Hacker News Reader

Comment by brundolf | Hacker News Reader

This story is just layer after bizarre layer:

> Some internet research led Mr Celli-Bird to discover that the bird, which is registered to an owner in Alabama, was last seen during a pigeon race in the western US state of Oregon.

> It is not clear how the bird managed to make the 8,000-mile journey from the west coast of the US to southern Australia, but officials believe he is likely to have hitchhiked on board a cargo vessel.

> Actors Johnny Depp and his then-wife Amber Heard had to issue a video apology after illegally bringing their dogs Pistol and Boo into the country on their private jet in 2015.

View on HN

Its pretty common for Australian media to dredge up whatever loosely related celebrity news they can tack onto whatever load they're shovelling that day.

This is British media, but your point still stands :-)

The wildest thing to me is that not only did a pigeon manage to cross the ocean, but it just happened to be a trained pigeon that embarked on its journey while participating in a pigeon-race.

I'd say that claims of it being trained may be overstated if upon finishing the race it took off down under.

I would pay good to money to watch this movie! I hope someone at Pixar is taking notes.

For some context, we're pretty strict on quarantine and introduced pests here and have been for a long time. Comedians have often joked that you could walk through an airport with a nuke under your arm but you'd be arrested for a banana. We've also had some huge blunders with introduced species, cane toads have caused a lot of destruction to local eco-systems and the NSW football team.

It's served us well over the years though, many common virus/bacteria/insects that are prevalent in the rest of the world have been kept out of Australia.

It is not clear how the bird managed to make the 8,000-mile journey from the west coast of the US to southern Australia, but officials believe he is likely to have hitchhiked on board a cargo vessel.

This seems most likely to me. There are plenty of penguins over the years that have been kept as "pets" by sailors, then released or escaped in other parts of the world.

The “pistol and boo” drama was national news in Australia for weeks.

One of our most prominent politicians threatened to euthanise the dogs personally if they didn’t “bugger off back to the United States”.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com