Australia to kill racing pigeon that flew 8,000 miles from Oregon over quarantine concerns
AP
In this image made from video, a racing pigeon sits on a rooftop Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021, in Melbourne, Australia, The racing pigeon, first spotted in late Dec. 2020, appears to have made an extraordinary 13,000-kilometer (8,000-mile) Pacific Ocean crossing from the United States to Australia. Experts suspect the pigeon named Joe, after the U.S. president-elect, hitched a ride on a cargo ship to cross the Pacific. (Channel 9 via AP)
By: Scripps National & The Associated Press
Posted at 10:21 AM, Jan 14, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-14 10:29:44-05
CANBERRA, Australia â A racing pigeon has survived an extraordinary 8,000-mile Pacific Ocean crossing from the United States to find a new home in Australia.
A racing pigeon has survived an extraordinary 13,000-kilometre 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.
But authorities now consider the bird a quarantine risk and plan to kill it.
Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird said on Thursday he discovered the exhausted bird in his back yard on December 26. It had disappeared from a race in the US state of Oregon on October 29.
Experts suspect the pigeon that Celli-Bird has named Joe, after the US president-elect, hitched a ride on a cargo ship to cross the Pacific.
Joe’s feat has attracted the attention of the Australian media but also of the notoriously strict Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.
Celli-Bird said quarantine authorities called him on Thursday to ask him to catch the bird.