Kevin Celli-Bird said on Thursday he discovered the emaciated bird in the backyard of his Melbourne home.
Pigeon racing is a sport involvingspecially trained "racing" pigeons. They are transported to the race distance from where they are released simultaneously. The birds must fly to their nursery after covering a certain distance along the way. Using this distance and the time spent flying, the speed of each of the pigeons is calculated.
Experts suspect the pigeon, which Kevin named Joe after the US president-elect, took a ride on a cargo ship to cross the Pacific Ocean.
Joe's feat attracted attention not onlyAustralian media, but also notorious for its strictness of the quarantine and inspection service. Authorities called Kevin on Thursday to ask him to catch the bird. However, he was unable to catch the pigeon.
The authorities are now considering hiring a professional bird catcher.
Ministry of Agriculture in charge ofbiosecurity, said the pigeon was "not allowed to remain in Australia" because its finding "could threaten Australia's food security and local wild bird populations."
“This poses a direct biosecurity risk to Australian birds and our poultry industry,” the agency said in a statement.
Earlier, in 2015, the government threatenedeuthanize two Yorkshire Terriers, Pistol and Boo, after they were smuggled into the country by Hollywood star Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. The dogs were given 50 hours to leave Australia and boarded a chartered plane to leave the country.
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