January 17, 2021
CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA (AP) A pigeon that Australia declared a biosecurity risk has received a reprieve after a United States (US) bird organisation declared its identifying leg band was fake.
The band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on December 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the US state of Oregon, 13,000 kilometres 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 Sport Development Manager for the Oklahoma-based American Racing Pigeon Union Deone Roberts said on Friday the band was fake.
The band number belongs to a blue bar pigeon in the US which is not the bird pictured in Australia, she said.