Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

3 days ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

3 days ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

4 days ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

4 days ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

4 days ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

4 days ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

4 days ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

4 days ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

4 days ago
Fake US Leg Band Gets Pigeon a Reprieve in Australia
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 years ago on
January 15, 2021

Share

CANBERRA, Australia — 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 the U.S. state of 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,” Roberts 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 United States.

“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.

That Bird Did Not Have a Racing Record That Would Make It Valuable Enough to Steal Its Identity

Andy Meddick, a Victorian lawmaker for the minor Animal Justice Party, called for a “pigeon pardon for Joe.”

“Should the federal government allow Joe to live, I am happy to seek assurances that he is not a flight risk,” Meddick said.

Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird, who found the emaciated bird in his backyard, was surprised by the change of nationality but pleased that the bird he named Joe would not be destroyed.

“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. The bands have both a number and a symbol, but Celli-Bird didn’t remember the symbol and said he can no longer catch the bird since it has recovered from its initial weakness.

The bird with the genuine leg band had disappeared from a 350-mile race in Oregon on Oct. 29, Crooked River Challenge owner Lucas Cramer said.

That bird did not have a racing record that would make it valuable enough to steal its identity, he said.

“That bird didn’t finish the race series, it didn’t make any money and so its worthless, really,” Cramer said.

He said it was possible a pigeon could cross the Pacific on a ship from Oregon to Australia.

“In reality, it could potentially happen, but this isn’t the same pigeon. It’s not even a racing pigeon,” Cramer said.

The bird spends every day in the backyard, sometimes with a native dove on a pergola.

“I might have to change him to Aussie Joe, but he’s just the same pigeon,” Celli-Bird said.

Lars Scott, a carer at Pigeon Rescue Melbourne, a bird welfare group, 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.

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 made it out in a chartered jet.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Fresno DUI Driver Slams Into CHP Motorcycle, Tow Truck on Highway 99

DON'T MISS

Russia Downs 120 Ukrainian Drones Overnight, Defense Ministry Says

DON'T MISS

Israel Sends Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Talks Ahead of Netanyahu Trip to US

DON'T MISS

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

DON'T MISS

Musk Announces Forming of ‘America Party’ in Further Break From Trump

DON'T MISS

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

DON'T MISS

California’s Politics Drifts Right While New York’s Leans Left

DON'T MISS

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

DON'T MISS

What’s Caitlin Clark Worth to the WNBA? A Lot More Than Her $78,066 Salary.

DON'T MISS

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

UP NEXT

Israel Sends Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Talks Ahead of Netanyahu Trip to US

UP NEXT

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

UP NEXT

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

UP NEXT

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

UP NEXT

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

UP NEXT

Russia Pounds Kyiv With Largest Drone Attack, Hours After Trump-Putin Call

UP NEXT

Markets’ 90-Day Tariff Pause Rollercoaster Nears an Uncertain End

UP NEXT

Fresno Crash Involving Unlicensed Teen Driver Sends Woman to Hospital

UP NEXT

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

UP NEXT

Colombia President Recalls Ambassador to US

Wanted Fugitive Found Hiding in Attic Arrested in Chowchilla

54 minutes ago

Trump Says US Will Impose 25% Tariffs on Japan, South Korea

2 hours ago

Wall Street Knocked Lower by Tariff Jitters, Musk’s Political Plan Hurts Tesla

2 hours ago

Trial Over Free Speech on Campus, and Trump’s Student Crackdown, Begins

2 hours ago

Planned Parenthood Sues Trump Administration Over Planned Defunding

2 hours ago

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Injures 1 Firefighter, Burns Over 80,000 Acres

2 hours ago

Two Border Patrol Officers Injured After Gunman Opens Fire in Texas

2 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest 9 at Independence Day DUI Checkpoint

2 hours ago

Schumer Wants Probe of National Weather Service Response in Texas

3 hours ago

Israeli Guilt Over Gaza Lurks Beneath Silence and Denial

3 hours ago

Man Dead After Firing at US Border Patrol Station in Texas

WASHINGTON – A 27-year-old Michigan man was shot dead by police after opening fire with an assault rifle on a U.S. Border Patrol stati...

19 minutes ago

Photo of caution tape
19 minutes ago

Man Dead After Firing at US Border Patrol Station in Texas

The Flume Fire in Sequoia National Forest has burned 65 acres near Highway 190 with no containment as of Monday, July 7, 2025, prompting evacuations in Tulare County. (CalFire)
30 minutes ago

Tulare County Flume Fire Burns 65 Acres in Sequoia National Forest, Evacuation Order Issued

Firefighters stopped the forward progress of the Fish Fire near Avocado Lake after it burned 15 acres Monday, July 7, 2025, reaching 50% containment. (CalFire)
45 minutes ago

Fresno County Fish Fire Burns 15 Acres Near Avocado Lake, 50% Contained

Gary White, 42, a wanted fugitive, was arrested in Chowchilla after deputies found him hiding in an attic and he surrendered without incident on Thursday, July 3, 2025. (Madera County SO)
54 minutes ago

Wanted Fugitive Found Hiding in Attic Arrested in Chowchilla

Containers on a cargo ship are pictured at an industrial port in Tokyo, Japan, July 2, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

Trump Says US Will Impose 25% Tariffs on Japan, South Korea

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2025. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
2 hours ago

Wall Street Knocked Lower by Tariff Jitters, Musk’s Political Plan Hurts Tesla

Protesters march near the campus of Columbia University in upper Manhattan to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and former Columbia student, on March 14, 2025. A federal judge in Boston on Monday, July 7, 2025, will hear opening statements in a trial expected to present the foremost challenge to the Trump administration’s aggressive posture toward foreign students who espoused pro-Palestinian views. (Dave Sanders/The New York Times)
2 hours ago

Trial Over Free Speech on Campus, and Trump’s Student Crackdown, Begins

Activists for Planned Parenthood demonstrate as the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in South Carolina's bid to cut off public funding to Planned Parenthood, in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

Planned Parenthood Sues Trump Administration Over Planned Defunding

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend