Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/14/racing-pigeon-from-oregon-shows-up-in-australia-and-now-faces-a-death-sentence.html
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Those are some harsh immigration laws. Just deport the fella.
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Or…
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I mean, put it in a fucking box with holes in it and next day fed ex it to Alabama. Is it really that hard?
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Silly thing is, that birds fly into Australia from other places all the time, and its not considered a biosecurity risk. But because somebody picked this bird up, its suddenly considered a pet and subject to border restrictions.
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+100%… This is someone’s pet, at least try to get it back to them. Or contact them and ask them.
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Do they though? I feel invasive bird species aren’t that common, or if they are they were brought by people. I could be wrong.
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Birds generally, mosty seabirds, come and go all the time. Pigeons, less so I am sure.
But this is turning into a PR disaster. I just wish somebody higher up would show a bit of sense.
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Sure, they’re super scared about foreign invaders bringing in disease.
But did they euthanize Tom Hanks? I think not!
Hypocrites!
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On the other hand, it is Australia. Something there is going to wind up killing it either way.
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A “pet” they haul out long distances and abandon to see if it can find its way home, for sport. Not really feeling the love from the “owner” in that case.
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there were genuine fears pigeons from the United States could carry exotic disease
When the United States sends Australia their pigeons, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending pigeons that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with them. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good pigeons.
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I think until t***p leaves office, it’s got a pretty good case for political asylum.
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I think we can safely say it did not find its way home. So evidently, the pigeon felt the same way. On the other hand, pigeons are pretty dumb, so maybe it was giving it its best shot.
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I want to heart this like seventeen times
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If I was a pigeon that lived in Alabama, I might want to be on the other side of the planet, and fly across the ocean if I was significantly closer – say, Oregon.
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Turns out the story’s even weirder:
But Deone Roberts, sport development manager for the Oklahoma-based American Racing Pigeon Union, said the band was fake.
The band number belongs to a blue bar pigeon in the United States and that is not the bird pictured in Australia, she said.
“The bird band in Australia is counterfeit and not traceable,” Roberts said. “It definitely has a home in Australia and not the U.S.”
“Somebody needs to look at that band and then understand that the bird is not from the U.S. They do not need to kill him,” she added.
Counterfeiting bird bands is “happening more and more,” Roberts said. “People coming into the hobby unknowingly buy that.”
Counterfeit. Pigeon. Bands.
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Australia fears that it could bring diseases like gop-itis or trump-itis.
Not something they want competing with their own political “itises”
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