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – A pigeon that Australia has declared to be a biosafety risk could get a suspension after a U.S. poultry organization declared its leg tag was false.
The band suggested that the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on December 26 was a carrier pigeon that had left the US state of Oregon, 3,000 kilometers (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 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. “You definitely have a home in Australia and not in the USA”
“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 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 1.6 million euros ($ 1.9 million) in November for a Belgian pigeon.
The Australian Department of Agriculture did not immediately say on Friday whether the fake leg bandage changed its plans to kill the bird.
The department said on Thursday that the pigeon “was not allowed to stay in Australia” because “it could compromise Australia’s food security and our wild bird populations”.
“This poses a direct biosafety risk for the lives of Australian birds and our poultry industry,” said a department statement.
Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird, who found the emaciated bird in his backyard, was surprised by the development and pleased that the bird he had named Joe, in honor of the US President-elect, had not been destroyed. .
“Yes, I’m happy with that,” said Celli-Bird, referring to the news that Joe is probably not a threat to biosafety.
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 spends every day in the yard, sometimes with a native dove on the pergola. Celli-Bird feeds him with pigeon food a few days after his arrival. “I think he decided that as I gave him some food and he has a place to drink, this is my home,” he said.
Australian quarantine authorities are notoriously strict. In 2015, the government threatened to sacrifice two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, after they were smuggled into the country by Hollywood star Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard.
Faced with 50 hours to leave Australia, the dogs managed to get out in a chartered jet.