A pigeon name Joe, that Australia declared a biosecurity risk and was facing death row last month after it was alleged that it entered the country from the United States, has got a reprieve after a US bird organisation declared its identifying leg band was fake.
So what actually happened to Joe?
The pigeon was found in a Melbourne backyard on Decemeber 26, 2020 with a band on its leg that suggested it was race bird that had left Oregon in the US that is some 13,000 kilometres away, two months earlier. Going by Australian media reports, Joe was found by Kevin Celli-Bird in an exhausted condition, who then claimed that the bird was registered to an owner in Alabama.
Following this, Australian authorities wanted to capture and euthanise the pigeon for evading quarantine rules. The authorities also reached a theory whereby the pigeon must have come to Australia onboard a cargo vehicle.
However, the American Pigeon Racing Union came as a lifesaver just in time and…