Fake U.S. leg band results in reprieve for Joe the pigeon
>> A pigeon that Australia declared a biosecurity risk has received a reprieve after a U.S. bird organization declared its identifying leg band was fake.
The band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 was a racing pigeon that had left Oregon, 8,000 miles away, two months earlier. On that basis, Australian authorities on Thursday said they considered the bird a disease risk and planned to kill it.
But Deone Roberts, sport development manager for the Oklahoma-based American Racing Pigeon Union, said on Friday the band was fake. The band number belongs to a blue bar pigeon in the United States which is not the bird pictured in Australia, she said.
“The bird band in Australia is counterfeit and not traceable,” he said. “They do not need to kill him.”
Australia’s Agriculture Department, which is responsible for biosecurity, agreed that the pigeon dubbed Joe, after U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, was wearing a “fraudulent copy” leg band.
“Following an investigation, the department has concluded that Joe the Pigeon is highly likely to be Australian and does not
present a biosecurity risk,” it said in a statement.
The department said it will take no further action.
Acting Australian Prime Minister Michael McCormack had earlier said there would be no mercy if the pigeon was from the U.S.
“If Joe has come in a way that has not met our strict biosecurity measures, then bad luck Joe, either fly home or face the consequences,” McCormack said.
Martin Foley, health minister for Victoria state where Joe is living, had called for the federal government to spare the bird even if it posed a disease risk.
“I would urge the Commonwealth’s quarantine officials to show a little bit of compassion,” Foley said.
Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird, who found the
bird in his backyard, was surprised by the change of nationality but pleased that the bird he named Joe was safe.
“I thought this is just a feel-good story and now you guys want to put this pigeon away and I thought it’s not on, you know, you can’t do that, there has got to be other options,” Celli-Bird said of the threat to euthanize.
Celli-Bird had contacted the American Racing Pigeon Union to find the bird’s owner based on the number on the leg band.
Lars Scott from Pigeon Rescue Melbourne said pigeons with American leg bands were not uncommon around the city. A number of Melbourne breeders bought them online and used them for their own record keeping, Scott said.