Joe, the racing pigeon, survived an extraordinary 13,000-kilometer journey across the Pacific Ocean from Alabama, the USA, to Melbourne, Australia. Unfortunately, authorities are now considering killing the bird after breaching Australia's quarantine laws and fear that it might bring diseases.
There have been reports of a missing racing pigeon in the US during a racing event of pigeons last October 2020, and authorities believe that this might be Joe.
Joe Faces Death Penalty For Violating Quarantine Laws
Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird told the authorities on Thursday that he discovered the exhausted bird in his backyard in Melbourne last December 29, 2020, Gizmodo reported. This pigeon is the same bird that disappeared from a race in the US on October 29 of the same year.
According to experts, Joe might have hitched a ride on a cargo ship to cross the Pacific and reach Australia. Joe is named after the US President-elect Joe Biden.
Celli-Bird said that the racing pigeon seemed to have decided to stay in his backyard after given some water by him, taking a bath in his backyard, and receiving biscuits. Upon examining, he realized that the bird is a racing pigeon and so he immediately contacted a local pigeon club but said it was not listed in their records.
"I Googled it, and it showed up an American racing pigeon union, and it was registered to someone in Montgomery, Alabama," Celli-Bird told 7NEWS in Australia. In the end, he was unsuccessful in contacting Joe's owner.
The news about Joe did not escape the notoriously strict Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service. Quarantine authorities called on Celli-Bird last Thursday to ask if he can help them out. They think that the bird could be a disease carrier if it indeed came from America.
But Celli-Bird said that he could not catch it because as soon as he gets close to Joe within 500 millimeters, it gets startled and moves. The quarantine authorities are now considering contacting a professional bird catcher to catch Joe.
Moreover, quarantine authorities said that Joe is not allowed to stay in Australia because it could compromise the food security in the country and their wild bird populations. Also, Joe presents a "direct biosecurity risk to Australian birdlife and our poultry industry," per the AQIS statement.
Joe is "not permitted to remain in Australia," according to a department statement, because the bird "could compromise Australia's food security and our wild bird populations." Consequently, the statement from AQIS said that the bird presents a "direct biosecurity risk to Australian birdlife and our poultry industry."
Fears of Pigeons From the US Carrying Diseases
According to the secretary of the Australian National Pigeon Association, Brad Turner, he had heard of many cases of Chinese racing pigeons that have reached Australia while aboard some cargo ships.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Turner said that there had been genuine fears about pigeons coming from there because they could be carriers of many diseases. So he agrees with the quarantine authorities that Joe needs to be destroyed.
"While it sounds harsh to the normal person - they'd hear that and go: 'this is cruel,' and everything else - I'd think you'd find that A.Q.I.S. and those sort of people would give their wholehearted support for the idea," Turner said.
Read also: Fly Away, Skyline Pigeon Spy: Indian Cops Arrest a Pigeon Accused of Being a Pakistani Spy
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