A pigeon that Australia declared a biosecurity risk may get a reprieve after a US bird organization declared its identifying leg band was fake.
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The band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the US 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.
Acting Australian Prime Minister Michael McCormack said he did not know what the fate of the bird named Joe, after US president-elect Joe Biden, would be. But there would be no mercy if the pigeon were from the United States.
"If Joe has come in a way that has not met our strict biosecurity measures, then bad luck Joe, either fly home or face the consequences," McCormack told reporters.
