Australia (AP) — A racing pigeon has survived an extraordinary 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 (real name) said Thursday he discovered the exhausted bird that arrived in his Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 had disappeared from a race in Oregon on Oct. 29.
Experts suspect the pigeon that Celli-Bird has named Joe, after Joe Biden, 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.
Meanwhile, the American Racing Pigeon Union had confirmed that Joe was registered to an owner in Montgomery, Alabama.
Celli-Bird said quarantine authorities called him on Thursday to ask him to catch the bird.
The Agriculture Department said the pigeon was “not permitted to remain in Australia” because it could compromise Australia’s food security and wild bird populations.