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Just don’t let that pigeon drive the bus!
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At the same time as the Oz biosecurity authorities were plotting pigeoncide, they were also doing this:
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Googled around for a bit and it looks like ball kids will be involved in the AO, 2021. Hard to see how that can be justified. Seems risky to me.
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what advantage is there to gain by putting a fake band on a bird’s foot 
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Migratory, not invasive.
If Australia started killing all the birds that flew there, they would quickly have a Four Pests style problem
By April 1960, Chinese leaders changed their opinion due to the influence of ornithologist Tso-hsin Cheng who pointed out that sparrows ate a large number of insects, as well as grains. Rather than being increased, rice yields after the campaign were substantially decreased.Mao ordered the end of the campaign against sparrows, replacing them with bed bugs, as the extermination of sparrows upset the ecological balance, and insects destroyed crops as a result of the absence of natural predators.
By this time, however, it was too late. With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding the ecological problems already caused by the Great Leap Forward, including widespread deforestation and misuse of poisons and pesticides. Ecological imbalance is credited with exacerbating the Great Chinese Famine, in which 15–45 million people died of starvation. The Chinese government eventually resorted to importing 250,000 sparrows from the Soviet Union to replenish their population
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We have a very opaque government here when it comes to freedom of information. Who knows what machinations and international deals were made to spare Tom.
Also, looks like Joe the pigeon (named after Joe Biden?!) is not only wearing a fake US band but is an Australian bird masquerading as a foreign citizen:
A dark and disturbing part of the Guardian article is a video of the acting conservative prime minister making a ‘light hearted joke’ referencing our inhumane border security laws that incarcerate asylum seekers in substandard conditions for years without process. Trump has expressed admiration for our immigration laws if that helps understand our government.
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I saw a tweet that the Australian Government is going to build a $2 billion dollar pigeon detention facility on Norfolk Island to be constructed and run by some mates of the PM.
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Came here for this; leaving satisfied. Even the Homo sapiens are deadly there!
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You’re right. The keepers of these long distance flying migratory birds who love flying long distances should do what all good bird keepers do - clip their wings and keep them in a cage so small they can barely move for their entire life…
It seems to me that this is a pretty good enrichment activity for the pet. Not one most pets would enjoy, but it seems that this one really does. It’s not a dog or a kitten that they are abandoning to the wilds in an attempt to kill it.
What makes for a good environment for one pet makes for a crappy environment for another pet. They are not exactly telecoms equipment anymore, and they don’t get eaten, and they can escape pretty much any time they want to.
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I’m guessing you pay a few bucks off ebay for a fake band, vs paying the official license fee for your birb.
Right. Birds who migrate back and forth are part of the natural fauna. An American species of pigeon sounds like it would be invasive. I totally understand needing to keep invasive species in check. My dad was in the noxious weed business most his life. Plus zebra mussels, Asian carp, and other stuff where it shouldn’t be around here.
And yeah, Maoist policies made many… bad decisions.
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Yeah, that’s what I don’t get, that makes it so baffling that this thing exists.
In news that should surprise absolutely nobody:
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There are people that race these birds as a hobby. I don’t think the term ‘pet’ really applies, but these birds are very well taken care of. In one of my former lives, I drove a bobtail truck, making deliveries of various items. Every now & then I would get a box with one of these guys inside and the owners filled me in on the sport.
My first thought on reading the article was “Just put him on a freighter going to the States. Problem solved.”
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