Saved by the band

January 15, 2021 11:08 AM

A pigeon that Australia declared a biosecurity risk has received a reprieve after a U.S. bird organization declared its identifying leg band was fake. The band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the U.S. state of Oregon, 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) 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 Deone Roberts, sport development manager for the Oklahoma-based American Racing Pigeon Union, said on Friday the band was fake.
posted by Bella Donna (12 comments total)

“Following an investigation, the department has concluded that Joe the Pigeon is highly likely to be Australian and does not present a biosecurity risk”
posted by Huffy Puffy at 11:14 AM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

So do you think the pigeon gets to keep Joe or will the bird get renamed?
posted by Bella Donna at 11:30 AM on January 15, 2021

Oh thank goodness. I was legit saddened by this story prior to this happy update!
posted by merriment at 11:39 AM on January 15, 2021 [4 favorites]

Call off Dick Dastardly!
posted by fight or flight at 11:44 AM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

Wow, somebody really had a vendetta against that poor pigeon. Justice for Joe!
posted by simra at 12:22 PM on January 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

At least Joe/Aussie Joe was found. The genuine leg band's record ties to a bird that went missing during an Oregon race in October. And the guy who ran the race says, "That bird didn’t finish the race series, it didn’t make any money and so its worthless, really," which is not suspicious, really.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:32 PM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

That pigeon says, "I was in a race?"
posted by tiny frying pan at 1:23 PM on January 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

At least Joe/Aussie Joe was found.

Joe in Australia was a pigeon this whole time?!
posted by ActingTheGoat at 2:42 PM on January 15, 2021 [10 favorites]

If anyone else is wondering how on earth a pigeon would end up with a "counterfeit" leg band, there's an explanation buried at the end of the story: "Lars Scott, a carer at Pigeon Rescue Melbourne, a bird welfare group, said pigeons with American leg bands were not uncommon around the city. A number of Melbourne breeders bought them online and used them for their own record keeping."
posted by oulipian at 2:44 PM on January 15, 2021 [7 favorites]

My guess would have been that, with it being Melbourne, even the pigeon fanciers are hipsters.
posted by acb at 3:56 AM on January 16, 2021

At least Joe/Aussie Joe was found.

Joe in Australia was a pigeon this whole time?!
posted by ActingTheGoat at 4:42 PM on January 15

You know what they say: "On the internet, nobody knows you're a pigeon"
posted by symbioid at 8:43 AM on January 16, 2021 [4 favorites]

A few years ago a stray racing pigeon landed on a sailing boat near where I live in the Caribbean. The sailors named him Crou-Crou and when they got to the next island, they took him onshore and asked who could take care of him. Because I have a group that does nature education, they were told to give him to me. They were told that the way to do that was to leave them at the bar I usually go to. That evening, I ran into the owner of that bar who asked if I had picked up my pigeon. I had not, so I went to the bar and picked up the cardboard box that said “we named him Crou-Crou” in French on the top. We took him home and he lived on our balcony for a few days, flying off from time to time but coming back at night. The band was from a Puerto Rican pigeon club, and from what I can tell, pigeon racers are not that interesting in getting birds back that have no sense of direction. Crou-Crou disappeared after a few days, but then two days later came back with a friend who was also a banded racing pigeon. They hung out for a while, but when they started fighting over grain we stopped feeding them and they moved on.
posted by snofoam at 3:03 PM on January 16, 2021 [8 favorites]