CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – A pigeon identified as a biosafety risk by Australia may be given a reprieve after an American bird organization declared the identifying leg band to be fake.
The band suggested that the bird found in a backyard in Melbourne 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.
On that basis, Australian authorities 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 Oklahoma-based American Racing Pigeon Union, said the tire was a fake.
The band number belongs to a blue-barred pigeon in the United States, and that’s not the bird depicted in Australia, she said.
“The bird band in Australia is counterfeit and not traceable,” said Roberts. “It definitely has a home in Australia and not the US”
“Someone has to look at that tape and then understand that the bird is not from the US. They don’t have to kill it,” she added.
Counterfeiting bird groups “is happening more and more,” said Roberts. “People who come into the hobby unconsciously buy it.”
The pigeon sport has seen a resurgence in popularity and some birds have become quite valuable. A Chinese pigeon sport enthusiast set a record price of 1.6 million euros ($ 1.9 million) for a Belgian-bred pigeon in November.
The Australian Department of Agriculture did not immediately say on Friday whether the fake leg band changed its plans to kill the bird.
The department said on Thursday that the pigeon should “not be allowed to stay in Australia” because it “could endanger Australia’s food security and our wild bird populations.”
“It poses a direct biosecurity risk to Australian birds and our poultry industry,” said a statement from the department.
Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird, who found the emaciated bird in his backyard, was surprised by the development and delighted that the bird he named Joe, after the US president-elect, might not be destroyed.
“Yeah, I’m happy with that,” said Celli-Bird, referring to news that Joe probably isn’t a threat to biosecurity.
Celli-Bird had contacted the American Racing Pigeon Union to find the bird’s owner based on the number on the leg tire. The tires have both a number and a symbol, but Celli-Bird did not remember the symbol and said he can no longer catch the bird because he has recovered from his initial weakness.
The bird spends every day in the backyard, sometimes with a native pigeon on a pergola. Celli-Bird has fed the pigeon feed within a few days of arrival. “I think he just decided that since I gave him some food and he has a place to drink, that’s home,” he 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 got out in a chartered jet.