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About eight months ago, an unnamed pigeon was arrested in India. What sounds like a bad joke is currently making global headlines. And it’s not even the first case of a ‘spying’ animal whose fate lands him in prison – but more on that later.

This pigeon’s ordeal began in May last year when it was captured near a port in Mumbai. The reason for the distrust of the animal: On the animal’s wings was a message in Chinese. This is what animal protection organization PETA tells CNN. This led to suspicions of espionage and prompted the police to confiscate the bird.

PETA later learned that the animal had been sent to an animal hospital in Mumbai for medical examination as part of a physical examination. This is what finally brought the animal rights organization into action: “After PETA India learned that a pigeon was kept as property at the Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals for as long as eight months, we campaigned to free the bird from captivity.” reports the PETA employee.

The organization has contacted the Mumbai Police to “without further delay… obtain formal permission for the hospital to release the pigeon.” According to PETA, the bird was eventually released onto the hospital grounds by the hospital’s chief physician.

However, this description contradicts earlier Indian media reports that the bird had been taken to an animal shelter in Bombay. The messages, probably written in Chinese characters, were on two rings attached to the animal’s legs. It later turned out that it was an “open water homing pigeon” from Taiwan that had escaped and reached India, according to the “Hindustan Times”. With police permission, the bird was taken to the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, whose doctors released it on Tuesday. A photo available to AP news agency via “Hindustan Times” shows the animal being released.

Not the first pigeon arrest

Back in 2020, police in Indian-controlled Kashmir arrested a pigeon. Here too, it later turned out that it was by no means a foreign enemy, but that the pigeon belonged to a Pakistani fisherman. After investigations showed that the bird, which flew over the heavily militarized border between the nuclear-armed countries, was not a spy, it was released.

In 2016, a pigeon was also taken into custody after it was found with a note threatening Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

But the fate of suspected espionage doesn’t just affect pigeons: in 2019, a beluga whale gained international fame after being spotted on the coast of Norway wearing a specially made harness with camera attachments. This led experts to believe that the whale may have been trained by the Russian military.

Adding to the mistrust of Hvaldimir, as the animal came to be known, was the fact that he traveled alone. Belugas are actually social animals that hunt and travel in herds. Hvaldimir the whale, on the other hand, was only found alone and is known to follow boats at sea. In 2023 he resurfaced in Swedish waters. Since then, animal rights activists and marine experts have raised concerns about his welfare. (lacquer)