Johnny Depp’s pet dogs Pistol and Boo flew out of Australia yesterday, escaping threats to put them down after a complex and often comical quarantine wrangle.
The dogs fled Australia for the US after accusations the Hollywood actor sneaked the pups into the country.
An Australian Department of Agriculture officer escorted the Yorkshire terriers from Depp’s home — where they had been temporarily quarantined — to a flight to California, just hours before a government-imposed deadline that the dogs leave Australia or be euthanized.
Photo: EPA
The hastily arranged departure came after Depp flew in the dogs last month on a private jet, without declaring them to customs, but government officials followed a tip-off after they were seen on the way to a grooming salon.
Australian Minister of Agriculture Barnaby Joyce, who had warned that the dogs could be destroyed within hours, said the threat had not entirely disappeared if Depp is unable to get the terriers back to the US.
Before the departure, Joyce said the dog’s flight was “the best news that I’ve got.”
“Obviously there’s an investigation as to how they came out into Australia,” he said. “Mr Depp decided that he’d step around our nation’s laws.”
The actor, who is in Queensland to film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, faces a formal interview with quarantine officers as part of investigations into how the Yorkshire terriers were allegedly smuggled in.
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said Depp and his actress-model wife Amber Heard, who have made no public comments on the issue, told the agriculture department they would fly out with Boo and Pistol last night.
However, Joyce also voiced fears that the US might not let the terriers back in.
He said he was “seriously worried” they might not have the right permits to return home and could be left “stateless.”
“The question is if he breached our laws, then did he follow the correct laws in the US?” Joyce said. “My worry is will the US let them back in? If not ... will they have anywhere to go?”
Depp appears certain to face a fine for breaching Australian laws, which say dogs entering from the US have to spend 10 days in quarantine.
The minister’s call on Thursday for the pets to “bugger off” back to Hollywood sparked a social media frenzy, with thousands signing a petition to save them and the hashtag #WarOnTerrier trending.
Australian Member of Parliament Clive Palmer said Joyce had made Australia “the laughing stock of the world” by issuing death threats when quarantine was an available option.
Joyce’s threats were “a waste of time and will result in a bad reputation for Australia,” the Palmer United Party leader said.
Joyce clashed with one of Australia’s top radio “shock jocks.”
Kyle Sandilands accused the minister of poor judgement on a live radio show.
“You sound like an absolute clown telling the guy to bugger off back to Hollywood or we’ll kill his dogs,” Sandilands said. “You sound like an idiot. You should have reworded your statement. You’re a government minister — have some decency.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese