CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – A pigeon that Australia declared a biosafety risk may get a recovery after a US bird organization declared its identification band false.
The band suggested that the bird found in a backyard in Melbourne on December 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the US state of Oregon, 3,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) away, two months before.
On this basis, Australian authorities said on Thursday that they considered the bird a risk of disease and planned to kill it.
But Deone Roberts, Oklahoma-based American Racing Pigeon Union sports development manager, said the band was fake.
The band’s number belongs to a blue dove from the United States and is not the bird shown in Australia, he said.
“The bird band in Australia is fake and can’t be tracked,” Roberts said. “He definitely has a home in Australia and not the United States”
“Someone has to look at this band and then understand that the bird is not from the United States. They don’t need to be killed,” he added.
Counterfeiting of bird bands “happens every time,” Roberts said. “People who come to the hobby buy it without knowing it.”
Pigeon racing has seen a resurgence in popularity and some birds have become quite valuable. A Chinese pigeon racing enthusiast set a record price of 1.6 million euros ($ 1.9 million) in November for a Belgian breed pigeon.
The Australian Department of Agriculture did not say immediately on Friday whether the fake-legged gang 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 jeopardize the food security of Australia and our wild bird populations”.
“It poses a direct biosecurity risk to the lives of Australian birds and our poultry industry,” a department statement said.
Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird, who found the diminished bird in the back garden, was shocked by the development and was pleased that the bird he had named Joe, in honor of the US President-elect, could not. be destroyed.
“Yeah, I’m happy about that,” Celli-Bird said, referring to the news that Joe is probably not a biosecurity threat.
Celli-Bird had contacted the American Racing Pigeon Union to find the owner of the bird according to the leg band number. The bands have a number and a symbol, but Celli-Bird did not remember it and said he can no longer catch the bird as it has recovered from its initial weakness.
The bird spends every day in the back garden, sometimes with a native pigeon on a pergola. Celli-Bird has been feeding him pigeon food a few days after his arrival. “I think he just decided that since I gave him food and he has a place to drink, he’s at home,” he said.
The 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 Hollywood star Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard.
Faced with a 50-hour deadline to leave Australia, the dogs left with a rental plane.