Racing pigeon that traveled 8,000 miles from Oregon to Australia set to be euthanized
By Rod McGuirk article
FILE - A racing pigeon sits on his cage before a pigeon racing tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia on June 20, 2020.
(Yogi Aroon Sidabariba/INA Photo Agency/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
CANBERRA, Australia - A racing pigeon has survived an extraordinary 13,000-kilometer (8,000-mile) Pacific Ocean crossing from the United States to find a new home in Australia. Now authorities consider the bird a quarantine risk and plan to kill it.
Kevin Celli-Bird said Thursday he discovered the exhausted bird that arrived in his Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 had disappeared from a race in the U.S. state of Oregon on Oct. 29.
A pigeon initially believed to have made an 8,000-mile journey across the Pacific from Oregon to Australia was set to be killed because the country declared it a quarantine risk. But the bird has now been given a reprieve after its identifying leg band was deemed a fake.